John Dunn-Butler, John-Paul Ralph, Sam Ledbury, Nikolaj Dahl.
The Loretto Golf Academy has successfully defended their title in ‘The 2nd Desert Springs & Millfield European Schools Team Championships’ in the Almeria region of south-east Spain held on 14th – 18th February.
The competition, organised jointly by the exclusive Desert Springs Golf resort and Millfield School, was an open event to all schools in the UK, and attracted a total of sixty one players from schools all over the United Kingdom such as Bradfield, Whitgift and hosts, Millfield.
The Team Championships got under way at Desert Springs Resort on Saturday 14th February with a practice round on the Championship Indiana course, providing all players the opportunity to experience Europe’s first and only true desert golf course in preparation of the tournament rounds.
The next day saw the tournament get under way on the Indiana course where the teams played 4 Ball-Better-Ball Pairs Stableford Points for team rankings. Team ‘Millfield 1’ led the way with 76 points, 4 under par followed by ‘Loretto 1’ on 73 points, 1 under par and ‘Millfield 3’ with 72 points, level par.
Team ‘Loretto 2’ led the way with the main charge on the field with an improvement on their first round total by 13 points, achieving an impressive 83 stableford points, 11 under par, securing the best score of the day. Team ‘Loretto 1’ maintained the pressure on the field by securing the second best team stableford points score of the day – 79.
After day two, the team rankings took on a different look. Leading the way was Team ‘Loretto 2’ with 153 stabelford points, closely followed by second place Team ‘Loretto 1’, only one stableford point behind, with 152 stableford points.
When all the shots were played and all the putts sunk, the Team event was to prove to become the closest of them all!
With the pressure on Team ‘Whitgift 1’ showed their intent to improve their standing position in the rankings from overnight fifth place, by posting an impressive score of 132 stableford points, the best score of the day.
It was clear to see that the Championship was going to come down to a battle between Team ‘Loretto 1’ and Team ‘Loretto 2’ who, going into the final round were only separated by one solitary stabelford point.
Team ‘Loretto 1’ were first to complete their round recording a score of 128 stableford points, meaning that all that was left for Team ‘Loretto 2’ to do was to ensure they could to the same to claim the trophy. Team ‘Loretto 2’ were up for the challenge and staved off any late challengers by posting a score of 130 points to ensure that they were crowned the champions of the ‘2nd Desert Springs & Millfield European Schools Team Championship’ by posting a three day total of 283 Stableford points, followed by ‘Loretto 1’ with 280 points and ‘Whitgift 1’ with 272 points.
Ryan Scott, PGA Coach for Loretto Golf Academy, said, “The golf was excellent and a very valuable experience for Loretto Golf Academy in preparation for the 2015 season.”