Championships - Girls' International Matches 2008
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04.08.2008
New look Scotland Team trying to Extend Stroyan Cup Success
NEW-LOOK SCOTLAND TEAM TRYING
TO EXTEND STROYAN CUP SUCCESS
Only Carly Booth and Kelsey MacDonald are still under the 18 years age limit so Scotland’s all-conquering team in the Girls’ Home International matches of the past two years is a thing of the past.
The favourites, on paper, at Panmure Golf Club this week would be England on the strength of them reaching the final a few weeks ago of the European girls team championship at Murcar Links, about 70 miles due North of Carnoustie country. All four of the England team who lost to Sweden in the final – Hannah Barwood, Holly Clyburn, Rachel Connor and Kelly Tidy – form the backbone of their line-up.
Ireland came eighth in the European championship and there will be much interest in the 13-year-old Maguire twins, Lisa and Leona, who did so well at the recent European Young Masters at Chantilly, France.
Leona, the Irish girls champion, won the Young Masters’ girls title and Lisa was joint runner-up. The Maguires, Kelly Tidy (England) and Scotland’s Carly Booth all gained places in the European team for the Junior Ryder Cup match in Kentucky next month. Lisa Maguire is the Irish women’s champion and it must be unusual for two players in the Girls’ Home Internationals to hold the “grown-up” individual titles of their native countries. The second one in the Panmure parade of young stars is Hannah Barwood, the holder of the English women’s amateur title.
By general agreement, Scotland underachieved in finishing 17th in the European girls’ team championship at Murcar Links but individually they have run into some good form since then. Kelsey MacDonald won the Scottish Under-21 girls’ stroke-play championship at Powfoot and Carly Booth reached the last day of the Ladies’ English Open, a Ladies European Tour event, before flying to France and leading the European Young Masters’ girls field until the last round before finishing fourth.
Annabel Niven, who did not play at Murcar Links, earned a regional trophy in the R&A Junior Open, played over three windy days at Hesketh in Lancashire. Annabel’s older sister Roseanne was a member of the winning Scotland team last year.
Wales finished 16th in the European girls’ team championship and will be bidding to win the Stroyan Cup at Panmure for a second time in the 42-year history of the Under-18 girls’ international tournament. They won the title at High Post, Salisbury in Wiltshire in 1999.
Ireland have never won the girls’ team championship which has been dominated by England over the years.
When Scotland won in 2006 and 2007, they halted a successful six-in-a-row run by England.
Three members of the Great Britain & Ireland Curtis Cup team at the Old Course, St Andrews at the end of May – Carly Booth, Krystle Caithness and Sally Watson – played for the winning Scotland team over the past two years.
It’s a very safe bet to forecast that the several of the players in action at Panmure over the next three days will figure in the Curtis Cup matches of 2010 (at Essex Country Club, Massachusetts) or 2012 (at Nairn Golf Club).
This week’s programme of matches is:
TUESDAY
Wales v Scotland, Ireland v England.
WEDNESDAY
England v Scotland, Ireland v Wales.
THURSDAY
Scotland v Ireland, Wales v England.
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