After the first day of the Vagliano Trophy at Malone Golf Club in Belfast between Europe and GB&I, Europe edged a slight lead going into the second day 6½-5½ ahead.
Day One – Europe 6½ GB&I 5½
In the the first-morning foursomes of the Vagliano Trophy at Malone Golf Club, Belfast, honours were shared, with GB&I (pictured) and Team Europe locked together at 2-2 going into the afternoon singles.
The all-Ireland pairing of world No 1 Leona Maguire and Olivia Mehaffey drew first blood for GB& I by beating the French partnership of Celine Boutier, recent winner of the British women’s open amateur championship at Portstewart and Justine Dreher. Maguire and Mehaffey won the first and were never in arrears after that.
Team Europe’s Noemi Jimenez Martin and Luna Sobron from Spain levelled it at 1-1 by beating Bronte Law and Chloe Williams by two holes. Meghan MacLaren and Alice Hewson put GB&I back in the lead with a grandstand finish for a one-hole victory over Albane Valenzuela and Nuria Iturrios.
Team Europe won the last of the four morning foursomes to make it 2-2 at lunch. The all-Spanish pair of Linnea Strom and Madelene Sagstrom beat Hayley Davis amd Charlotte Thomas by 2&1 after a ding-dong struggle with only one hole in it either way for the first 16 holes.
he Continent of Europe came back from a 4-2 mid-afternoon deficit, to lead 6.5 to 5.5 at the halfway stage of the two-day Vagliano Trophy match at Malone Golf Club, Belfast. That is a repeat of the scoreline two years ago at Chantilly.
In the afternoon, GB&I began the singles action in great style with Leona Maguire winning by 2&1 over France’s Celine Boutier, whom she displaced as world amateur No 1 earlier this year. GB&I went 4-2 up overall with a 2&1 win by Bronte Law over Germany’s Olivia Cowan, daughter of a Liverpool-born pro in that country.
Hayley Davis, two down at the turn, went down by 4&2 to Luna Sobron Then Nicole Jimenez Martin of Spain levelled it at 4-4 overall by beating Alice Hewson by 3&1.
Chloe Williams lost by 3&2 to Albane Valenzuela and then team Europe surged 6-4 ahead with a 3&1 win by Nuria Iturrios over Gemma Clews.
GB&I I were in a position to win both the final singles and make it 6-6 at the end of the day. Charlotte Thomas, two up by winning the 14th and 15th, then lost the 17th but was conceded the 18th by Madelene Sagstrom, ranked No 3 in Europe.
Olivia Mehaffey playing the girl who beat her in the semi-finals of the recent “British” – Linnea Strom, was two up after 13. The Swedish player hit back with gains at the 14th and 16th to set up a nail-biting finish in front of a big gallery on the 18th. The match was halved when Mehaffey’s putt for a birdie lipped out.
“I’m quite happy with our position although it’s a pity that Olivia Mehaffey’s putt for a birdie on the last green of the last match lipped out,” said Elaine Farquharson-Black, the GB and I captain. “If you had offered me this scoreline before the start of play I would have taken it. We were strong at the top and at the end of our line-up today, but we hit too many slack shots, missed too many fairways.”
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