LADIES GOLF UNON News Release
2010 GB & I CURTIS CUP SQUAD
The following players have been named in the GB & I squad as part of the preparation for the 36th Curtis Cup match which will be played at Essex County Club, Massachusetts from June 11 to 13, 2010.
Hannah BARWOOD (Knowle ) ENGLAND Age 19 Carly BOOTH (Comrie ) SCOTLAND Age 17 Amy BOULDEN (Maesdu) WALES Age 16 Gemma BRADBURY (Cottrell Park) WALES Age 18 Holly CLYBURN (Woodhall Spa) ENGLAND Age 18 Charlie DOUGLASS (Brocket Hall) ENGLAND Age 20 Jodi EWART (Catterick) ENGLAND Age 21 Lucy GOULD (Bargoed) WALES Age 22 Rachel JENNINGS (Izaak Walton) ENGLAND Age 21 Louise KENNEY (Pitreavie) SCOTLAND Age 26 Leona MAGUIRE (Slieve Russell) IRELAND Age 14 Lisa MAGUIRE (Slieve Russell) IRELAND Age 14 Danielle McVEIGH (Royal Co Down Ladies') IRELAND Age 22 Stephanie MEADOW (Royal Portrush ) IRELAND Age 17 Kelsey MacDONALD (Nairn Dunbar) SCOTLAND Age 18 Pamela PRETSWELL (Bothwell Castle) SCOTLAND Age 20 Kelly TIDY (Royal Birkdale) ENGLAND Age 17 Rhian Wyn THOMAS (Vale of Glamorgan) WALES Age 22 Kylie WALKER (Buchanan Castle) SCOTLAND Age 23 Sally WATSON (Elie & Earlsferry Ladies') SCOTLAND Age 18
Captain: Mary McKENNA (IRELAND). Team manager: Tegwen MATTHEWS (Wales).
One of the youngest Great Britain & Ireland squads for the biennial Curtis Cup match against the United States has been named by the Ladies' Golf Union. Eleven of the 20 players listed are teenagers, the youngest being the Maguire twins, Leona and Lisa, from Ballyconnel in Ireland's County Cavan. At the age of 14, the two Slieve Russell club members have already set an age record by appearing for GB&I in the Vagliano Trophy match at Hamburg on July 24 and 25 this year. They will celebrate their 15th birthdays in November which means, if selected for the May 2010 match, they will go into the record books alongside Carly Booth who was 15 when she became the youngest ever GB&I Curtis Cup team player at the 2008 match. (Michelle Wie, born October 10, 1989, was 14 when she played for the United States in the 2004 match on June 12-13 at Formby). Lisa Maguire is the 2009 Irish Ladies' Close Champion and also Irish Ladies' Open Stroke Play Champion. Both played in the European Junior Solheim Cup team in America and they were members of Ireland's winning team of four in the European Girls' Team Championship in Finland in early July. Leona beat Lisa in a memorable final of the 2008 Irish Ladies' Close Championship. This year Leona has won the Helen Holm Scottish Ladies' Open Amateur Stroke Play Championship at Troon (Lisa finished third) and the French Under-21 Open Championship. Another Irish youngster, Stephanie Meadow (Royal Portrush) is one of the selected players who are based in the United States for most of the college year. Stephanie, who will be 18 next January, was the Irish Girls' Champion in 2006 and was a member of the Irish Girls' team of four who won the European title earlier this year. Stephanie, a resident student at the Hank Haney International Golf Academy at Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, is among the front rank of girls who compete on the American Junior Golf Association circuit. The other 2010 Curtis Cup squad members with strong USA connections are Jodi Ewart from Catterick, Yorkshire, and Sally Watson, who hails from South Queensferry, Edinburgh but who now plays out of the Fife club, Elie & Earlsferry Ladies'. Teenager Sally, after several years at the David Leadbetter Golf Academy in Florida, enrolled on a golf scholarship in August at Stanford University, California, the alma mater of Tiger Woods and a former Curtis Cup Scot, Mhairi McKay. Twenty one year-old Jodi Ewart is now in her fourth and final year at the University of New Mexico where she is considered to be the best player ever to grace its female golf roster. A winner more than once on the American golf circuit, she has made an excellent start to the 2009-2010 college season, finishing runner-up in an event with the lowest 54-hole total she has ever had. Jodi Ewart, Sally Watson and 17-year-old Carly Booth all played for GB & I in the 2008 Curtis Cup match over the Old Course, St Andrews. The five other members of the home team have since turned professional. All nine members of the team who played the Continent of Europe in this summer's Vagliano Trophy have been named. The four Welsh players in the squad, Amy Boulden, Gemma Bradbury, Lucy Gould and Rhian Wyn Thomas will still be on a high from helping Wales win the Ladies' Home International Matches last week for the second year in a row. Gemma had an outstanding performance, winning five out of six matches in the three day tournament at Irvine Golf Club, Ayrshire. She was closely followed