England honour for Sam

Yorkshire’s Sam Bairstow will make his senior England debut later this month in the Costa Ballena Octagonal International Challenge.

Bairstow, 21, from the Hallowes Golf Club in Dronfield, was promoted to the England ‘A’ squad for 2020 and will join the Warwickshire duo Sam Broadhurst and Max Martin, Gloucestershire’s Joe Harvey, Cheshire’s Jack Brooks and Arron Edwards-Hill from Essex in the six strong team.

The event is being staged from 21-24 January at the Costa Ballena Ocean Club near Jerez in Southern Spain.

Bairstow finished last year in fine style with a seven shot victory in the North of England Open Amateur Strokeplay Championship at Alwoodley where he closed with a superb six-under-par 65.He also won the Hampshire Salver last May and was runner -up in the 2019 Scottish Men’s Open Championship at The Duke’s in St Andrews.

England will take on teams representing Germany, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Czech Republic, Portugal and Ireland.

Now in its 19th edition, the tournament was first held in 2001 with England the inaugural winners. England have won it on another four occasions – 2005, 2006, 2014 and 2016.

However, home advantage has proved crucial with Spain aiming to defend their 2019 title and claim their 11th overall victory.

The format for the three-day event is morning foursomes followed by afternoon singles.