The Continent of Europe turned around the afternoon singles at Blairgowrie in impressive fashion to take a three-point lead on the first day of the Jacques Leglise Trophy.
The Great Britain & Ireland boys squad had an advantage in six of the eight singles in the early going at Rosemount but Europe’s team turned four of them into comeback wins and the other into a half.
After the morning foursomes were halved 2-2, Europe took the singles 5½ to 2½ and lie three ahead going into today’s second and final day.
Hansson hangs on to beat local hero
How things stand heading into day two of the Jacques Léglise and Junior Vagliano 👀🏆 pic.twitter.com/pGOs7TitQy
— The R&A (@RandA) August 26, 2022
New British Boys champion Albert Hansson was one of those who turned his singles around, playing the home club’s 15-year-old star Connor Graham in the anchor singles.
The R&A Junior Open champion had a narrow one-up lead for most of the front nine but couldn’t shake off the tenacious Swede.
Connor’s birdie from just five feet away at the short fifth gave him the lead for a second time. But the local favourite wasn’t able to pull away as the pair began throwing birdies at each other.
Hanson had four in a row from the ninth but only won one of those holes to pull the game back to all-square.
The key was his birdie four at the long 14th, which gave him the lead for the first time.
He also won the short 15th with a par and closed out the match 2 and 1.
Graham had paired successfully with England’s Frank Kennedy for an impressive 3 and 2 foursomes win in the morning, but Kennedy was overwhelmed by the big hitting young Dutchman Thijmen Batens in the singles.
Shiels Donegan’s run of wins ends
Continent of Europe or Great Britain and Ireland…
Which team will lift the Jacques Leglise Trophy tomorrow? 🏆👀 pic.twitter.com/lwOJq7p0MA
— The R&A (@RandA) August 26, 2022
GB&I’s other foursomes win came from the Scottish-English combination of Niall Shiels Donegan and Dylan Shaw-Radford.
But while Shaw-Radford won his singles two-up against German Tim Wiedermeyer, the Scot went down to his first matchplay loss for a month to another German, Tom Haberer.
The California-based 17-year-old won all six of his matches for Scotland at the Home Internationals at Downfield last month.
The best comeback of the lot was from France’s Oihan Guillamoundeguy, who trailed Harley Smith for 15 holes before winning the 16th in par and the 18th with birdie three from the heather to claim a full point.
In the Girls’ Junior Vagliano Trophy, the Europeans have a 5½ to 3½ lead over GB&I after a strong rally to halve the foursomes.
Scotland’s Grace Crawford went down to defeat in both her matches, but top-ranked Rosie Bee Kim picked up one and a half points to keep the GB&I girls in the hunt.
The matches concludes with foursomes and a full singles draw on Saturday.