VAGLIANO TROPHY MATCH AT HAMBURG

Vagliano Trophy images sent by Gillian Kirkwood from Hamburger Golf Club, Falkenstein.

McKenna pairs Pamela Pretswell and Sally Watson

in opening foursomes

The 14-year-old Maguire twins from Co Cavan will make a little bit of golfing history at Hamburger Golf Club, Falkenstein on Friday morning when they become the youngest ever players to represent Great Britain & Ireland.
The occasion is the biennial women’s amateur international golf match against the Continent of Europe and skipper Mary McKenna from Dublin has paired Lisa and Leona together – no surprise there – in the third foursome off the tee.
Their opponents are Laura Gonzalez-Escallon, the Belgian teenager who won the British girls’ open championship at Monifieth last August and the French player Marion Ricordeau.
The opening pairings in the two-day match are (GB& I names first):
FOURSOMES
8.00am
Jodi Ewart (Eng) & Rachel Jennings (Eng) v Pia Halbig (Ger) & Caroline Masson (Ger)
8.10am
Pamela Pretswell (Sco) & Sally Watson (Sco) v Rosanna Crepiat (Fra) & Lucie André
(Fra).
8.20am
Leona Maguire (Ire) & Lisa Maguire (Ire) Marion Ricordeau (Fra) & Laura Gonzalez-Escallon (Bel).
8.30am
Danielle McVeigh (NIr) & /Rhian Wyn Thomas (Wal) v Caroline Hedwall (Swe) & Marieke Nivard (Neth)
Great Britain & Ireland lead the series but, in the last Vagliano Trophy encounter, at St Andrews Bay, Fife in 2008, the Continent of Europe won by a record margin – 15-9.
One break for Mary McKenna and her squad is that Spain’s Carlota Ciganda, arguably the best female amateur in Europe, declined an invitation to play for the Continental team.
There are three Scots in the GB&I line-up and Mary has paired Pamela Pretswell (Bothwell Castle) with Sally Watson (Elie & Earlsferry) who will be enrolling at Stanford University, California – Tiger Woods’ alma mater – at the end of next month.
The third Scot in the squad of nine, St Rule Trophy winner Kylie Walker (Buchanan Castle), is the GB&I player who will sit out the morning action but will almost certainly be called into action for the afternoon programme of singles.
The wooded Hamburg course will be played long with little or no run and holding greens after being flooded by a rainfall of monsoon proportions on Wednesday.

There was more heavy rain during the opening ceremony which was curtailed as players and officials dashed back to the clubhouse when the heavens opened.