Six members of the EGU’s A Squad for 2007 will comprise the England team aiming to complete a third successive victory in the annual Costa Ballena Quadrangular match in Spain at the end of January.
Matthew Baldwin, Ben Evans, Gareth Evans, Luke Collins, Sam Hutsby and Steven Uzzell will aim to come out on top again against teams from Finland, Germany and Spain at Costa Ballena Golf Club on 24th – 26th January.
Baldwin, 20, is a former English Under 16 Champion, Lancashire Champion and Boy International. He was England Boy Captain in 2004 and a member of England’s Elite Squad in 2005 and 2006. This year, he finished third in the Scottish Open Stroke Play and the Danish Open Amateur. He is the only member of the side to have previously played in the Costa Ballena event, the winning team of 2005.
Collins, 21, has been a member of the A Squad for three successive years. In 2006, he reached the quarter finals of the Spanish and Italian Open Amateur Championships and finished tied fourth in the Russian Open Amateur Championship in Moscow.
Ben Evans, 20, a former boy cap from Rye in Sussex, won the Sunningdale Foursomes with Danielle Masters last March and followed that with high finishes in the West of England Stroke Play Championship and the St Andrews Links Trophy. He also finished tied third in the Riverswood Junior Open in Holland and in the South of England Stroke Play Championship.
Gareth Evans, 27, (pictured – photo courtesy of Tom Ward) is another who has had a successful 2006. He followed up his victory in the Yorkshire Championship by winning the English County Champions Tournament at Woodhall Spa before helping Yorkshire win the English County Champions title for the second successive year.
Hutsby, 18, also had a happy 2006. He won the Spanish Amateur Championship at Cadiz in February, finished runner-up in the McEvoy Trophy, before representing England in the World Boys Team Championships in Japan and the European Boys Team Championships in Sweden. He was also England Captain for the Boys Home Internationals in Scotland and was called up by GB&I for the Jacques Leglise Trophy in the Czech Republic.
Hutsby, who is from Hampshire club Lee-on-Solent, also finished fourth in the Sir Henry Cooper Junior Masters before claiming his other big triumph when he won the Duke of York Young Champions tournament at Dundonald in Scotland.
Uzzell, 23, has been a member of Yorkshire’s English County Championship-winning team for the past two years. The left-hander was a member of the England B Squad – now the Under 21 Squad – in 2004 and steps up to the A Squad for 2007.
England won the inaugural International Costa Ballena Golf in 2001 and also came out on top in 2005 and 2006. As in previous years, the competition will be played on a round robin basis, each match comprising three foursomes and six singles.
England Team:
Matthew Baldwin (Royal Birkdale)
Luke Collins (Mendip Spring)
Ben Evans (Rye)
Gareth Evans (Northcliffe)
Sam Hutsby (Lee-on-Solent)
Steven Uzzell (Hornsea)
-ENDS-
Contact:
Lynne Fraser, EGU Marketing and PR Manager
Email: lfraser@englishgolfunion.org
Tel: 01526 354500
