Charlie Douglass (left) and Hayley Davis, Festival top-notchers in 2009 ... and bidding for repeat performances in 2010.

Douglass, Clyburn, Turland, Davis ... the stars are

heading back to the Hacienda del Alamo Festival

By COLIN FARQUHARSON
The line-up for the 2010 Hacienda del Alamo February Festival already contains two champions.
English women's amateur champion Charlie Douglass (Brocket Hall, Hertfordshire) will be there again at the five-star Murcia resort.
In February this year, the 20-year-old left-hander paved the way for a stellar 2009 season by winning the two main 36-hole ladies' events at the Festival.
This year, Charlie is going for a three-timer.
She intends warming up for the main events - the 36-hole Murcia Ladies Open on Monday-Tuesday, February 15-16 and the Hacienda del Alamo Ladies Open over 54 holes on Thursday-Friday-Saturday, February 18-19-20 - by taking part in the better-ball pairs competition on Saturday, February 13.
And her partner will be English girls champion Holly Clyburn (Woodhall Spa) who is meantime in Brazil for the Nick Faldo Series Grand Final and will be moving on to Houston, Texas to be one of England's mixed team of four for The Spirit tournament at Whispering Pines from November 4 to 7.
Holly's younger sister India will be taking part in at least one of the Under-16 girls' events.
Hannah Turland, the 15-year-old Hampshire women's champion who all but won the British women's open amateur stroke-play championship at Royal Aberdeen in August, also had a successful 2009 HDA Festival in February and she is looking for more of the same come February 2010.
The big change is that Hannah, who plays out of the Tidworth club, is sidestepping the Under-16 and Under-18 girls' events to take on the "big girls" in the 36-hole and 54-hole main events.
The big incentive to do well early in the year for Charlie, Holly, Hannah and others chasing a place in the Curtis Cup team for America from June 11 to 13 is that the GB&I selectors will be naming their team of eight to play the United States at Essex County Golf Club, Massachusetts in late April at the conclusion of the Helen Holm Trophy Scottish women's open amateur stroke-play at Troon.
Discounting the "Helen Holm," there are only four "windows of opportunity" to impress the selectors with quality performances against strong oppositions:
1 The Orange Blossom Tour in Florida in January.
2 The Portuguese women's open amateur championship at Oceanico O'Connor on the Algarve (January 28-31).
3 The Hacienda del Alamo Festival (February 13-20).
4 The Spanish women's open amateur championship at Playa de Pals, Girona (March 3-7).

+Entries for the 2010 Hacienda del Alamo February Festival will close in mid-January. Entry forms and details of the events are available by clicking on the heading at the top of the left hand column on this website's Home Page.

+If enough lady professionals were prepared to enter, a special category for them would be introduced at the 36-hole Murcia Ladies Open and the 54-hole Hacienda del Alamo Ladies Open.