MAGUIRE TWINS ENTER ST RULE TROPHY FOR FIRST TIME

By COLIN FARQUHARSON Colin@scottishgolfview.com  Ireland's talented Maguire twins, Leona and Lisa, Nos 9 and 16 in the Women's World Amateur Golf Rankings, have entered the St Rule Trophy 54-hole tournament over St Andrews' Old and New Courses on May 28-29 for the first time. It is the first time the 16-year-olds from Ballyconnel, Co Cavan, who both have +4 of a handicap, will have played the Old Course. It is understood they made a sight-seeing trip to St Andrews when they played in the Girls Home Internationals at Panmure Barry in 2008. Leona, pictured above right, won the Portuguese women's amateur championship earlier this year and would have won the recent Helen Holm Scottish women's amateur stroke-play championship but for taking three putts from 6ft on Royal Troon's 18th green and finishing one shot behind the winner. Lisa, pictured left, has won the Spanish women's amateur title this year. Both made GBandI history as 15-year-old members of the team who played in the 2010 Curtis Cup match at Essex County Club, Massachusetts. Another interesting first-time entrant is Florida-based Meghan Stasi, winner of the US women's mid-amateur title for a third time last September. She lost at the 19th to Scottish champion Kelsey MacDonald in the semi-finals of the British women's amateur championship at Ganton last June. As Meghan Bolger, she played in the winning United States team in the 2008 Curtis Cup match over the Old Course, St Andrews. Her husband-to-be, a Fort Lauderdale restauranteur, proposed to her on the Swilken Bridge at the conclusion of the match against Great Britain and Ireland. That's the Stasis pictured right at Ganton. Mrs Stasi is coming over from the States for a second crack at the "British" title at Royal Portrush GC, Northern Ireland from June 7 to 11 and is taking the chance to come early to revisit the Old Course with her husband as caddie for the St Rule Trophy. Alford's Laura Murray, pictured right, who won the "St Rule" after a three-way play-off last year as a member of the Paul Lawrie Foundation team, is defending the title. Curtis Cup stalwart Danielle McVeigh (Royal Co Down Ladies), two of whose biggest career wins have been achieved in Scotland - the British stroke-play at Balgownie in 2009 and the "Helen Holm" at Troon in 2010 - has explained to Kirkwoodgolf why she is not among entries for this year's St Rule Trophy tournament. "I will have just finished exams (at NUI Maynooth) and am going straight to the Irish close championship the next day, so I think I will need a few days off to recover and get ready for the 'British' at Royal Portrush," said Danielle who was nursing ankle and wrist injuries at the "Helen Holm" a couple of weeks ago. There is no cut in the three-round prestigious St Rule Trophy competition which tees off with 18 holes over the New Course on the Saturday, followed by two rounds over the Old Course on the Sunday. SCROLL DOWN TO SEE THE TIMES FOR THE FIRST ROUND OF THE ST RULE TROPHY TOURNAMENT ON SATURDAY, MAY 28