Defending champion Becky Brewerton puts

her short iron swing changes to the test

FROM THE LADIES' EUROPEAN TOUR WEBSITE
By BETHAN CUTLER
Becky Brewerton is hoping that her recent swing changes will pay off as she defends the Ladies English Open at The Oxfordshire Golf Club this week, starting on Friday.
Brewerton, who won her maiden title by three shots at Chart Hills GC in Kent last year, implemented the changes ahead of this year’s LET season in an attempt to improve her short iron play.
The Solheim Cup player made the decision to take action after playing in the Kraft Nabsico Championship in the United States in early April.
“The one part of my game that has always let me down is my short irons and wedges. Distance control is sometimes horrendous and it’s because of a small fault in my swing,” said Brewerton, who made her debut in The Solheim Cup last year.
“It’s easier on the long irons because they’re a little bit flatter so you can get away with it. “I definitely wanted to do it because it was getting to the stage at the end of last year and the start of this year where it didn’t feel like I was improving and I’d kind of got stuck at a level.
“It’s not something that is obvious but for the standard that I feel I am at with other parts of my game… I feel I can stand on a tee and hit a drive and a four-iron and knock it to ten foot but if I’ve got a wedge in my hand at times I’m struggling to hit the green. That is just silly because no-one should ever be like that.”
Brewerton added that she was able to play well on longer courses, such as at Halmstad Golfklubb for The Solheim Cup, but not on shorter ones, which showed up the weakness. In preparation for her title defence she will be taking a lesson from her coach Simon Coaker, the director of golf at Desert Springs GC in Almeira, Spain.
She is hoping that it will help to kick-start her season. She missed the cut in her first event of the year at the Spanish Open, but has since posted three top-tens with a best finish of tied seventh at the HypoVereinsbank Ladies German Open in Munich.
“I played terrible at the Spanish and missed the cut but I understood that because I was going through a swing change. At that tournament I really wasn’t expecting to do anything. I probably shouldn’t have played and had another week to work on it. It’s been a difficult start to the year but slowly but surely I am starting to get it a little bit,” she said.
“At the moment because I’ve struggled a lot I am really short on confidence. I feel within myself on the course and I’m struggling to think under par. I’m always seeing bad scores but it’s got to change at some point and hopefully it will be soon at the British or the English. That would be perfect.
“Although last year was great, I won a tournament and played in The Solheim, I just felt that I needed to improve so that’s been quite difficult to incorporate while playing but I’m glad now that I’ve got a week off. Hopefully I can manage to get it a little bit better.”
Brewerton has not played at The Oxfordshire golf course before, but she has visited the website and likes the look of the golf course.
“It will be nice because defending a tournament title makes you feel a little bit different. It will be nice standing on the tee and thinking, “This is mine to keep hold of,” she said.
The last time the LET visited The Oxfordshire was in 1996, when England’s Laura Davies won the Wilkinson Sword Ladies’ English Open, which she also won in 1995 at the same venue. Davies will be absent from this year’s tournament, but there are 32 English players hoping to claim their national title. They include the recent Tenerife Ladies Open champion Rebecca Hudson, ANZ Ladies Masters champion Lisa Hall and the LET’s leading rookie Melissa Reid, as well as the 2005 Wales Ladies Champion Kirsty Taylor who is making a come-back after brain surgery at the beginning of the year.
The tournament also features Sweden’s Emma Zackrisson who won the Spanish Open in April.
AMATEUR NOTE:
Eight amateurs have accepted LET invitations to play:
Carly Booth (Comrie)
Roseanne Niven (Crieff)
Jenny Pease (England)
Hannah Burke (England)
Samantha Round (England)
Tracey Boyes (England)
Claire Aitken (England).
Lucy Gould (Bargoed)

CLARE QUEEN WITHDRAWS
Clare Queen (The Carrick at Cameron House) has withdrawn from the tournament, but there will still be six Scots in action - Lynn Kenny, Kathryn Imrie, Jenna Wilson, Julie Forbes (making her first appearance on the LET for some time, and the two amateurs, Carly Booth and Roseanne Niven.
Carly Booth is booked on a London to Aberdeen Sunday evening flight so that she can join up with the rest of the Scotland squad taking part in the European girls' team championship at Murcar Links. That tournament starts next Tuesday.