England Golf’s men’s squad produced a stunning turnaround to win the European Cup of Nations by 14 shots at Sotogrande Golf Club in Spain.
The England quartet of Lindrick-based Tom Osborne, Harley Smith, Daniel Hayes and Eliot Baker sat fourth at the halfway point, six shots back of leaders Finland. However, a round of the tournament from Harley (-7) along with a three under-par round from Daniel, and a one under-par round from Eliot helped England shoot 11 under-par as a team on Friday and catapult themselves into top spot, which they held onto on the last day comfortably.
England Golf men’s performance manager Ben Gorvett said: “We’re really pleased to get over the line and very proud of the team for digging in over the past couple of days. Winning by 14 shots is a tremendous victory and just shows the quality we have in our squad.
“Friday’s round was phenomenal, shooting 11 under-par as a team. It was one of the best team performances in a single round of golf at Sotogrande, which we were complimented on at the closing ceremony.
“We planned our week very well, we did a lot of preparation before heading there, and we got ourselves in a good place after the first two rounds. We freed up a bit going into round three and there were some exceptional performances from the team, especially Harley and Dan.
“It’s phenomenal that we’ve come away with another win already in 2025 and we hope we can continue this form when we return to Spain for our biennial match later in April. A big thanks to Rob Watts who played a big role in getting the guys prepared for the event, and all the staff who have helped us get to where we are.”
Harley, who shot a six over-par 78 in the first round to sit 56th out of 72 players, flipped things around with a 71 (-1) on Thursday, an incredible 65 (-7) on Friday and a 68 (-4) on Saturday to help England seal victory.
Following his round of the tournament, he said: “I think I missed one green and three fairways, I just hit the ball really well into the areas I needed to, hitting inside 15ft about a dozen times in regulation, so I had a lot of putts from that range. It was a solid round.”
In the individual standings, Harley finished second while Daniel was third. Estonia’s Kevin Christopher Jegers topped the leaderboard by eight shots with a 14 under-par total.
