Belton Park's Will Hopkins gets England call for France match

Will Hopkins will be part of the England team to take on France.

England Golf have named Belton Park GC's Will Hopkins in their eight-man squad to take on France in the biennial international match, which takes place from 11-12 May at Moortown Golf Club.

The competition will see four foursomes matches in the mornings before eight singles matches each afternoon.England have won 26 of the 31 matches between the sides, and triumphed 13.5-10.5 last time out at Golf de Saint-Nom-la-Breteche.

Enjoyed a tied-third place finish at European Nations Cup in Sotogrande, Spain as part of four top-10 finishes already this year, including Spanish Amateur, Australian Master of the Amateurs and Avondale Amateur (Australia)

Hopkins was unbeaten representing Lincolnshire at Men’s County Finals in September/October.In 2023, he also represented England at R&A Women’s & Men’s Home Internationals, and reached the quarter-finals of English Amateur Championship and the last 16 of the R&A Amateur Championship.

The other seven players representing England are Eliot Baker (Tiverton, Devon), Ben Bolton (Enville, Staffordshire), Ben Brown (Romanby, Yorkshire), Zach Chegwidden (Orsett, Essex), James Claridge (Enville, Staffordshire), Dylan Shaw-Radford (Huddersfield, Yorkshire) and Harley Smith (The Rayleigh, Essex)

England Golf Performance Director Nigel Edwards said: “We are looking forward to another competitive match against France. In our last fixture we had our backs against the wall and performed very well in the singles matches.

“France will be strong and, I’m sure, inspired by the recent performances of Mattieu Pavon on the PGA Tour, but this is a great opportunity for our players to test their match play skills and put in a strong showing ahead of team selection for this summer’s European Men’s Team Championship in Italy.”

*Last weekend, Hopkins won the Lytham Trophy at the Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club.

Hopkins shot a final-round of -4 to set up a three-way play-off with Welsh duo Tomi Bowen and James Ashfield. The 24-year-old held his nerve to win in the three-hole play-off as he made a birdie on the second after hitting a 185-yard approach to five feet for birdie.