Fraser Munro of the Ladies Golf Union, Europe's Solheim Cup skipper Alison Nicholas and GB&I Vagliano Trophy team captain Mary McKenna with the nine players selected to play against the Continent of Europe (image by courtesy of the LET website).

Alison Nicholas presents GB&I Vagliano Trophy team

with their international caps at Portmarnock

FROM THE LADIES EUROPEAN TOUR WEBSITE

By BETHAN CUTLER
The 2009 European Solheim Cup Captain, Alison Nicholas, presented the seven new Great Britain & Ireland players, in the team of nine selected for the Vagliano Trophy, with their international caps in a special ceremony at Portmarnock Links, ahead of the AIB Ladies Irish Open.
All nine members of the team, who are due to play against the Continent of Europe at Hamburg Golf Club, Germany, on Friday 24th and Saturday 25th July, attended the presentation.
They were then treated to a team talk by Nicholas, who was invited by the GB&I captain, Mary McKenna, with manager Tegwen Matthews and an LGU representative, Fraser Munro, by her side.
On Thursday, the team will play a practice round at Killeen Castle, venue for the 2011 Solheim Cup, following a round at Portmarnock Links on Wednesday. They will tee up in the AIB Ladies Irish Open, supported by Fáilte Ireland, on Friday.
McKenna said: " We enjoyed a nice, easy, relaxed practise round at Portmarnock and it’s a fabulous golf course. It’s a fantastic opportunity for the girls to play in this event and we appreciate the invitations. It’s a great experience for them to test themselves against the best. "

The GB&I Vagliano team is:
JODI EWART (Catterick), Age 21
RACHEL JENNINGS (Izaak Walton), Age 20
LEONA MAGUIRE (Slieve Russell), Age 14
LISA MAGUIRE (Slieve Russell), Age 14
DANIELLE McVEIGH (Royal Co Down Ladies), Age 21
PAMELA PRETSWELL (Bothwell Castle), Age 20
RHIAN WYN THOMAS (Vale of Glamorgan), Age 22
KYLIE WALKER (Buchanan Castle), Age 22
SALLY WATSON (Elie & Earlsferry), Age 17
Making history as the youngest ever to be selecte

d to play for the combined Great Britain & Ireland team are the 14-year-old twins from County Cavan in Ireland, Lisa and Leona Maguire.
Leona will play with England’s Laura Davies and France’s Jade Schaeffer in the first two rounds of the tournament, while Lisa will play with Swede Maria Hjorth and Frenchwoman Anne-Lise Caudal.

Scottish champion Megan Briggs wins all six Strathaven ties

We are the champions! Renfrewshire team with the West Division championship trophy. Image by courtesy of Carol Fell.

Renfrewshire rule the

West Division again

Renfrewshire beat Dunbartonshire & Argyll 6 1/2-2 1/2 in the decisive match between the two teams with 100 per cent records going into the final day of the West Division women's inter-county team golf championship at Strathaven Golf Club today.
That meant Renfrewshire topped the table for the second year in a row and will go to Baberton Golf Club, Edinburgh in September (19-21) as West's representatives in the four-cornered contest for the Scottish women's county championship.
Ayrshire came back from losing the foursomes 2-1 to beat Lanarkshire 5-4 in the battle between the teams who had lost both their first two matches.
Renfrewshire had the player of the tournament in Scottish champion Megan Briggs (Kilmacolm), pictured above, winner of all six foursomes and singles ties she played. In the final set of singles, Megan beat former Curtis Cup player and past champion Anne Laing (Vale of Leven) by 2 and 1. It was Anne's first singles defeat of the tournament.
Renfrewshire had the strength in depth their rivals lacked. Clare-Marie Carlton (Fereneze) was close behind Megan Briggs in the points table, earning 5 1/2 out of a possible six.
Jill Meldrum (Dullatur) top scored for runners-up Dunbartonshire with 4 1/2pt.
Final placings - 1 Renfrewshire 6pt, 2 Dunbartonshire & Argyll 4pt, 3 Ayrshire 2pt, 4 Lanarkshire 0pt.

