MAGUIRE TWINS MAKE DEBUT ON ORANGE BLOSSOM TOUR

By COLIN FARQUHARSON

Colin@scottishgolfview.com
Curtis Cup twins Leona, pictured right, top, and Lisa Maguire (Slieve Russell), pictured right, lower, - who passed their 16th birthday on November 30 - will be making their debut on the Orange Blossom Tour - the women's amateur circuit in Florida next week.
Another member of the GB and I team at Essex County Club last summer, Holly Clyburn (Woodhall Spa) will be making a return trip to the first big women's amateur event of the year.
STIRLING UNIVERSITY SQUAD
Stirling University, regular supporters of the Orange Blossom Tour, will be represented by the following, who fly out on Monday for Wednesday's Harder Hall Invitational, a 72-hole stroke-play tournament, which tees off the quality circuit:
Harriet Beasley (Woburn), Jordana Graham (Southerness), Kelsey MacDonald (Nairn Dunbar), Eilidh Mackay (Nairn Dunbar), Flore Lafeille (Belgium) and Rebecca Wilson (Grange).
Holly Clyburn and Scottish girl cap Alyson McKechin (Elderslie) are travelling as guests with the Stirling party who will also be accompanied by former Scotland and British international Lesley Mackay, originally from Golspie. Lesley has recently been appointed head professional at Playsport-Golf, East Kilbride, and she is also the women's golf team coach at the University of Stirling.
University of Tennessee senior year student Rebecca Watson (Elie and Earlsferry), older sister of Curtis Cup player Sally, is another Scot among the entries. Tennessee to Florida will be a shorter trip than Britain/Ireland to Florida!
England's Heidi Baek (Felixstowe Ferry), winner of the US Junior Masters last week, and Charley Hull (Kettering), one of the country's outstanding prospects at the age of 14, are also in the field of 98 for the Harder Hall Invitational.
Another 38 players, all Americans, will be competing in the tournament's senior championship which runs in tandem with the main event.
One of the leading Americans will be Meghan Stasi who was Meghan Bolger when she played for the United States in the 2008 Curtis Cup match over the Old Course, St Andrews (her boyfriend, who owns a Florida restaurant, proposed to her on the Swilken Bridge after the match - how romantic!).
Meghan, twice winner of the US women's mid-amateur championship and a host of other titles, lost to Kelsey MacDonald in the semi-final of the British women's open amateur championship at Ganton GC, Yorkshire last June.
The four events that make up the Orange Blossom Tour are:
January 5-8: Harder Hall Invitational (Harder Hall Golf and Country Club, Sebring, Florida).
January 12-15: South Atlantic (Sally) amateur championship (Oceanside Country Club, Ormond, Beach, Florida).
January 17-22: Jones/Doherty match-play championship (Coral Ridge County Club, Fort Lauderdale, Florida).
January 23-25: Women's International Four-ball (Orangebrook Country Club, Hollywood, Florida).

+Lesley Mackay will be reporting regularly for Kirkwoodgolf.co.uk from the Orange Blossom Tour.