One of the biggest weeks in the European amateur golfing calendar is set to get underway.
540 golfers representing different teams and 29 countries are ready to tee off in the 2026 European Team Championships across the continent.
Six separate tournaments will be contested this coming week from 7 to 11 July (Tuesday to Saturday) at five venues across the continent.
The European Team Championships have been a staple of the European golfing calendar since the first editions of the men’s and ladies’ events in 1959, and across the years have seen virtually all of Europe’s biggest golfing stars represent their nations before turning pro.
Teams will compete for the European titles at four events this week, in the men's, ladies', boys' and girls' categories, while two Division 2 tournaments, for men and boys, will also be contested for teams looking to be promoted to their respective first divisions.
FORMAT - HOW DOES IT WORK?
Contested across five days, the events consist of of two days of stroke play qualifying then three days of match play.
Each team, consisting of six players, completes two individual stroke play rounds on Days 1 & 2 with the five best of each team's six scores counting towards their stroke play qualifying totals each day.
The top eight teams from the stroke play rounds of each championship qualify for the medal-contention 'Flight A' match play bracket. The next eight teams will compete in Flight B, and (where applicable) the remaining teams in Flight C.
Nations go head-to-head in match play on the last three days, with two foursomes matches in the morning and five singles matches in the afternoon.
In the match play brackets, teams are seeded based on their qualifying position, (1 vs 8, 2 vs 7 etc.). Winning teams advance in their brackets, while losing teams, and all those with no chance of winning medals, continue to play a shortened format of one foursomes match and four singles matches against other ‘defeated’ teams to determine final position.
To win the title, a team must qualify for Flight A (top eight in the stroke play qualifying) and then win all three of its matches. Teams finishing second and third are awarded silver and bronze medals.
In the Men’s and Boys’ tournaments, the bottom three teams will be relegated to the Division 2 events for 2027.
EUROPEAN AMATEUR TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP – ESTONIAN GOLF & COUNTRY CLUB, ESTONIA
Regularly ranked as one of the strongest events in Europe for strength of field (by WAGR), the tournament is also the oldest European Championship still contested today, alongside the ladies’ equivalent.
16 teams will compete for the men’s European title in what will be the 43rd edition of the contest, and the first to be played in Estonia.
The Sea Course at Estonian Golf & Country Club will set the stage for Europe’s leading male amateur players this week. The venue, which winds along the Baltic coast and the Jägala river delta mere kilometres from the country’s capital, hosted the 2016 European Amateur Championship, when Viktor Hovland set the course record of 63 which still stands today.
The championship layout measures close to 6,500 metres with a par of 72 and is regularly ranked among the best of Eastern Europe.
Italy enters the week as defending champions. They dominated the final against Denmark in Ireland last year to clinch their first title in the men’s category since 1999. Five of the team’s six winning players last year will return in the hopes of defending the trophy.
Historically, England are the most successful country at the event with 11 European Amateur Team Championship victories, although they haven’t lifted the trophy since 2013. They’ll have to end the drought without current European Amateur Golf Ranking number-one, Tyler Weaver, who has missed the peak summer season due to injury. They will have a different European number-one in the team however in Eliot Baker – who currently leads the European Amateur Order of Merit after a stellar start to the season.
The host team, Estonia, will look to make the most of home advantage in what has been a strong run of years for the country’s men’s team. Two years ago, the same six players narrowly missed out on the country’s first ever medal in the European Team Championships, finishing fourth at Royal Park I Roveri in Italy.
The stroke play rounds of the tournament will have added significance this year, counting towards the new European Amateur Order of Merit. The event will mark the final counting tournament in the Back-Nine Swing of the new system launched by the EGA earlier this year.
EUROPEAN LADIES’ TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP – PGA NATIONAL SLIEVE RUSSELL, IRELAND
The European Ladies’ Team Championship will be held on the Island of Ireland for the second time in five years, following Royal County Down in 2021. This year’s event at PGA National Slieve Russell will feature a record 22 national teams and 132 players.
Slieve Russell Golf Club sits in the drumlin valley landscape of West Cavan, designed by course architect Paddy Merrigan. The parkland layout is built on strategic rather than punitive design principles, rewarding accurate and attacking play rather than penalising golfers who miss the fairway. Water comes into play on several holes, including the second and across the back-nine on holes 11, 12, 13 and 16.
