ENGLAND GOLF SILVER TEE GOES TO ENGLISH GIRLS CHAMPION

Top-class Sophie wins England Golf award English girls’ champion Sophie Keech is top class at combining her golf and her school work – and she’s won the England Golf Silver Tee Award to prove it. The award is made annually to a girl who develops her golf while also concentrating on her studies and Sophie’s success in the Silver Tee was announced at today’s annual meeting of England Golf. “I’m really pleased to win this award, it gets 2014 off to a great start,” said Sophie, an England girl international from Parkstone Golf Club in Dorset. She is pictured with the England girls’ trophy (image © Leaderboard Photography). The 17-year-old is working towards a BTec in sport at Millfield School in Somerset, where she is a boarder. She commented: “I’m on track. The BTec is all coursework so I can balance it with my golf and my teachers at Millfield are so good and so understanding.” Sophie, who has been Millfield since she was 13 and is the golf captain, will leave school this summer and will concentrate on her golfing ambitions. She said:  “I’ve got mixed emotions about it. It will be such a relief to finish all the work, but at the same time I love it so much here. It’s going to be so sad leaving, I think there will be a few tears on the last day.” She plans to play on the women’s amateur circuit for the next two years to gain experience:  “All I want to do is play golf,” she said. Her immediate targets include successfully defending her English girls’ title and winning a British event. Sophie will be building on an impressive golfing CV: in addition to winning the English girls’ championship last year and helping England win the Girls’ Home Internationals, she was also the English schools’ champion, for the second time. Regionally, she was the South West girls’ titleholder and was runner-up in the South West ladies’ championship. In 2011 she helped Millfield to win the World Schools Championship in South Africa. Lyndsey Hewison Press Officer England Golf pr@englandgolf.org 07825 752 193