Estonia hosts the European Team Championships in golf
Estonian Golf & Country Club’s Sea Course will host the European Team Championships in July 2026, bringing 16 of Europe’s top golfing nations to Estonia. This is the first time the tournament has come to Estonia, and to be entrusted with hosting such a top golfing event is another tribute to Estonian golf.
The golf course in Jõelähtme, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, has seen many golfing stars in its short history, having hosted many different European championships. The highest level of amateur golf competition to date took place in 2016 when it hosted the Men’s Individual European Championship, where Norway’s current superstar Viktor Hovland narrowly lost in the play-offs, but still holds the course record with a 63. In 2021, the European Team Championships hosted Division II, where Estonia managed to win bronze medals and move up to Division I, where they remain today. Most recently, in 2022, it hosted the European Senior Team Championships.
The history of the European Team Championships dates back to 1959. The Estonian team participated for the first time in 1995. In today’s format, the team consists of six players. The first two days will be a stroke play session, followed by a match play session on the next three days. The Estonian team’s best finish dates back to last year, when they finished an excellent second in the knockout stage in Italy, defeating France 0-3 in the quarter-finals, but losing to eventual winners Sweden in the semi-finals and the best team in the knockout stage, Germany, in the bronze medal match.
Many of today’s top golfers have won the tournament, including Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Ludvig Åberg, Shane Lowry and Tommy Fleetwood. The tournament has seen the most victories for England, who have been crowned champions on 11 occasions. A total of 11 countries have won at least once. This year, Ireland is hosting the tournament at Killarney Golf & Fishing Club.
According to Kristo Raudam, Secretary General of the Estonian Golf Association, they have been trying to get the right to organise the tournament for the last few years and finally succeeded. “This is one of the few European championships that has not yet been organised in Estonia. Last year’s high ranking, which set the entire European golfing community alight, certainly played its part. We have also always been very pleased with the way we have organised the competition so far, but we cannot rest on our laurels and next summer the organisers will certainly have to do their best to put on a memorable tournament for all participants. The tournament will undoubtedly have a slightly broader significance for Estonian golf, as it is expected to be a ‘farewell’ tournament for many of our current best players as they all look to start their professional careers the day after the tournament. Hopefully, the period from 7-11 July will bring a lot of Estonian golf fans to the course to support their team and watch the future superstars of other teams,” said Raudam.
Hanno Kross, Chairman of the Board of AS EGCC: “Estonian Golf & Country Club has hosted the European Championships seven times and this is no coincidence – one of the cornerstones of our strategy is to bring important major events home to see top international golf here in Estonia but also to show Estonia to the world. Every major event of this kind brings hundreds of new tourists to the country who live and consume here for a week and would otherwise probably not come here. If we succeed (Estonians generally do very well), you can be sure that the word will spread and in the long run we will move thousands more people thanks to golf. This work will support Estonian businesses and service providers, and ultimately increase Estonia’s GDP.”
