KirkwoodGolf

Tuesday, September 09, 2008

SCOTLAND ARE HAPPY CAMPERS
AT WREXHAM FOR INTERNATIONALS

Scotland skipper Lesley Nicholson is quietly confident that her team will give a good account of themselves in the women's home internationals which start at Wrexham Golf Club, North Wales tomorrow.
"Everybody's happy and raring to go, so that's a good sign," said Lesley, a resinstated amateur whose career on the Ladies European Tour was hampered and then cut short by a hand injury.
This is the Haddington player's first time as a team captain and she will be under no illusions that England, winners of the Miller Trophy as champions for the past three years, are anything but hot favourites to make it four in a row. The long and the short of it is that for Scotland, Ireland or Wales to win the championship, they have to beat England.
Scotland lack the services of Carly Booth who is bound for the United States and the Junior Ryder Cup match on Monday and Tuesday of next week. Ireland are deprrived of the talented 13-year-old Maguire twins, Lisa and Leona, for the same reason.
And it was a blow when Curtis Cup player Sally Watson told the SLGA that she needs more time to recover from the knee ligaments operation she had on the Wednesday after the match against the Americans at St Andrews in early June. Louise Kenney from Pitreavie has stepped up from first reserve to take Sally's place.
Skipper Nicholson has left Kenney and Emily Ogilvy (Auchterarder) out of the opening foursomes line-up against Wales but they are both likely to see their fair share of the action before the three-day programme is over. Wednesday morning foursomes:
WALES v SCOTLAND
Wales names first
Sahra Hassan & Rhian Wyn Thomas v Kylie Walker & Kelsey MacDonald.
Breanne Loucks & Amy Boulden v Michele Thomson & Megan Briggs.
Tara Davies & Stephanie Evans v Pamela Pretswell & Laura Murray.
IRELAND v ENGLAND
Niamh Kitching & Danielle McVeigh v Elizabeth Bennett & Kerry Smith.
Gemma Hegarty & Gillian O'Leary v Naomi Edwards & Florentyna Parker.
Karen Delaney & Tara Delaney v Hannah Barwood v Rachel Jennings.