Lafeber leads Continent of Europe to Jacques Léglise victory
The R&A
23 Aug 25
3 mins
Recently crowned Boys’ Amateur Champion Guus Lafeber played a starring role as the Continent of Europe retained the Jacques Léglise Trophy with a 15-10 win over Great Britain and Ireland at the Royal Golf Club of Belgium.
A week on from the statement victory at County Louth that helped secure his selection in Pierre Relecom’s side for the boys' team contest, Lafeber led the home side with a perfect record of four points from as many matches.Having trailed by five points heading into Saturday’s final slate of singles contests, GB&I battled gamely as Harry Cox, Oscar Lent and Ben Bolton won the top three games.However, emphatic triumphs from Callixte Alzas and Vaclav Svub kept the Continent of Europe in charge, before Tom De Herrypon sealed victory with a two-hole win over Dion Regan.Lafeber’s fourth success soon enhanced the winning margin, while Giovanni Binaghi rescued a draw against John Doyle to ensure the teams picked up 4.5 points each in the closing singles.The hosts’ sixth successive Jacques Léglise Trophy triumph owed much to a dominant performance in Friday’s singles, where they won 6.5 points from eight matches to turn a 2.5-1.5 deficit into an 8-4 opening-day lead.GB&I’s Regan and Jack Swift twice teamed up for foursomes victories, while Oli Blackadder claimed maximum points for Chris King’s team on Friday. Lent and Toby Peters were unbeaten on day two.Relecom delighted in overseeing victory in his native Belgium, saying: “It's a fantastic feeling. Maybe there's a bit more pride in winning in your country. "But I think, in the end, it's the same feeling just to see the boys enjoy it so much and to bring a little bit of my little knowledge to these guys, who are probably going to become great champions.”GB&I Captain King said: “I’m really proud of the way the lads came back. (There was) lots of good golf, but we just left ourselves too much to do.”View final scores here
