CURTIS CUP TEAM: LADIES GOLF UNION PRESS RELEASE

INTERNATIONAL SELECTORS SPRING GB and I CURTIS CUP SURPRISES

Charley Hull, playing this week in the first LPGA Tour Major of the season, the Kraft Nabisco Championship, has been given the opportunity  by the independent Selection Panel of the LGU to turn out for the GB and I team for the 37th Curtis Cup match against the United States at The Nairn Golf Club from 8-10 June, 2012.

Hull, pictured by Cal Carson Golf Agency, at No 7 the highest British or Irish player in the World Amateur Golf Rankings, withdrew from last week’s Curtis Cup team trial at Nairn after being one of five amateurs invited by the sponsors to play in the LPGA Tour event in California.

The surprise selection of the Woburn 16-year-old – she had her birthday on March 20 –was confirmed when the Selection Panel overturned its original requirement that the terms of the player agreement to attend the team trial must be complied with.

The other Woburn Golf Club player on the short leet, 17-year-old Lauren Taylor - the youngest ever winner of the Ladies’ British Open Amateur championship at Royal Portrush GC last June – was not selected because of doubts about her fitness.

She was present but did not play in the Curtis Cup team trial at Nairn, having been nursing an injury for some time. Lauren is unable to play full shots at the moment and the Selection Panel felt they could not take a chance on her being 100 per cent fit in time for three days’ play at the highest amateur international level of a Curtis Cup match.

Of the eight GB and I players selected, only Holly Clyburn, Leona Maguire and Pamela Pretswell have experience of playing in a Curtis Cup match. They were in the team beaten 12 ½ to 7 ½ at Essex County Club, Boston, Massachusetts in 2010.

Including Charley Hull, the GB & I team of eight includes three players currently in the top 20 of the World Amateur Golf Rankings. The others are Leona Maguire (No 9) and Stephanie Meadow (No 10).

Four of the team – Amy Boulden, Holly Clyburn, Kelly Tidy and Pamela Pretswell – played for the five-strong GB & I line-up which beat Australia, Canada, New Zealand ( including the World Nos 1 and 2 female amateurs) and South Africa to score an outstanding success in the Astor Trophy team match-play tournament, played every four years,  at Fairhaven GC, Lancashire last June.

The GB and I team for the June 8-10 contest is:

AMY BOULDEN (Conwy GC). Age 18

HOLLY CLYBURN (Woodhall Spa GC ). Age 20

CHARLEY HULL (Woburn GC). Age 16

BRONTE LAW (Bramhall GC ). Age 17

LEONA MAGUIRE (Slieve Russell GC). Age 17

PAMELA PRETSWELL (Bothwell Castle GC). Age 22

KELLY TIDY (Royal Birkdale GC). Age 20

STEPHANIE MEADOW (Royal Portrush GC). Age 20

TEAM CAPTAIN

TEGWEN MATTHEWS (Wales).

TEAM MANAGER

ANNA HUBBARD (Wales)

RESERVES

1 LISA MAGUIRE (Slieve Russell GC). Age 17

2 GEORGIA HALL (Remedy Oak GC). Age 15

3 BECKY HARRIES (Haverfordwest GC). Age 23

4 KELSEY MacDONALD (Nairn Dunbar GC). Age 21

Great Britain and Ireland will be striving to win the Curtis Cup for the first time since beating the United States 11 ½ to 6 ½ at Killarney in 1996. The American team has won 7 of these biennial matches in a row – the longest US winning sequence since 1960 to 1984 inclusive.

Between 1986 and 1996, GB and I won 4 of the 5 Curtis Cup matches. In 2008, the Curtis Cup contest was changed to a three-day format. The overall scoreline is: United States 27 wins, GB and 6 wins with 3 matches drawn.

GB and I 2012 CURTIS CUP TEAM PEN PICTURES

TEGWEN MATTHEWS (Wales) -  Team Captain.

Played in 4 Curtis Cup matches for Great Britain & Ireland – 1974-1976-1978-1980.

Team Manager under Captain Mary McKenna in the Curtis Cup and Vagliano Trophy matches from 2007 to 2010.

Made a winning first appearance as Captain of GB & I in the Astor Trophy Tournament (formerly the Commonwealth Tournament, played every four years) at Fairhaven GC, England, last June. The following week Tegwen captained GB & I again, this time losing to the Continent of Europe in the Vagliano Trophy Match at Royal Porthcawl GC.

