The Men’s Home Internationals is an annual match play amateur team competition for male golfers representing England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. The tournament is organized by the respective governing bodies for these four nations – England Golf, Scottish Golf, Wales Golf and the Golfing Union of Ireland (which oversees golf in the Republic and Northern Ireland) – and matches are hosted on a rotational basis.

Each team plays the other three teams over three successive days and, in the current format, teams comprise 11 players. Matches involve five 18-hole foursomes in the morning then ten 18-hole singles in the afternoon. One point is awarded to the winner of every tie and games finishing all square result in a half point awarded to either side. The winning team after three days of competition receives the Raymond Trophy, presented by Raymond Oppenheimer, the former England player and Walker Cup captain in 1952.

The England-Scotland Amateur match was the forerunner to this event, played from 1902 to 1931 between teams representing England and Scotland, and organized in connection with the Amateur Championship, either just before or just after that tournament was held. Participants before the Great War included Bernard Darwin, Harry Colt, Herbert Fowler and Harold Hilton, while Cyril Tolley and Roger Wethered appeared every year between 1922 and 1930.

The first staging of the competition was held on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th of August 1932 on the Old course at Royal Troon – plain old Troon Golf Club in those days – with Scotland and England beating both Wales and Ireland on the first two days. Ireland defeated Wales 9½-5½ on the final day while Scotland edged out England 8-7 to win the inaugural title.

The Scottish team then went on to win or share the next five editions of the international series before England won outright for the first time at Royal Porthcawl in 1938. This would be the last event before World War II put everything on pause. When matches resumed at Royal Liverpool in 1947, the English team picked up where it had left off, winning three Home International contests in a row before the start of the 1950s.

Ireland gained its first unshared title in 1950 at Royal St David’s and the team would repeat that success at Royal Birkdale in 1955. Now, what about Wales, you must be asking? Well, it took until 2002 before the Principality secured its first (and so far only) victory in the 3-day event – and fittingly, it was accomplished on home soil at Royal St David’s in Harlech.

All told, of the 79 events played up until 2019, England had won 38 and shared 6 others so they’ve featured as champions in more than half the competitions that have been staged. Scotland’s record was 21 & 6, Ireland’s 12 & 6, with Wales picking up that solitary win at the start of the new millennium.

Nine Royal clubs have hosted the Home Internationals and the last of these to join the roster was Royal St. George’s in 2005, when Scotland claimed the Raymond Trophy that year. Royal Porthcawl has hosted more of these contests than any other club, nine in total between 1934 and 1998. Royal Lytham & St Annes has staged five events (as has both Muirfield and Portmarnock), while it’s been held on four occasions at Royal St. David’s and Royal Troon.