Jacques Léglise Trophy

The Jacques Léglise Trophy is an annual amateur boys' team golf competition between Great Britain & Ireland and the Continent of Europe. It was first played in 1977, as a one-day match before the Boys Amateur Championship, but since 1996 it has been played as a separate two-day match. The venue generally alternates between Great Britain and Ireland and the continent. From 1958 to 1966 a similar match was played between a combined England and Scotland team and the Continent of Europe.

History

The event can trace its origins back to 1958. An England–Scotland boys match had been played since 1923 before the Boys Amateur Championship. In 1958 the match was played on the Friday and a match between a combined England and Scotland team and Europe was played on the Saturday. The English and Scottish selectors each chose four players to make up the British team. The match, consisting of four foursomes and eight singles matches, was very one-sided with the European team losing 11 of the 12 matches and halving the other. The 1959 match had only three foursomes matches and six singles. The Europeans won one of the foursomes and halved two of the singles. The 1960 match had five foursomes matches and ten singles. The match was close with the continental team winning two of the foursomes matches and five of the singles. In 1961, the continental team lost all five foursomes matches but won four of the singles matches. In 1962, the score was the same with the continent winning one foursomes match and three singles, while in 1963 they won two foursomes matches and one singles. The 1964 and 1965 contests had four foursomes matches and nine singles. The Continental team won just one singles match on each occasion The 1966 match wes reduced to four foursomes and eight singles, the continental team winning just two singles matches. The combined England and Scotland team had dominated to such an extent that it was discontinued after 1966, and replaced by an annual youth international, played before the British Youths Open Amateur Championship and which was held for the first time in 1967.

The boys match was revived in 1977 when Jean-Louis Dupont donated a trophy in memory of Jacques Léglise, who had been president of the French Golf Federation and of the European Golf Association. There were four foursomes and nine singles matches and the Continental team won for the first time. In 1978 the Continental team won again by the same score, 7–6. From 1979 the number of singles match was reduced to eight. In 1993 the match was extended, with five foursomes and ten singles matches Up to 1995 it was played over a single day in connection with the Boys Amateur Championship.

Since 1996 it has been played as a separate two-day match with the venue generally alternating between Great Britain and Ireland and the continent. There were 10 players in each team in 1996 reduced to 9 since 1997. From 1996 to 2014 both days had four foursomes in the morning and eight singles matches in the afternoon. From 2015, there have been nine singles matches on the final afternoon.

Format

Currently the teams are nine strong and the tournament is played over two days, with four foursomes in the morning and either eight or nine singles matches in the afternoon. The Great Britain and Ireland team is selected by The R&A and the Continent of Europe side by the European Golf Association. Players must be under 18 on 1 January of the year in which the event takes place.

In recent years the Great Britain and Ireland team have chosen a captain from among the players; in addition to a non-playing manager. The Continent of Europe side has a non-playing captain.

Results

Since the event was revived in 1977, the Great Britain & Ireland team has won the event 29 times, while Continent of Europe has 15 victories. The 2015 match ended in a tie and so Great Britain & Ireland retained the trophy.

Future sites

*2023 - France
*2024 - West Lancashire

Teams

There have been 9 players in each team since 1997.

Great Britain & Ireland

*2022 Josh Berry, Connor Graham, Josh Hill, Frank Kennedy, Oliver Mukherjee, Dylan Shaw-Radford, Niall Shiels Donegal, Harley Smith, Tyler Weaver
*2021 Cameron Adam, Jack Bigham, Daniel Bullen, Archie Finnie, Connor Graham, Josh Hill, Joshua Hill, Ruben Lindsay, Harley Smith
*2019 Barclay Brown, Archie Davies, Joshua Hill, Aaron Marshall, Tom McKibbin, Connor McKinney, Luke O'Neill, Joe Pagdin, Ben Schmidt
*2018 Barclay Brown, Archie Davies, Conor Gough, Max Hopkins, Tom McKibbin, Connor McKinney, Joe Pagdin, Mark Power
*2017 Toby Briggs, Alex Fitzpatrick, Luke Harries, Darren Howie, Ben Jones, Thomas Plumb, Mark Power