AMY BOULDEN (Conwy GC) 

Amy was a member of the GB & I team of 5 which beat Canada, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia to win the Astor Trophy Tournament at Fairhaven GC, Lancashire in June 2011. A week later she was in the GB & I team of 9 which played the Continent of Europe in the Vagliano Trophy Match at Royal Porthcawl GC, Wales.

In August 2011, Amy won all her singles matches for Wales in the Girls’ Home Internationals at Gullane. She finished fourth in the 2011 Ladies’ British Open Amateur Strokeplay at Royal Ashdown Forest, England, having been beaten semi-finalist in the Ladies’ British Open Amateur Championship at Royal Portrush, Ireland, in June 2011. Amy played for Europe in the 2011 Junior Solheim Cup match against the United States in Ireland.

She was fourth reserve for the 2010 GB and I Curtis Cup team. Amy is the daughter of a golf club professional.

HOLLY CLYBURN (Woodhall Spa GC).

Arguably the most internationally experienced member of the GB & I team, Hollyplayed in the 2010 Curtis Cup match at Essex County Club, Massachusetts and played in the Nick Faldo Series Grand Final in Brazil a year ot two back. She finished fourth in the Women’s Dixie Amateur in Florida at the start of 2012 and stayed on to play on the Orange Blossom Tour once again. She tied for fifth in the Harder Hall Invitational and made the top 10 in “The Sally” the following week.

Holly finished third in the 2011 Helen Holm Scottish Ladies’ Open Amateur Strokeplay at Troon. In 2011 Holly was a member of the winning GB & I team in the Astor Trophy Tournament (beating New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and Canada) and, a week later, she was also in the GB & I team that lost to the Continent of Europe in the Vagliano Trophy Match against the Continent of Europe at Royal Porthcawl.

Holly came to the forefront in 2009 when she beat Kelly Tidy in the final of the English girls champonship. Lives at Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire.

CHARLEY HULL (Woburn GC)

Charley Hull played for Europe in the 2011 Junior Solheim Cup match in Ireland and for GB & I in the inaugural Junior Vagliano Trophy match at Royal Porthcawl last June. Hull, when only 15, won the English and Welsh women’s open stroke-play titles in 2011. She was beaten finalist in the English Women’s (Close) Amateur Championship last year.

In January this year, she won the Harder Hall Invitational, the opening event of the Orange Blossom Tour in Florida, and finished third the following week in “The Sally” (South Atlantic Amateur Ladies championship). Charley won the Jones-Docherty match-play tournament on the same circuit in January 2011.

Charley, at No 7, is the highest-ranked GB & I team member in the current World Amateur Golf Rankings. Leona Maguire is No 9 and Stephanie Meadow No 10

Lives at Kettering, Northamptonshire and is a member at Woburn GC, Milton Keynes in Buckinghamshire. She had her 16^th birthday in March  2012. Playing in this week’s LPGA Tour major, the Kraft Nabisco, in California, as one of five amateurs invited by the sponsors.

BRONTE LAW (Bramhall GC ).

Bronte won the 2011 Scottish Under-16 Girls Open Strokeplay Championship at Strathmore and played for the winning England team in the 2011 Girls’ Home Internationals at Gullane.

In the 2011 Girls’ British Open Amateur Championship at the same venue, Bronte was two up on the 17^th tee against Belgium’s Margot Vanmaux in  the last 16 but lost in extra holes. Vanmaux went on to win the title.

Bronte won 4 points out of a possible 5 for England in the 2011 Ladies’ Home Internationals at Hillside GC, Lancashire. She played for GB & I in the inaugural Junior Vagliano Trophy match at Royal Porthcawl in June 2011.

LEONA MAGUIRE (Slieve Russell GC)
Leona Maguire won the silver medal in the  2011 Ladies’ European Amateur Ranking (LEAR) and then captured the Irish Ladies’ Golf Union’s ladies’ and girls’ Order of Merit titles at the end of the 2011 season. Leona started 2011 brightly with a 15-stroke victory at the Portuguese Ladies’ Amateur Strokeplay Championship in January and finished second this year in her defence of the title

Leona reached the quarter finals of the 2011 Spanish Ladies’ Amateur Championship the following month and finished second at the Helen Holm Scottish Ladies’ Open Strokeplay Championship at Troon in April 2011. She finished third at the 2011 Irish girls’ open stroke-play and went on to win the Irish Ladies’ Open Strokeplay in early June 2011. The following week she won three matches out of three for GB & I at the Vagliano Trophy against the Continent of Europe at Royal Porthcawl.

