RCG Sotogrande Cup

This year, Real Club de Golf Sotogrande is once again hosting the RCG Sotogrande European Nations Championship (originally known as the Sherry Cup), and hoping to discover the next Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy among the entrants. Well known for launching players into a professional career, most of today’s top players have started here at one time or another, including McIlroy, Padraig Harrington and Spain’s own Sergio Garcia.

Spain, Belgium, Germany, France, Scotland, England, Ireland, Italy, Switzerland, Norway, Holland, Sweden, Wales, Portugal, Austria, Denmark, Turkey, Slovakia, Finland and Slovenia will all be entering teams of men and women to play in the 44th edition of this highly regarded tournament. Each team consists of four players (men) and three players (women) who will be classified by their results over three days for the men and two days for the women.

Look out in particular for the Spanish women’s team, prize winners in 2010 and 2011, made up of Patricia Sanz and Clara Baena (Madrid), Silvia Bañón (Alicante) and captained by Itzíar Elquezabal. The Spanish men, who finished in third position in 2011 and 2012, are led by Ernesto Fernández Gamboa and made up of Mario Galiano (Cádiz), Juan Francisco Sarasti and Javier Sainz (Basque) and Tony Ferrer (Balearics).

Experts are predicting great things from the German, French, Scottish and English men’s teams in this year’s tournament, all of which have been playing very well recently in some of the biggest amateur tournaments. The European Nations Championship is played under stroke play conditions over four days in conjunction with an individual competition that will name the best amateur golfer of the year.

Well known course architect Robert Trent Jones proclaimed Royal Club de Golf Sotogrande (the first that he designed in Europe) as one of his top five courses in the world. Founded in 1964, the Sotogrande golf course broke the boundaries by being the first in Europe to be seeded with Bermuda 419 grass and to install an automatic irrigation system. Over the years, it has welcomed some very famous names to its greens and fairways, such as José María Olazabal, Severiano Ballesteros and Justin Rose, all of whom have triumphed in tournaments held on the course.

The 44th RCG Sotogrande European Nations Championship is held between 13th and 16th March 2013. For more information, including day by day results, visit the Real Federación Española de Golf’s microsite.