Callum Shinkwin and Lee Slattery will lead the medal charge for the home nation when the men’s group stage at the European Golf Team Championships gets under way on Wednesday.
The duo will take part in both the Men’s and Mixed Team events at the inaugural Championships, part of the new multi-sport 2018 European Championships, which takes place at Gleneagles, the home of Team Europe’s 2014 Ryder Cup victory.
The Men's and Women's events will be played in fourball match play over the first three days, with four groups of four playing each other once and the winners of each group progressing to Sunday's semi-finals.
The semi-finals, final and bronze-medal match will then be played in foursome match play to see who wins the coveted gold for their country.
Each country can be represented by three teams and Great Britain has the full complement, with Shinkwin and Slattery forming Great Britain 1.
They are joined in Group A by the Spain 2 pairing of Santiago Tarrio Ben and David Borda, while the two Swedish teams, Per Langfors and Johan Edfors (Sweden 1), and Daniel Jennevret and Oscar Floren (Sweden 2) complete the group.
The other two British teams will go head-to-head in Group B as Rhys Enoch and Charlie Ford (Great Britain 2) battle the all-Scottish team of Connor Syme and Liam Johnston (Great Britain 3), in their opening group stage match. The Italy 2 team of Francesco Laporta and Alessandro Tadini, plus Ireland’s Michael Hoey and Neil O’Briain complete the group.
Portugal’s José-Filipe Lima has experience of a multi-sport environment after representing his country at the Rio Olympic Games, and he teams up with Ricardo Santos in Group C. The Spain 1 team of Pedro Oriol and Scott Fernandez will provide stiff opposition, while Poland’s duo of Adrian Meronk and Mateusz Gradecki, and Martin Ovesen and Niklas Norgaard Møller of Denmark will vie with them to reach the knock out stage.
Italy 1 will be the favourites to progress from Group D with the duo of Lorenzo Gagli and Guido Migliozzi. They are up against Norway’s pair of Jarand Ekeland Arnoy and Kristian Krogh Johannessen, Iceland’s Birgir Hafthorsson and Axel Boasson, and Belgium’s Christopher Mivis and Lars Buijs.
The group stage action gets under way on the PGA Centenary Course tomorrow, before the unique Mixed Team championship takes centre stage on Saturday. Attention turns back to Men’s and Women’s Championships on Sunday for the semi finals and medal matches.
The full groups and tee times can be foundhere.
