The inaugural Baltic vs Euros golf match took place in early October at Sweetwoods Golf Club in Edenbridge.

You can check out some photos from the event here.

This was the first match the Baltic has played versus an international team. The match was arranged by Baltic team captain Nick Perry at his course of Sweetwoods and the visiting team was assembled by their captain Ulrik Rasmussen. The Eurotrash team had not only come prepared but they were definitely not playing for second place. Resplendent in their team shirts & caps, Ulrik had also commissioned some golf balls which looked excellent and were much appreciated by all players.

The format was 4 balls in the morning but each group was 2 singles match play, with the lower handicap player giving his opponent shots if there was a difference. Then after a brief lunch, it was 18 holes of foursomes. With 8 players on each side there were 12 points up for grabs.

The 2 captains were in the first group playing against each other, and the other match was Poul Olsen playing against Jamie Miller. Despite Nick playing on his home course, Ulrik played very well and by the time they walked off the 14th green he was dormie 4 up and guaranteed not to lose his match. This finally lit the fire under Nick and he managed to win 15, 16 & 17. After a brief walk to the 18th Nick looked long and hard at the Eisenhower’esque tree in the distance situated in the middle of the fairway. He knew the line was to keep to the left of it or his chance of winning the hole was scuppered. Oops the commentator’s curse, as he sadly makes a complete hash and hands the initiative to Ulrik who gratefully accepts the gift to win the match 2 up, thereby securing the first point on the board for his team. Playing with the 2 skippers were single figure handicappers Poul Henrik Olsen (2) and Jamie Miller (7). Tough match with Poul 4 up after 9. Jamie clawed it back to 1 down after 15, but Poul’s power and accuracy were too much and he won 2&1.

The next match off pitted Nick Marns against Daniel Molin, the highlight of this match was Nick holing out a wedge from just over 104 yds on the 16th en route to a 2 up victory for the Baltic. The other match in this 4-ball was Peter Steenberg versus Duane Pelz which ended in a very honourable half.

The third fourball consisted of Gregers Blaajberg playing Hon Sec James Pendered (filling in due to a withdrawal) and Anders Pedersen taking on Mark Hubbard. Very steady play from Mark meant he was ahead most of the match and got to dormie 4 up. Relishing the challenge, Anders began to let loose some monster drives and won the next 3 holes to reduce the deficit to 1 down with 1 to play. The daunting 18th drive tempted him…..see Nick Perry earlier. He absolutely crushed the perfect drive past the tree into the middle of the fairway. Mark struggled to get to the green in 3 shots and eventually Anders rolled in the put to win the hole and salvage a brilliant half for the match. Hon Sec was dormie 3 up and but Gregers pulled him back to just 1 up on 18th tee. Despite Gregers also sending his drive into orbit and the perfect position, James hit his drive just past the tree and had a view of the distant green, even though 40 yards short of Gregers. The resulting half on the hole meant the Baltic won the match 1 up. The final matches were between Jesper Gry playing Liam George and Nathan Ellisdon playing Jesper Svenstrup. Clearly team Jesper was on good form with Jesper Gry beating Liam and Jesper Svenstrup halving his match with Nathan. So the score after the singles was 4 1/2 to 3 1/2 in favour of Eurotrash. With just a single point between the 2 teams the afternoon foursomes would be tight.

Time was very tight in order to complete the afternoon round in daylight, with about 10 minutes break the afternoon foursomes set off with Ulrik & Peter taking on all the Nicks (Perry & Marns). Whatever the Baltic had for lunch it worked and they romped to  an impressive 7 & 6 victory, so overall score now tied at 4 1/2 points each. Second match was Daniel playing with Poul Henrik versus Jamie & Duane, with the Euro team playing consistent foursomes golf and rolled out winners by 4 & 3, putting Eurotrash 1 point ahead with 2 matches to play. The third match was Anders & Jesper Gry taking on Hon Sec James and Liam. If only the Hon Sec’s hearing was better he might have hard the correct handicap of his partner as 28 and not the 20 he put on the card, which meant Baltic gave 2 shots instead of receiving 7! Where is VAR when you need it…The error was not noticed until around the 13th hole as Liam kept wondering why we were on receiving shots, by which time it was too later and the match was over as we walked of the 15th green, so the Euros now had a 2 point lead and 1 match left. In the final match Jesper Svenstrup & Gregers halved with Nathan & Mark, so the final result was a win for Eurotrash 7-5.

Everyone then sat down for a prize giving meal, where the Hon Sec presented the Eurotrash winning skipper Ulrik with the International Cup. Nearest the pin could have been won by Mark Hubbard, however there was a re-scheduling and it became nearest the pin in 2 on another hole which was won by Daniel, edging out Peter who had driven the green but could not get the closest with his putt. The longest drive was achieved by Anders. Finally towards the end of the evening, the parings were drawn for the following day’s greensomes, where a Baltic player would partner a Eurotrash player.

The Saturday greensomes were again played in great weather and many continued to wear their shorts. After a slight tee time mix up where we waited an extra hour, the golf got underway. The first group was Nathan partnering Poul Henrik and they played a greensomes blinder, never scoring worse than a gross bogey the whole round, Nathan was driving the ball long and often straight (no not straight into the trees) and Poul was deadly with his irons. He had a poke at the Par 4 greens and was pin high twice! Their eventual score of 48 points was the clear winner by some margin.

A few cold beers were drunk on the decking and then everyone assembled their kit for the return home, with the Euros packing all theirs into the waiting mini van taxi. Everyone had a cracking time, the weather was fantastic, the accommodation hit the spot and the courses played well but I think still challenged everyone sufficiently.

On behalf of the Baltic Exchange Golfing Society, I would like to say a huge thank you to the Euros that came over and made the match so enjoyable. The intention is to try and arrange a return match either in Denmark or some other European location.