NO CURTIS CUP PLAYERS IN

SUNDAY’S ST RULE TROPHY

FIELD AT ST ANDREWS

Sunday's international field of 72 for the St Rule Trophy women’s golf tournament over the Old Course, St Andrews does not include the current Scottish, English, Welsh or Irish champions.
It is believed to be the first time this has happened since the competition was started in 1984 and has since matured into one of the leading club-run stroke-play events on the European women’s amateur golf calendar.
Michele Thomson (McDonald Ellon), winner of the Scottish title at Lossiemouth last Saturday, assembles with her Curtis Cup team-mates in St Andrews on Sunday when their American opponents also arrive.
The new English champion, Hannah Barwood, has not entered because she has A levels coming up, which is also the reason why the 17-year-old from Bristol has not entered the British women’s open amateur championship at North Berwick from June 11 to 15.
Leona Maguire (Slieve Russell), who beat her 13-year-old twin sister Lisa to win the Irish title at Westport this past week, is perhaps considered a shade too young for the trip to Scotland.
And the surprise winner of the Welsh title at Monmouthshire, also this week, Kirsty O’Connor from Nelson, Lancashire has not entered.
None of the GB&I or United States Curtis Cup team members is playing in the St Rule Trophy. That must have been a blow to the St Rule Club organisers who deliberately reduced this year’s tournament from its traditional three rounds to 36 holes so that it would not be too tiring a prospect for the Curtis Cup players ahead of the three-day match which starts next Friday.
Despite all the “missing” players, it is still a good field which includes 14 players from France, headed by Barbara Genuini, winner of the Helen Holm Scottish open amateur stroke-play championship at Troon last month.

Barbara is pictured above, courtesy of Cal Carson Golf Agency (all rights reserved).
Five Irish players making the trip are Deirdre Smith (Co Louth), Maura Morrin (The Curragh), Niamh Kitching (Claremorris), Karen Delaney (Carlow) and Gillian O’Leary (Cork).
If there is to be a Welsh winner it could be Rhian Wyn Thomas (Vale of Glamorgan) who led the way home from more fancied competitors in the recent Welsh women’s open amateur stroke-play championship.
Leading the Scottish bid to keep the prestigious trophy are home should be Scottish championship beaten finalist Jocelyn Carthew (Ladybank), semi-finalists Kylie Walker (Buchanan Castle) and Laura Murray (Alford), quarter-finalists Louisse Kenney (Pitreavie), Clare-Marie Carlton (Fereneze) and Jane Turner (Craigielaw), not to mention 17-year-old Kelsey MacDonald (Nairn Dunbar) who was the leading qualifier at Lossiemouth before her surprise first-round defeat by 16-year-old Sammy Vass from Tain.
Last year’s runaway winner by eight strokes was Melissa Reid from Chevin, Derby with a record-low score of 18-under-par 209 for one round over the New Course and two rounds at the Old Course.

Melissa would have been a key player in the GB&I Curtis Cup team over the Old Course had she not turned professional during the winter. There does not look to be an English challenger of her calibre in Sunday’s field.