Great Britain wins Simpson Cup

Team GB put in a dominant final-day display at Royal Lytham and St Annes to defeat their American conterparts and win the Simpson Cup for the second consecutive year

Simpson Cup

Great Britain wins Simpson Cup

Team GB put in a dominant final-day display at Royal Lytham and St Annes to defeat their American conterparts and win the Simpson Cup for the second consecutive year.

The event, initiated last year, sees injured servicemen and veterans from Great Britian and the United States compete in a Ryder Cup-esque matchplay event.

Proceedings were finely poised at 3-3 after the opening day fourballs, leaving the event wide open heading into the singles.

After a competitive start, team GB gradually exerted their dominance, with the first four matches all swinging in favour of the British side.

The rest of the GB team seized on that momentum, winning a further four matches en route to a 8.5 - 1.5 singles victory and a 13.5 - 4.5 overall triumph.

One again, Paul Swain - the man who holed the winning putt 12 months ago - secured victory with his 5&3 defeat of Joshua Peyton.

"I had a long putt on the 15th, lagged it up to four feet and managed to keep my cool and hole it. It's a great feeling. I got the winning point, but that's irrelevant. It was a real team effort," said Swain.

Ian Bishop, GB's captain, added: "The lads have done fantastically well. The score maybe doesn't reflect how close it was but it shows how well our boys played.

"We're all friends, and now we're going to take the American boys out for a well-deserved beer."

The third staging of the Simpson Cup will take place at Congressional Country Club in Washington next October.

The event helps raise funds for the On Course Foundation, an initiative that helps injured servicemen and veterans through golf, tuition and employment within the golf industry.

Nick Bonfield
Features Editor

Nick Bonfield joined Golf Monthly in 2012 after graduating from Exeter University and earning an NCTJ-accredited journalism diploma from News Associates in Wimbledon. He is responsible for managing production of the magazine, sub-editing, writing, commissioning and coordinating all features across print and online. Most of his online work is opinion-based and typically centres around the Majors and significant events in the global golfing calendar. Nick has been an avid golf fan since the age of ten and became obsessed with the professional game after watching Mike Weir and Shaun Micheel win The Masters and PGA Championship respectively in 2003. In his time with Golf Monthly, he's interviewed the likes of Rory McIlroy, Justin Rose, Jose Maria Olazabal, Henrik Stenson, Padraig Harrington, Lee Westwood and Billy Horschel and has ghost-written columns for Westwood, Wayne Riley, Matthew Southgate, Chris Wood and Eddie Pepperell. Nick is a 12-handicap golfer and his favourite courses include Old Head, Sunningdale New, Penha Longha, Valderrama and Bearwood Lakes. If you have a feature pitch for Nick, please email nick.bonfield@futurenet.com with 'Pitch' in the subject line. Nick is currently playing: Driver: TaylorMade M1 Fairway wood: TaylorMade RBZ Stage 2 Hybrid: Ping Crossover Irons (4-9): Nike Vapor Speed Wedges: Cleveland CBX Full Face, 56˚, Titleist Vokey SM4, 60˚ Putter: testing in progress! Ball: TaylorMade TP5x