ENGLAND SEND YOUNG PROSPECTS
FOR WARM WEATHER
TRAINING IN SPAIN

The English Women’s Golf Association has chosen four players from the regional select squads for warm weather training in Spain. They are Nottinghamshire’s Katie Best, picture right by courtesy of Tom Ward, from Select Midlands, Essex player Daisy Dyer from Select South East, Yorkshire’s Helen Searle from Select North and Devon’s Georgina Snow from Select South West.
The players have been picked for the training in recognition of their commitment and progress. They will spend five days at the La Cala resort, near Marbella, from February 18-22, and will work with EWGA coach Steve Robinson and EWGA physiotherapist Su Barry.
The teenagers will focus on fitness, the short game and course management before taking part in a match against the EWGA Under-18 squad, who will also be training at La Cala.
EWGA’s national training manager Claire Lilley said: “This is an intense week which will be extremely beneficial to the players’ golf development.”
Katie Best, 18, plays at Sherwood Forest Golf Club and was the runner-up in the 2007 English girls’ championship. She is the Nottinghamshire girls’ champion and a past winner of the Midland girls’ U18 championship and the Midland schools’ championship. Katie plays off one handicap. Daisy Dyer, 16, plays at Chigwell Golf Club. She is the Essex girls’ champion and also the winner of the girls’ county match-play title. Daisy took up golf four years ago and is already down to four handicap. Her aim for 2008 is: “To get down to scratch and win a big event.”
Helen Searle, 15, plays at West End Golf Club. Last season she represented England in the European Young Masters, when the mixed team won the silver medal. She also won the Northern girls’ Under-16 title, was runner-up in the Scottish Open Under-16 championship and played for England Schools against Scotland. Helen plays off three.
Georgina Snow, 17, is a member at Royal North Devon Golf Club. Her handicap has tumbled over the past three seasons, from 36 in 2005 to her present level of four. She has twice qualified for the final of the Abraham Trophy for England’s most improved girl golfers, while also making her mark in Devon and the south-west.
Steve Robinson, from Malton & Norton Golf Club in Yorkshire, coaches EWGA’s Performance and Select North squads.
Su Barry, from Kenilworth, is the Select Midlands’ physiotherapist.

NO NANNY IN THE TIGER

WOODS' HOUSEHOLD:

"TEAMWORK BETWEEN

ELIN AND MYSELF"

Do you think Tiger Woods wakes up in the middle of the night to feed his baby a bottle and change her nappies?
Well, he does!
Woods told the golf writers at Torrey Pines Golf Club in California last week that he and his wife, Elin, aren’t using a nanny and he shares in the night-time duties. Elin was at last week's tournament with Sam, their seven-month-old daughter.
“We’re probably going to (get a nanny) shortly, but we didn’t want to do that at the very beginning,” Woods said.
“This is our daughter. We wanted to experience it. We wanted to work through it. We wanted to do it ourselves. More than anything it was teamwork between Elin and myself.
"Some nights I take the all-nighter or she'll take the all-nighter, and that's how we did it. We never had nannies in our families. Elin's mother and dad had three kids within 13 months (Elin’s a twin), and my mom and my dad couldn't afford to have someone take care of me, so they were always there.
"That's how we wanted to raise Sam. Now things are getting a little more difficult. Elin is doing some school stuff now, so that's going to be a little bit more difficult now. But we do it ourselves. Sam cries at night, one of us gets it and gives her the bottle, whatever we need to do, and stay up.
"Sometimes it's two o'clock in the morning and you stay up for 26 hours, 28 hours, whatever it is. But when you love something so much, you do that. It's just normal.”

WIE ACCEPTS SPONSOR'S INVITATION
TO PLAY ON LPGA TOUR EVENT
ON HER NATIVE HAWAII

Fallen star Michelle Wie will begin her competitive golf year in Hawaii for the fifth straight year, this time against the women.
Wie has accepted a sponsor's exemption to play in the LPGA's The Fields Open at Ko Olina, hoping to get her career back on track after 2007 was marked injuries, missed cuts and withdrawls.
An 18-year-old first-year studged at Stanford University, California, Wie has started her year at the Sony Open on the US PGA Tour the last four years and nearly made the cut as a 14-year-old when she shot a 68.
But she has yet to make a cut in seven tries on the American men's tour, and she did not play the Sony Open this year, a sign that she plans to concentrate on the LPGA Tour while trying to regain her form.
The Fields Open, where Wie tied for third two years ago, is to be played from February 21 to 23 and is the second event on the LPGA schedule.
Wie injured both wrists last year and kept playing, making only three cuts and breaking par twice in 19 rounds against the women