1981 European Amateur Team Championship

The Old Course at St Andrews is considered to be the "home of golf" because the sport was first played on the links at St Andrews in the early 15th century. It had previously hosted The Open Championship 22 times, more than any other course, and has since continued to be one of the golf courses in the Open Championship hosting course rotation.

For the 1981 European Amateur Team Championship, the course was set up with par 72 over 6,933 yards.

Each team consisted of five or six players, playing two rounds of stroke-play over two days, counting the five best scores each day for each team.

The eight best teams formed flight A, in knock-out match-play over the next three days. The teams were seeded based on their positions after the stroke play. The first placed team were drawn to play the quarter-final against the eight placed team, the second against the seventh, the third against the sixth and the fourth against the fifth. Teams were allowed to use six players during the team matches, selecting four of them in the two morning foursome games and five players in to the afternoon single games. Games all square at the 18th hole were declared halved, if the team match was already decided.

The eight teams placed 9–16 in the qualification stroke-play formed flight B, to play similar knock-out play, and the three teams placed 17–19 formed flight C, to play all against each other, to decide their final positions.

19 nation teams contested the event. Each team consisted of five or six players.

Players in the leading teams

Country	Players
Denmark	Erik Groth-Andersen, Per Sørgaard-Jensen, John Nielsen, Leif Nyholm, Jacob Rasmussen, Anders Sørensen
England	Roger Chapman, Peter Deeble, Paul Downes, Geoffrey Godwin, Peter McEvoy, Paul Way
France	J.-C. Gassiat, Alexis Godillot, François Illouz, Roger Lagarde, Tim Planchin, Philippe Ploujoux
Ireland	D. Brannigan, Mark Gannon, Garth McGimpsey, Arthur Pierse, Ronan Rafferty, Philip Walton
Scotland	Frank Coutts, Colin Dalgleish, Barclay Howard, John Huggan, Ian Hutcheon, George MacGregor
Sweden	Per Andersson, Anders Forsbrand, Krister Kinell, Göran Lundqvist, Jan Rube, Ove Sellberg
Wales	R.D. Broad, Duncan Evans, Hugh Evans, John Roger Jones, David McLean, Jonathan Morrow
West Germany	Kai Flint, Thomas Hübner, Hans-Günter Reiter, J. Schuchmann, Ulrich Schulte, Ralf Thielemann

Other participating teams

Country
Austria
Belgium
Czechoslovakia
Finland
Iceland
Italy
Luxembourg
Netherlands
Norway
Portugal
Spain
Switzerland

Team France won the opening 36-hole stroke-play qualifying competition, despite playing with only five players and having to count all five scores, because of an arm injury to team member Roger Lagarde, who could not play.

There was no official award for the lowest individual score, but individual leader was François Illouz, France, with a score of 2-under-par 142, one stroke ahead of Philip Walton, Ireland.

Defending champions team England won the gold medal, earning their sixth title, beating host country Scotland in the final 4–3. The last and deciding game, between Peter Deeble, England, and Ian Hutcheon, Scotland, went on to the 20th hole, in beginning darkness. Hutcheon had made a necessary birdie on the 18th to tie the match and holed a chip shot on the first extra hole to survive after hitting in to the Swilcan Burn, but Deeble won the 20th hole and the championship for England.

Team Wales earned the bronze on third place, after beating France 4–3 in the bronze match.

Qualification round

Team standings Place Country Score To par 1  France 367-367=734 +14 2  Wales 736 +16 3  Scotland 739 +19 4  Ireland 740 +20 5  England 747 +27 6  Sweden 750 +30 7  West Germany 753 +33 8  Denmark 760 +40 9  Italy 762 +42 10  Spain 765 +45 11   Switzerland 768 +48 12  Norway 773 +53 13  Iceland 776 +56 14  Finland 782 +62 15  Austria 791 +71 16  Netherlands 792 +72 17  Belgium 795 +75 18  Portugal 805 +85 19  Luxembourg 837 +117

Individual leaders Place Player Country Score To par 1 François Illouz  France 71-71=142 −2 2 Philip Walton  Ireland 75-68=143 −1 T3 Duncan Evans  Wales 67-77=144 E Per Sørgaard-Jensen  Denmark 72-72=144 T5 Hugh Evans  Wales 73-72=145 +1 John Huggan  Scotland 75-70=145 T7 Frank Coutts  Scotland 74-72=146 +2 Ragnar Olafsson  Iceland 74-72=146 Note: There was no official award for the lowest individual scores.

Flight A

Bracket   Quarter finals Semi finals Final                                Wales 5        West Germany 2    Scotland 5.5        Wales 0.5    Scotland 4        Sweden 3    England 4        Scotland 3    England 5        Ireland 2    England 7        France 0 Bronze match    France 4        Denmark 3    Wales 4      France 3     Elimination matches Match for 5th place                        West Germany 4        Sweden 3    Ireland 6        West Germany 1    Ireland 5      Denmark 2   Match for 7th place            Sweden 4      Denmark 3

Final games  England  Scotland 4 3 P. McEvoy / P. Deeble B. Howard / I. Hutcheon 19th hole R. Chapman / P. Way 5 & 4 F. Coutts / C. Dalgleish Peter Deeble 20th hole Ian Hutcheon Peter McEvoy 4 & 3 Colin Dalgleisg Geoffrey Godwin 4 & 2 Barclay Howard Paul Way Frank Coutts 4 & 3 Roger Chapman George MacGregor 1 hole

Flight B

Bracket

Round 1 Round 2 Match for 9th place                                Austria 4        Spain 3     Switzerland 4.5        Austria 2.5     Switzerland 5.5        Finland 1.5     Switzerland 4        Netherlands 3    Iceland 5        Norway 2    Netherlands 4        Iceland 3 Match for 11th place    Netherlands 4        Italy 3    Austria 5      Iceland 2

Elimination matches Match for 13th place                        Spain 4        Finland 3    Norway 4        Spain 3    Norway 5      Italy 2   Match for 15th place            Italy 5.5      Finland 1.5

Flight C

Luxembourg  Portugal 4 3

Belgium  Luxembourg 4 3

Belgium  Portugal 4 3

Final standings

Place	Country
	England
	Scotland
	Wales
4	France
5	Ireland
6	West Germany
7	Sweden
8	Denmark
9	Switzerland
10	Netherlands
11	Austria
12	Iceland
13	Norway
14	Spain
15	Italy
16	Finland
17	Belgium
18	Luxembourg
19	Portugal

Sources:[1][2][3][4][5]

• Eisenhower Trophy – biennial world amateur team golf championship for men organized by the International Golf Federation.
• European Ladies' Team Championship – European amateur team golf championship for women organised by the European Golf Association.

• European Golf Association: Full results