ELGA PRESS RELEASE
JULIE OTTO TO CAPTAIN ENGLAND'S ESPIRITO
SANTO TROPHY TEAM
ELGA will send an England team to this year’s Espirito Santo Trophy – the women’s world amateur team championship – for the first time since the inaugural event in 1964.
England won bronze in that first tournament and then, in subsequent years, joined forces with the other home countries in a GB&I team selected by the Ladies’ Golf Union.
But now, England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales will each again send their own team of three to the championship.
“This is a fantastic opportunity and it is a way of seeing where England stands in the world,” said Linda Bayman, ELGA’s performance director.
England’s preparations for the October tournament begin later this month when Bayman and a training squad of six players fly to South Africa for practice on the two host courses at Stellenbosch in the Western Cape.
Bayman cherishes hopes of a gold medal, based on England’s current high form and, in particular, twin triumphs in last year’s golf Olympics, the Spirit International amateur championship in Texas.
“We won the Spirit and this is a very similar form of tournament against the same kind of opposition. We are totally capable of holding our own and we deserve a crack at it,” she said.
Her optimism is shared by Suffolk’s Julie Otto who will captain the team. As Julie Wade and then Julie Hall she represented GB&I three times in the Espirito Santo and has two bronze medals. Success, says Otto – now assistant director of rules with the R&A – “is very possible.”
The training squad includes the two players who won double gold at The Spirit: Sophie Walker (Kenwick Park) who topped ELGA’s 2005 order of merit, and English champion Felicity Johnson (Harborne). They are joined by Emma Duggleby (Malton & Norton) who has twice represented GB&I in the Espirito Santo; English girls’ champion Melissa Reid (Chevin) and internationals Kiran Matharu (Cookridge Hall) and Kerry Smith (Waterlooville).
After four days learning the courses at Stellenbosch and De Zalze golf clubs the players will move on to the Fancourt Country Club at George for a week’s training alongside an English Golf Union squad.
SANTO TROPHY TEAM
ELGA will send an England team to this year’s Espirito Santo Trophy – the women’s world amateur team championship – for the first time since the inaugural event in 1964.
England won bronze in that first tournament and then, in subsequent years, joined forces with the other home countries in a GB&I team selected by the Ladies’ Golf Union.
But now, England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales will each again send their own team of three to the championship.
“This is a fantastic opportunity and it is a way of seeing where England stands in the world,” said Linda Bayman, ELGA’s performance director.
England’s preparations for the October tournament begin later this month when Bayman and a training squad of six players fly to South Africa for practice on the two host courses at Stellenbosch in the Western Cape.
Bayman cherishes hopes of a gold medal, based on England’s current high form and, in particular, twin triumphs in last year’s golf Olympics, the Spirit International amateur championship in Texas.
“We won the Spirit and this is a very similar form of tournament against the same kind of opposition. We are totally capable of holding our own and we deserve a crack at it,” she said.
Her optimism is shared by Suffolk’s Julie Otto who will captain the team. As Julie Wade and then Julie Hall she represented GB&I three times in the Espirito Santo and has two bronze medals. Success, says Otto – now assistant director of rules with the R&A – “is very possible.”
The training squad includes the two players who won double gold at The Spirit: Sophie Walker (Kenwick Park) who topped ELGA’s 2005 order of merit, and English champion Felicity Johnson (Harborne). They are joined by Emma Duggleby (Malton & Norton) who has twice represented GB&I in the Espirito Santo; English girls’ champion Melissa Reid (Chevin) and internationals Kiran Matharu (Cookridge Hall) and Kerry Smith (Waterlooville).
After four days learning the courses at Stellenbosch and De Zalze golf clubs the players will move on to the Fancourt Country Club at George for a week’s training alongside an English Golf Union squad.
posted by Colin |
See story on its own page | 11:31:00 am
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