Malta Topples Bulgaria And Liechtenstein On Its Way To Win Silver At Euro Team Shield Golf Championships
Team Malta walked away with a silver medal after a three-day spectacle at the European Team Shield Championships in Lithuania.
In fact, it was only the host country that was able to stop the Maltese who swept past Liechtenstein (2.5-0.5) in the quarterfinal and made quick work of Bulgaria (2-1) in the semifinal before succumbing to Lithuania (1-2) in the finals.
Despite falling short in the final, Team Malta showed a lot of promise early on when Ruud Critien and Andrew Borg took the lead in the foursome round against Lithuania’s Mindauguas Vaicius and Deivydas Razinskas with a 5&4 win.
On the other hand, Malta’s Laurens Schulze Doering was unable to make up for his early deficit against Lithuania’s Gediminas Markevicius who closed off the match with a birdie to give him a 2&1 win.
The weight of the Euro Team Shield Championship title fell on the final match between Malta’s John Jr Michallef Verelest going head-to-head against Giedrius Mackelis.
JJ Micallef finished the finals in a similar manner that the Maltese foursome had started, but on the other side of the scoreboard following a disappointing 5&4 loss.
Nonetheless, Team Malta managed to secure silver at the European Team Shield Championships with Bulgaria taking bronze.
Malta has now won six consecutive medals at the Championships – two silver and four bronze – since it started in 2015.
In doing so, the island nation has established itself as a formidable force at the annual championships and an elite amongst other nations which participated, including Greece, Liechtenstein, Turkey, Cyprus, Latvia, Romania, Luxembourg and North Macedonia.
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