LADIES GOLF UNION NEWS RELEASE G B & I TEAM NAMED FOR CURTIS CUP MATCH AT ESSEX COUNTY CLUB, USA
Pamela Pretswell -- The 2009 West of Scotland Champion- now selected for the 2010 Curtis Cup Team
The Ladies’ Golf Union has chosen the following players to represent Great Britain & Ireland in the 36th Curtis Cup match against the United States at Essex County Club, Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts from June 11 to 13, 2010.
HANNAH BARWOOD Knowle GC England Age 19
HOLLY CLYBURN Woodhall Spa GC England Age 19
RACHEL JENNINGS Izaak Walton GC England Age 21
LEONA MAGUIRE Slieve Russell GC Ireland Age 15
LISA MAGUIRE Slieve Russell GC Ireland Age 15
PAMELA PRETSWELL Bothwell Castle GC Scotland Age 20 (21 on May 6)
DANIELLE McVEIGH Royal Co. Down Ladies’ Ireland Age 22
SALLY WATSON Elie & Earlsferry Ladies’ GC Scotland Age 18
Reserves:
1. KELSEY MACDONALD Nairn Dunbar GC Scotland Age 19
2. STEPHANIE MEADOW Royal Portrush GC Ireland Age 18
3. CHARLIE DOUGLASS Brocket Hall GC England Age 21
4. AMY BOULDEN Maesdu Wales Age 16
Team Captain: MARY McKENNA (Donabate GC, Ireland).
Team Manager TEGWEN MATTHEWS (Wales).
Only Sally Watson, now a student at Stanford University, California, survives from the Great Britain & Ireland team who played the historic 2008 match over the Old Course, St Andrews.
Six of the players selected to contest this 2010 Curtis Cup match gained international experience as part of the GB&I team which lost narrowly in last year’s Vagliano Trophy match at Hamburg.
Rachel Jennings, Pamela Pretswell, Sally Watson, twins Leona and Lisa Maguire and Danielle McVeigh will look forward to representing GB & I in June. They will be joined by two players who will gain their first Great Britain & Ireland team honours and England’s Hannah Barwood and Holly Clyburn, both aged 19 will be new faces in the GB & I line up. Hannah, winner of the English Women’s Amateur Championship in 2008, was a quarter-finalist in this year’s Spanish Ladies’ Open Amateur Championship and the French Under-21 Open Amateur Championship. She also finished joint third in the Helen Holm Scottish Ladies’ Open Amateur Championship at Troon at the weekend.
Holly, the English Girls’ Champion in 2008, was runner-up in this year’s Under-21 event in the Faldo Series Asia Grand Final in China, and has also won the Faldo Series Girls’ Championship in Brazil last autumn. She was also runner-up in the Dixie Women’s Amateur at the start of the year. Playing with Rachel Jennings, the 2006 English Girls’ Champion, Holly helped England to fourth place in the women’s event at the Spirit International in Texas last November.
Sally Watson has been competing in the United States for several years. She is coming to the end of her freshman year at Stanford University. Last week she was named to the All-Pac-10 women’s second team, having been a winner, in February, on the US women’s college circuit. She had four top-10 finishes and led the Stanford team in stroke average. She was a beaten finalist in the 2006 British Girls’ Championship, having come to the fore as a 13-year-old when she beat Carly Booth in the 2005 final of the Scottish Under-18 girls championship.
The other Scot in the Curtis Cup squad, Pamela Pretswell is in her junior honours year at Glasgow University and has played little competitive golf since last year’s Home International Matches at Irvine GC. Hamilton-based, Pamela won the 2008 Swiss Women’s Open Amateur Championship, coming from 11 shots in arrears on the final day to win the title.
Pamela did not switch to golf until 2003. Before that she had played tennis for Scotland and Great Britain, having taken part in a GB tennis demonstration on Wimbledon’s Centre Court when she was 12.
Danielle McVeigh’s victory in the ‘Helen Holm’ at Troon on Sunday was her second big win on a Scottish links within a year. She won the Ladies’ British Open Amateur Stroke Play title at Royal Aberdeen last autumn when she again came with a strong late run. She also won the Welsh Open Amateur Stroke Play title in 2009.
Danielle is a member of the Paddy Harrington Golf Scholarship programme at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth where she is a second year student, studying Business and Management. She played for two years on the US college circuit as a student at Texas A&M. McVeigh won the World Student Women’s title in Thailand in 2007.
The Maguire twins, Leona and Lisa, make their Curtis Cup debuts at the age of 15, having set an age record when they appeared at the age of 14 in the GB&I team for last summer’s Vagliano Trophy match.
They will become the youngest GB&I representatives to play in a Curtis Cup. Carly Booth set the age record when she had her 16th birthday on June 2, the day after the 2008 Curtis Cup match finished at St Andrews. The Maguire girls will not be 16 until November 30 so they have the edge by several months over Carly.
The youngest ever player to compete in the Curtis Cup was Michelle Wie who was 14 when she was a member of the United States team at Formby in 2004.
Leona retained the French Under-21 Girls’ Open title earlier this month. Lisa won both the Irish Open Amateur Stroke Play and the Irish Ladies’ (Close) Amateur Championship last year and had won the Helen Holm Scottish Ladies’ Open Amateur Stroke Play title in 2008. Leona beat Lisa in the final of the Irish Ladies’ (Close) Amateur Championship in 2008. The twins helped Ireland win the European Girls’ team title last year and both played for Europe in the Junior Solheim Cup match in America. They were also members of the European team for the Junior Ryder Cup of 2008. They are third year students at Loretto College, Cavan.
GB&I team captain Mary McKenna played in nine Curtis Cup matches between 1970 and 1986 and, in terms of winning individual and foursomes ties, is the most successful GB&I player in Curtis Cup history.
“I am delighted with the team and it is a very good mix of experience and youth. They have all played overseas on in America at some time, so that’s a big plus factor as well. I am looking forward to it,” said Mary McKenna today.
This will be the 36th Curtis Cup match. United States have won 25, Great Britain & Ireland seven, and there have been three drawn matches.
GB&I’s last Curtis Cup victory was at Killarney in 1996 when they won 11 ½-6 ½. They retained the trophy with a drawn match (9-9) at Chattanooga in 1994, having been the winners at Royal Liverpool in 1992.
United States have won the last six – Minikahda (1998), Ganton (2000), Fox Chapel (2002), Formby (2004), Bandon Dunes (2006) and St Andrews (2008).
This will be the first Curtis Cup match in the United States under the three-day format which was introduced at St Andrews in 2008.
Essex County Club was the home club of the Curtis sisters, Harriot and Margaret, and previously hosted the Curtis Cup match in 1938 and a large number of supporters will be making their way across the Atlantic to support the team.
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