GUI select six-man team for Europeans'

The Golfing Union of Ireland (GUI) selectors picked their six-man team ahead of the European Team Championships that begin in…

The Golfing Union of Ireland (GUI) selectors picked their six-man team ahead of the European Team Championships that begin in Holland at the start of next month.

Captained by Co Louth's Mark Gannon, the team consists of Noel Fox (Portmarnock), Justin Kehoe (Birr), Gareth Maybin(Ballyclare), Colm Moriarty (Athlone), Brian McElhinney(North West) and Michael McGeady (City of Derry).

Fox, the current Irish Amateur Open champion, is the only member of the team to have played in the European Championships before. But that does not suggest this team is lacking experience at this level, far from it.

Last year Fox competed alongside Moriarty and Kehoe when representing Ireland in the three-man World Amateur Team Championships in Malaysia. In fact, Moriarty already has two prestigious amateur titles under his belt from competing in Australia at the start of the year - New South Wales Strokeplay and the Matchplay Championships - and is also the current South of Ireland champion.

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Kehoe won the equivalent of the team championship at Boys' level in 1998 and since then has represented Ireland at every level. Last year he was also crowned World Universities Champion in Taiwan.

Maybin made his senior debut at the Home Internationals at Royal St David's last year and is the reigning North of Ireland champion.

McGeady will make his senior international debut having represented Ireland at Boys' and Youths' level from 1996. McElhinney, is the youngest member of the team but what he lacks in age, he makes up for in talent. The 20-year-old won the Connacht Youths earlier in the year before losing in the semi-final of the West, to the eventual winner Mark Ryan, and was well placed in the East at Baltray.

The team championships will be played at Koninklijke Haagsche Golf & Country Club in Wassenaar, near The Hague, Holland, from Tuesday, July 1st-5th. The last time Ireland won the event was in Austria in 1987, the fourth time in all.