Olivia Jordan-Higgins Top of the Pops

at CSU and Big South Conference

PRESS RELEASE ISSUED BY ENGLISH WOMEN'S GOLF ASSOCIATION

Channel Islander Olivia Jordan-Higgins has scooped two honours on the US women’s college circuit. The 21-year-old from Royal Jersey has been named "Athlete of the Week" by Charleston Southern University and "Woman Golfer of the Week" by the Big South Conference.

A third-year student at CSU, this is the first time Olivia, pictured right, has won the college award and she beat students from men’s golf, women’s basketball, softball, baseball, women’s tennis and track and field. She’s won the conference title five times already this year.

Olivia’s latest honours are due to her performance in two recent events. She led her university team to third place in the Low Country Intercollegiate tournament and was fourth individually in a field of 60 players. It was her fourth top 10 finish of the season and she was ahead of 20 other Big South competitors.

Olivia was also was 37th out of 215 golfers in the Kiawah Island Intercollegiate and finished in front of 14 Big South players.

Back home, she has been selected to again represent Jersey in the team of four women golfers in this summer’s Island Games in Aland in the Baltic Sea. Two years ago they won team gold and Olivia took the individual silver after a fourth-round play-off.

Elsewhere, Nicola Race, 19, continued her successful run with second place in the Lion Invitational tournament at Tangelwood Resort, Texas. She had a first round 81 – no-one in the field of 87 broke 80 – and added a second round 73 to finish two shots behind the winner. Nicola, from Witham in Essex, is a student at the Redlands Community College in Oklahoma, and her play helped them win the team title. She is already the National Junior College Champion and will transfer to the University of Missouri in August.

Hertfordshire’s Hannah Burke, 21, was sixth in the Baylor Spring Invitational at Twin Rivers Golf Club, Waco in Texas. Hannah, who is a student at Baylor University, was lying third after rounds of 77 and one-over 73 but dropped back with a final round 79.

The Mid-Herts player is in the LGU’s preliminary selection squad for this summer's Vagliano Trophy match between GB&I and the holders, the Continent of Europe, in Hamburg.

Stacey Rodger, from West Hove in Sussex and a freshman student at Missouri State University, improved from joint 32nd to a final position of joint 20th with a round of 76. Earlier she had scored 78 and 80.

Cheshire’s Laura Jones helped the Oklahoma City University team to a three-stroke win in the Spring Break Intercollegiate at Palm Golf Club, Nevada. She had scores of 75, 74 for 149 and a 10th place finish in a field of 50, six shots behind the individual winner, Malin Thorberg (California Baptist) with 73 and 70 for 143. Laura is a member at Royal Liverpool.