Leona finished fourth at the European Ladies’ individual championship in July 2011 and followed up with an impressive six-shot victory at the Ladies’ British Open Amateur Strokeplay Championship at Royal Ashdown Forest in August.

Leona headed the points rankings for the Ping Junior Solheim Cup match against the USA in Ireland.

She and twin Lisa both played in the 2010 Curtis Cup match at Essex County Club, Massachusetts, having made their GB & I debuts in the 2009 Vagliano Trophy match against the Continent of Europe in Germany.

STEPHANIE MEADOW (Royal Portrush GC & Alabama University)
Stephanie topped the 2011 Ladies’ European Amateur Rankings (LEAR), to win the gold medal and move to No 4 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking - her highest ever ranking. She is currently No 10 in the Ranking.
Stephanie, who has been based in America since she was 14, is in her second year (2011-12)  at Alabama University. She won the Lady Puerto Rico Classic early in the 2010-11 US women’s college season and followed that by winning the Sugar Bowl Intercollegiate. She reeled off another three top-four US finishes before winning the NCAA East Regional Championship by six strokes.
Earlier in the 2011-12 US college golf season, Stephanie captured her fourth US college golf title with a five-under-par total in the Mercedes-Benz SEC/PAC 12 Challenge in Tennessee.

On March 4 this year, Stephanie set a Alabama University record by winning for a fifth time (in only 17 competitions) on the US college circuit. She won the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate at Hilton Head Island, South Carolina by three shots from Alabama team-mate Brooke Pancake – a member of the US Curtis Cup team for the Nairn match.

In Europe, she took second place in both the 2011 Irish Ladies’ Open Amateur Strokeplay championship and the European Ladies’ individual amateur championship, won by compatriot Lisa Maguire.
Stephanie comes from Jordanstown, Co. Antrim, Northern Ireland and first came to the forefront by reaching the Irish girls match-play championship final in 2004, 2006 and 2007. She won the title in 2006.

Second reserve for the Curtis Cup match in 2010, Stephanie made her debut for GB&I in the Vagliano Trophy match against the Continent of Europe at Royal Porthcawl in June 2011.

PAMELA PRETSWELL (Bothwell Castle GC)

Pamela was one of Scotland’s top tennis prospects in her early teens and played at Junior Wimbledon. She was a contemporary of Andy Murray until she decided at the age of 15 to quit tennis, because it took up so much of her time, and switched to golf.

She proved just as naturally gifted at golf as she had been at tennis and within seven years had become a regular choice for the Scottish Ladies’ international team (first cap 2007), played for GB & I in the 2010 Curtis Cup match at Essex County Club, Massachusetts, and in the Vagliano Trophy matches of 2009 and 2011 against the Continent of Europe.

She won the Ladies’ British Open Amateur Stroke play Championship at Tenby, South Wales in 2010 and won the Swiss women’s open amateur championship on a holiday trip. Graduated from Glasgow University last year.  Lives in Hamilton.

KELLY TIDY (Royal Birkdale GC)

Kelly was beaten in the final of the Girls’ British Open Amateur Championship two years in a row (2008 & 2009), but she won the 2010 Ladies’ British Open Amateur Championship at Ganton GC, Yorkshire, beating Kelsey MacDonald in the 18-hole final. Kelly reached the semi-finals in defence of the British title at Royal Portrush GC in 2011. She lost to the eventual champion, Lauren Taylor, in extra holes in the semi-finals.

She finished third in the 2011 English women’s open amateur stroke-play and second in a professional field for the Ladies European Tour Access Series’ Azores Open in 2011. Gained 4oints  out of 5 for England when it  won the 2011 Ladies’ Home Internationals title at Hillside GC, Lancashire last September.

A Junior Ryder Cup player, she made her debut for GB & I in the 2011 Astor Trophy and Vagliano Trophy matches at Fairhaven GC and Royal Porthcawl GC respectively last June. 

 For further information please contact;

Susan Simpson,

Head of Golf Operations,

LGU Championships Ltd.

Tel : 01334 475811

Email: curtiscup@lgu.org

Ladies' Golf Union

St Andrews, KY16 9AT

Tel 01334 475811 Fax 01334 472818

www.lgu.org

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