ELIZABETH MALLETT SIGNS FOR UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA

 Elizabeth Mallett signs a Letter of Intent to join the University of North Carolina in August next year.

NEWS RELEASE ISSUED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA
England golf international Sutton Coldfield teenage golfer Elizabeth Mallett has accepted an offer and has signed a National Letter of Intent for a golf scholarship to join The University of North Carolina women’s golf team.
The signing ends a busy period of negotiation for the 17 year old Elizabeth where she has been considering several options and finally secures her four- year placement at UNC that will begin in August 2012.
The 2010 English Girls Champion explained “It’s been the most important golfing decision I’ve had to make in my career to date. Not so much about my golfing journey continuing over in America, as I made that part of the decision some time ago that my future would involve playing and competing in the US - but because I’ve had four other great written offers to consider to join other US universities on the table in the last couple of weeks.
"They were all highly valuable offers with slightly differing strengths and emphasis to them, so it’s been a difficult choice to make “
Elizabeth recently flew over to America on an official short trip visit to some of the possible university options and meet both their golf coaches and university academic advisors about her future.
Elizabeth enthused, “It was my first time in America and it was a great experience to see it for myself. Each university really gave me the red carpet treatment which made me realise how serious a commitment the university make when taking on a new recruit.
"I was taken out for breakfast meetings, lunch appointments and had dinner with the other team members, visited local sights as well as being shown the university campus and golfing facilities. They were all really impressive“
As part of the ongoing decision making process, Elizabeth has recently had to sit the SAT academic exam in early October to fulfil US university entrance eligibility which opened up the way for the offers - as the four-year scholarship is dependent on Elizabeth maintaining her academic level for her degree course as well as her ongoing golfing commitments.
In reasoning her choice Elizabeth added “ My search has been to seek out my best option and I finally decided that UNC would set challenging demands for me both on the golf course as well as in the classroom. The university has fantastic golfing facilities and a proven coaching system and so it’s a real honour for me to join their program. I have a lot to learn about American conditions so am quite excited about the challenges ahead. “
Jan Mann, the head women’s golf coach at UNC, said “We are excited that Elizabeth has chosen to attend Carolina and join the UNC women’s golf program. Her junior success speaks for itself. Elizabeth has a proven track record not only in England but an international level. She will bring a great deal of depth to the team, we are looking forward to Elizabeth joining our Carolina family “
+Elizabeth, who was only 15 when she reached the final of the British girls' open championship at West Lancs GC in 2009 before losing to France's Perrine Delacour, was a member of the title-winning England team at the Girls' Home Internationals at Gullane last August