Spain enter the week as defending champions and as the team to beat on paper. They came from behind in last year’s final to claim the title for a second time in three years and return this summer with four of the top-10 players in the European Women’s Amateur Golf Ranking. The team will be led by the highest ranked player in the field, and reigning European Ladies’ Amateur champion, Paula Martín Sampedro.
France, who finished runners-up in both of the last two editions, will enter the week with extra motivation to go one better and clinch the gold which has eluded them since 2015. They’ll have recently crowned Women’s amateur champion, Valentine Delon in their ranks leading their quest to do so.
Beyond the top two teams of last year, England, Sweden and Germany have all won the title since 2020 and are always challengers to look out for at the Ladies’ Team event.
EUROPEAN BOYS’ TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP (JEAN-LOUIS DUPONT TROPHY) – BARCELÓ MONTECASTILLO GOLF, SPAIN
16 teams will contest the first division of the European Boys’ Team Championship this year near Jerez de la Frontera in south-western Spain.
Montecastillo Golf Club is situated on a 400-acre property in the heart of Andalucia's sherry and brandy producing region, with its clubhouse built in the style of a late 19th century castle. The course was designed by Jack Nicklaus in 1992 and is routed across rolling Andalucian terrain, with the outward half fairly open and the inward half tighter. The venue hosted the Volvo Masters Andalucia for five consecutive years from 1997, won in its first year by Lee Westwood.
The European Boys' Team Championship is typically a difficult event to pick out favourites, with seven different winners in the last 11 editions, including surprise champions, the Czech Republic after a breakout performance on home soil last year. England, France, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, and Italy are all amongst the regular challengers. Spain, who were promoted from Division 2 last year, will also be likely challengers on home soil.
The last time a nation from Great Britain & Ireland won the event was in 2004. England, the winners that year, and the country with the most gold medals in the event, will likely be the favourites among the GB&I teams to end a 22-year wait for the boys' title this week. The English team has finished on the podium in three of the last four championships, including two runner-up performances.
EUROPEAN GIRLS’ TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP – ZÜRICH GOLF & COUNTRY CLUB, SWITZERLAND
Zürich Golf & Country Club, whose history dates back to the 1920s, will set the stage for 19 teams competing for the European Girls’ Team Championship title this year. Set at over 600 metres above sea level, the parkland layout plays to a par of 72.
This week will mark the second time that the event has been contested in Switzerland, 21 years on from the 2005 tournament in Lucerne.
All European major winners of the last 15 years formerly competed in the European Girls’ Team Championship as juniors, including Céline Boutier, Anna Nordqvist, Maja Stark and Georgia Hall.
Spain enters the tournament as defending champions. The most successful nation in the event’s history added a 10th title to their name in England last summer and will likely be the team to beat once again.
Italy finished runners-up in two of the last three editions, and look likely to be challengers again this year, alongside 2022 winners, France.
EUROPEAN AMATEUR & BOYS’ TEAM CHAMPIONSHIPS, DIVISION 2 – COSTA NAVARINO, GREECE
17 teams at the amateur and boys’ division 2 tournaments, nine in the former and eight in the latter, will compete for spots in the Men’s and Boys’ Division 1 events for 2027 in Greece this coming week.
The picturesque International Olympic Academy course at Navarino Hills will set the stage for the two separate Division 2 championships this year.
The course is one of two 18-hole, par 72 courses designed for Costa Navarino by José María Olazábal, two-time Masters champion. The 6,366-metre course sits in rolling hills overlooking Navarino Bay and the Ionian Sea. Olazábal said the design gave future generations of golfers the opportunity to be educated in Olympic values at the facility.
The Division 2 championships were formerly contested in a shortened format compared to the others, with just two days of match play following the stroke play qualifying rounds as opposed to three. However for the first time in 2024, the format was extended to match the four titled events taking place this week with two rounds of stroke play and three rounds of match play.
Although medals and a trophy are awarded to the top teams, the real prize is earning promotion to the European-titled championships for the following year.
Scotland, Portugal, Austria, and the Czech Republic will all be among the favourite to battle for the top three spots in the men's event. Greece, who have won the European Men's Team Shield Championship in three of the last four years, will be looking to make the most of home advantage.
Ireland and Finland are among the bigger golfing nations battling in the Boys' Division 2 this year, alongisde six other teams.
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