by Rhian who had four wins and a halved match and Amy with four points from four wins. Lucy Gould, Welsh Girls' Champion in 2002 and 2003, had three wins to her credit. Lucy has just completed four years playing on the US college circuit as a student at East Tennessee State University. Ireland's Danielle McVeigh, winner of the British Open Amateur Stroke Play Championship at Royal Aberdeen GC in August, played in America for two years as a student at Texas A&M University and is familiar with the different playing conditions in the USA. Danielle continues to study at the University of Ireland, Maynooth. England's six selections, with the exception of Kelly Tidy, formed the silver medal winning squad at this year's European Ladies' Team Championship at Bled, Slovenia. Kelly reached the final of the British Girls' Open Championship in 2007 and 2008 but was unable to play in this year's event as she was selected to play in the European Junior Solheim Cup team in America. Hannah Barwood was last year's English Ladies' Champion. Holly Clyburn is the current English Girls' and French Under-18 Open Champion. Left-hander Charlie Douglass is the English Ladies' Champion and has led the EWGA Order of Merit for most of the season. She was England's most successful player in the Ladies' Home Internationals with four wins. Rachel Jennings, who had three wins at the Home Internationals was runner-up to Danielle McVeigh in the Welsh Open Stroke Play Championship. Scotland's six includes Louise Kenney, Kylie Walker, Pamela Pretswell and Carly Booth who all finished in the top 10 of this year's British Open Stroke Play Championship. Kylie, the St Rule Trophy winner in 2008 and 2009, travelled to the European Ladies' Championship in Sweden with Pamela this summer where Kylie finished runner-up and Pamela joint fourth. Glasgow University student Pamela won the 2008 Swiss Ladies' Open Amateur Championship. The sixth Scot is Stirling University student Kelsey MacDonald who successfully defended the Scottish Junior Open Stroke Play title this year. England and Scotland both have six representatives in the squad while Ireland and Wales each have four players chosen. Ireland's Mary McKenna will be captaining the GB&I side for the fourth time in a row. She was Captain at the 2007 and 2009 Vagliano Trophy matches and also the 2008 Curtis Cup match. "I am really delighted with this very talented and young squad," said Mary. "It is a great incentive for the girls to work really hard over the winter to be ready for the early season selection. Playing the Curtis Cup in the US is a wonderful experience but needs extra preparation and commitment to challenge the Americans on their home ground." Mary remains the most successful Curtis Cup player for GB&I. She played in 17 biennial matches from 1970 to 1986, winning 10 and halving four of her 30 ties. Wales' Tegwen Matthews, who played in the 1974-76-78-80 Curtis Cup matches as Tegwen Perkins Thomas, continues in the important role of team manager.
TEAM SELECTION The GB&I team of eight for the 2010 Curtis Cup match will be selected on Sunday, April 25 following the Helen Holm Scottish Ladies' Open Amateur Stroke Play Championship at Troon. A player who have not been named in this preliminary squad, may still be selected for the 2010 team, and opportunities to show early season form are available at the following events;
The Orange Blossom Tour – Florida - January Portuguese Women's Open Amateur Championship, 28 -31 January. Hacienda del Alamo Winter Festival, Spain, 15 – 20 February. Spanish Women's Open Amateur Championship 3 – 7 March.
THE 2010 VENUE Essex County Golf Club will be staging the Curtis Cup match for the second time. It hosted the 1938 match in the days when only three foursomes and six singles – all over 36 holes were played. The Essex County Golf Club opened in 1893 but the course was redesigned by Donald Ross who emigrated to the States from Dornoch in 1899 and became one of America's leading golf course architects, responsible for Pinehurst 2, Seminole, Oak Hill and Oakland Hills. Ross was the Essex County Golf Club professional from 1910 to 1917 and it was during these years that he redesigned the course. The third green is claimed to be the oldest in America.
THE CURTIS CUP SISTERS The Curtis sisters, Harriot and Margaret, who donated the trophy, were the youngest of a affluent New England family. Their father had fought in the US Civil War and had built a summer house in Manchester, Massachusetts, close to the Essex County Club of which the Curtis family later became charter members. Thus a Curtis Cup match at this venue is of particular significance.
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