MISS JULIE FROM


MUSSELBURGH VIA


PHOENIX IS BRITISH


TITLE FAVOURITE


COLIN FARQUHARSON REPORTING FROM ROYAL BELFAST GC
The talent-spotting golf coaches from American universities have arrived at Royal Belast Golf Club, overlooking the inlet of the irish Sea they call the Belfast Lough but a parkland rather than a links course.
The championship field of 144, many more would like to play but there's no room for them, will play two stroke play qualifying rounds on Monday and Tuesday to reduce the numbers to 64 qualifiers for the match-play stages which climax with an 18-hole final on Friday afternoon (1pm).
If the past is anything to go by, about 10 of the field, which represents the cream of the Under-18 years female golfing talent in Europe and beyond, will be playing on the American college circuit in the 2010-2011 season.
But if the truth be known the potential winners of the prestigious title are unlikely to be tempted by golf scholarships across the Atlantic.
The fact of the matter is that five players lift this tournament out of the realms of JUNIOR golf by their achievements in ADULT tournaments.
England have a pair of aces in Bolton’s Kelly Tidy (Royal Birkdale), who beat Scottish champion Kelsey MacDonald in the final of the British women’s open
amateur championship at Ganton in June, and Hayley Davis (Ferndown), winner of the English women’s amateur championship this year.
Kelly, beaten twice (2007-2008) in the British girls’ final, could become only the third player in LGU history after Mickey Walker (1972) and Belen Mozo (2006) to win the British girls’ and women’s titles in the same season.
Ireland also have two aces in their hand – and they both live under the same roof in Co Cavan. Twins Leona and Lisa Maguire (Slieve Russell) made GB and I golfing history by playing in this year’s Curtis Cup match at the age of 15.
They will be arriving at Royal Belfast GC straight from playing in Sunday's final round of the Ladies European Tour’s Irish Women’s Open. But they will know the course better than most for their coach Andrew Ferguson, is the club pro and they visit him at Royal Belfast – three hours away from their base – on a regular basis.
Ferguson also coaches Gareth Maybin and Michael Hoey incidentally.
But, having said all that, the favourite to be crowned British girls open amateur champion in late afternoon on Friday must be 15-year-old Musselburgh-based Julie Yang, bidding to become the first South Korean to win the championship.
She arrived at Loretto School, near Edinburgh last September from Phoenix, Arizona with a golfing CV that included wins on the American junior circuit.
Why had she come to Scotland where golf can be very limited during the winter months?
According to her father, it was a move designed to make her a better all-round player with experience of European playing conditions. Almost as though he was ticking off the boxes as her career progresses.
Every golfing father - and I was no exception - thinks his daughter is the greatest. But Daddy Yang is confident Julie could be world No 1 (as a pro) by the time she is 20 and she has already left school to pursue that ambition.
Last week, Julie won the English women’s open amateur stroke-play championship (picture above of Julie with that trophy by courtesy of leaderboard.photography).
Earlier this season she won the Welsh women’s open amateur stroke-play, the Paul Lawrie Scottish schoolgirls title, two or three Independent Schools Association tournaments in England. Then, after being pipped for the Germany women’s amateur stroke play title over the last few holes, she went out and added the Danish women’s open title to her impressive CV last month.
She practises morning, noon and night when she is not is playing in a tournament. Perhaps she is missing out on her childhood but she seems a happy enough youngster who just lives for golf.
“I like the course but I like all golf courses. I enjoy playing them all,” she said after yet another practice round.