PRESS RELEASE FROM LADIES GOLF UNION

LGU ANNOUNCES GB AND I TEAM TO

DEFEND ASTOR TROPHY IN AUSTRALIA

A mixture of youth and experience has been selected to defend the Astor Trophy for Great Britain and Ireland in Australia.

The five player GB and I team for The Astor Trophy has been named as:

Hayley Davis (Ferndown) Age 21

Connie Jaffrey (Troon Ladies’) Age 18

Bronte Law (Bramhall) Age 19

Leona Maguire (Slieve Russell) Age 19

Charlotte Thomas (Singapore) Age 21

Team Captain: Elaine Farquharson-Black 

(Deeside)

 

Together they will take on the top amateur players from Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa at the Grange, Adelaide, from January 12 to 16, 2015 for the coveted Astor Trophy, formerly the Commonwealth Tournament.

The event is held every four years and Great Britain and Ireland are the reigning champions, having claimed victory in 2011 at Fairhaven Golf Club, Lancashire.

LGU Chairman Trish Wilson said: “This looks an excellent Great Britain and Ireland team which is set to defend the Astor Trophy in Australia.

“With a blend of experience and new blood within the group, I’m sure the players will relish the opportunity to test their skills against the best players from Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa in this historic tournament. 

“Everyone at the LGU wishes Captain Elaine Farquharson-Black and her team the best of luck in January.”

The two WAGR (World Amateur Golf Ranking) selections are teenage Curtis Cup winner and English Women’s Amateur Champion Bronte Law (Bramhall) and in-form England international Hayley Davis (Ferndown), current English Women's Open Amateur Stroke Play Champion. Last week she won her second title on the US women’s college circuit at the annual Betsy Rawls Longhorn Invitational in Texas. 

The 2013 Scottish Girls Champion, Connie Jaffrey (Troon Ladies’), currently on a golf scholarship at Kansas State University, has earned her place in the team as the top eligible player from the LGU Order of Merit. She was runner-up in this year’s Helen Holm Scottish Open Stroke Play Championship.

Selectors also picked experienced Ireland international Leona Maguire and England’s Charlotte Thomas, both Curtis Cup players. Maguire has ranked as high as sixth in the WAGR rankings, and three years ago became the youngest-ever player to claim the British Ladies’ Open Stroke Play title, winning by six shots. 

Thomas is currently on a golf scholarship at the University of Washington in Seattle, where she became the first ‘Husky’ to win a tournament in her collegiate debut at Oregon State Invitational. In 2011, she won the inaugural ANNIKA Invitational at Mission Hills in China with a 10-under par at the first girls-only junior competition ever held in the country.

Leading them out will be Scotland’s Elaine Farquharson-Black, a former Curtis Cup and Vagliano Trophy player, non-playing Captain of Great Britain and Ireland for 2015 and 2016. She succeeds Tegwen Matthews who famously led the team to victory in the 2012 Curtis Cup at Nairn.

Background: The Astor Trophy is a round robin event held every four years. It originated when two Australian Ladies’ Golf Union delegates (Miss Jean Derrin and Miss Mollie McLeish) suggested to the Ladies’ Golf Union that a tournament should be conducted within the Commonwealth. The idea was first accepted by the LGU, and later by three other countries – Canada, South Africa and New Zealand - when they were approached in 1957.

 It officially began as the Commonwealth Tournament at St Andrews in 1959 when Great Britain won the trophy presented by Nancy, Viscountess Astor.  The competition is run over five days, with two foursomes and five singles matches each day.

Great Britain won the tournament the first five times it was played  - 1959 at St Andrews, 1963 at Royal Melbourne, 1967 at Hamilton (Canada), 1972 at Hamilton (New Zealand) and 1975 at Ganton, Yorkshire. Canada ended the monopoly by winning the sixth tournament in 1979 at Perth, Australia. 

Since then Great Britain has won the tournament on two more occasions: Northumberland Golf Club, England, in 1991 and at Royal Johannesburg Golf Club, South Africa, in 2007.

In 2011, Great Britain and Ireland won at Fairhaven, England. 

 

The GB and I Team members will also be given the opportunity to play in the Australian Amateur Championship which will be played at The Australian Golf Club and The Lakes Golf Club in Sydney in the week following the Astor Trophy from 20-25 January,