KirkwoodGolf: England’s Rachel Jennings reaches French quarter-finals

Sunday, March 23, 2008

England’s Rachel Jennings reaches French quarter-finals

Press Release from EWGA

England international Rachel Jennings has scored two good matchplay wins to reach the quarter-finals of the French Lady Junior Championship at St Cloud.

The 19-year-old from Izaak Walton, Staffordshire, is England’s sole survivor in the championship and now faces Caroline Masson of Germany.

Rachel beat Germany’s Saskia Hausladen 3/2 in the first matchplay round and followed up with a 2/1 win over Audrey Goumard of France.

The second round match, which started on the 10th, was tight throughout, with never more than a hole separating the players. Rachel crucially moved ahead with a birdie on her 16th hole and sealed the win on the next, a short hole where her opponent’s tee shot found sand.

Linda Bayman, the performance director of the English Women’s Golf Association, commented: “Rachel was impressive. She was playing the local girl who had lots of crowd support – but she did what she had to do.”

Rachel was one of four members of the seven-strong EWGA squad to reach the matchplay stages of the championship after two rounds of rain-disrupted strokeplay qualifying.

Sian James, 19, (Bristol & Clifton) had to finish her second round at 8am this morning and went through as England’s top qualifier in 11th place. She had a fine front nine in her first-round match but eventually lost 2 down after her opponent, Leigh Whittaker of Germany, produced a string of birdies.

England’s other two representatives also bowed out in the first round. Hannah Barwood, 17, (Knowle), qualified 12th but was beaten 2/1 by the Czech player, Katerina Ruzickova. Defending champion Florentyna Parker, 18, (Royal Birkdale) was 15th qualifier and lost 1 down to Emilie Alonso of France.

Manchester’s Rachel Connor, 17, qualified for the Cartier Trophy but also lost in the first round, beaten 2 down by Celine Boutier of France. This trophy is contested by the best 16 girls in the U18 age group who fail to qualify for the main championship matchplay.

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