Ireland won the European Nations Team Championship for the first time since 2016 and only the second time in their history yesterday (April 20] in Sotogrande.
Tramore’s Jack Hearn led the charge all week in Spain and although his own chances fell just short in the individual event, his T3 finish helped Ireland secure the silverware.
It was a phenomenal effort from the team of Hearn, Sean Keeling (Roganstown), Matt McClean (Malone) and Hugh Foley (Royal Dublin) and team captain, Niall Mac Sweeney was thrilled with their success.
“It was a fantastic performance by the lads and coach Michael Collins this week. It was a great team effort, everybody contributed to a fantastic team win,” said Mac Sweeney. “In the end it was a one-shot win, but it was fantastic to do it, go out with the lead, under pressure. Not knowing if we were going to finish because the organisers said if we didn’t finish, we would be back tomorrow.”
The last Ireland team to win this event was Alex Gleeson, Stuart Grehan, Jack Hume and Dermot McElroy, who were victorious at La Reserva. Rory McIlroy (2006), Shane Lowry (2007) and Hume (2016) had also won the individual event, but Hearn looked to follow suit when he held a one-shot lead on Saturday morning.
Despite two bogeys on the front nine he bounced back with a pair of birdies on six and nine, another bogey followed on 13 but once again Hearn showed composure to hit back with a birdie straight away. Wales’s James Ashfield eventually drew level with him at the top and it wasn’t to be for the Maynooth University star.
Meanwhile, Ireland still held a narrow one-shot lead in the overall team event just ahead of a resurgent Switzerland team. Keeling finished up on +6, with McClean one shot further in arrears and Foley back on +12. And while Hearn held on for a -2 finish Ireland ended their eight-year wait.
Wales took third place, with England’s team of Kris Kim, Harley Smith, Dylan Shaw-Radford and Will Hopkins’ combined score of +16 saw them finish tied seventh with hosts Spain in the team event.
View the final scores here