Wednesday match details:

DUNBARTONSHIRE & ARGYLL 2 1/2, RENFREWSHIRE 6 1/2
Foursomes (1-2)

Anne Laing & Jill Meldrum lost to Eilidh Briggs & Megan Briggs 5 and 4

Nichola Ferguson & Lorraine Campbell bt Donna Jackson & Liz Stewart 1 hole

Suzanne Cadden & Laura McGeachy lost to Clare-Marie Carlton & Gillian Kyle 3 and 2
Singles (1 1/2-4 1/2)

Laing lost to Megan Brggs 2 and 1

Ferguson lost to Carlton 6 and 4

Meldrum halved with Eilidh Briggs

Cadden lost to Jackson 6 and 5

McGeachy lost to Kyle 3 and 2

Helen Faulds bt Carol Whyte 7 and 5

LANARKSHIRE 4, AYRSHIRE 5
Foursomes (2-1)

Fiona Norris & Susan Wood bt Lesley Hendry & Rachael McQueen 1 hole

May Hughes & Lesley Lloyd bt Jenny Linklater & Alex Glennie 1 hole

Elaine Cuthill & Joanna Scott lost to Audrey Thompson & Liz Keohone 3 and 2
Singles (2-4)

Norris bt Hendry 1 hole

Wood lost to Catherine Malcolm 3 and 1

Cuthill lost to Thompson 1 hole

Scott lost to McQueen 1 hole

Ruth Rankin lost to Linklater 4 and 2

Angela Devine lost to Lesley Williamson 1 hole

Euro Junior Cup at three Fife courses,

Charleton, Crail, Ladybank July 29-31

Perhaps the most notable international event the International Junior Golf Tour competes in each year is the Euro Junior Golf Cup, formerly known as the World Junior Golf Cup.
Players will travel to Fife and compete on three challenging links and parkland style courses, ultimately providing the opportunity to make some history of their own at the home of golf. Developed in 1998, juniors from three countries - the IJGT's Team USA, Canadian Junior Golf Association's Team Canada, and the Fife Golf Union's Team Scotland - play in a Triangular Cup match-play format for the John Clark Trophy
The competition courses are:
Charleton Golf Club. Set in stunning parkland with spectacular panoramic views over the Firth of Forth, is acclaimed to be the most attractive golf course in Fife. Proving to be a challenge to ones short game Charleton is most known for its difficult greens.
Crail Golf Club (Craighead Links). One of the world's oldest golf clubs, Crail Golfing Society was founded in February 1786 and initially comprised membership of 11 local golfers. Craighead Links has panoramic seascape and stunning country views. Crail poses a testing but fair challenge, however be warned - there are hungry bunkers aplenty. No two consecutive holes face the same direction and with constantly changing conditions, there is enough of a variety of shots to test any golfer’s ability.
Ladybank Golf Club. A course of championship status (Par 71) set among heather, pine trees and silver birch. The course definition may have changed dramatically in the intervening one hundred years but its character remains intact. If you stray off line expect to be punished for your sins. Ladybank is also well acclaimed due to their involvement with many prestigious events.
The event will run from July 29 to 31.

Angus Cappi makes it

five in a row for

Kirriemuir coach

Karyn Dallas

Angus Cappi’s win in the Golf Data Lab Scottish youths championship at the weekend meant that for five straight years a player coached by Kirriemuir Golf Club professional Karyn Dallas, pictured above, had won either a Scottish or British championship.
In the early days as a female coach Karyn was often frustrated at the lack of male players coming for coaching but over the past two years things have changed and the victory by Carnoustie Golf Club member Cappi hid the fact that another Dallas-coached player, William Bremner from Edzell, finished two shots behind in third position.
The girls on Dallas’s programme are showing what can be achieved with two earning tour cards and in the recent fifth place for Pamela Feggans in the Ladies Portuguese Open.
Dallas now has four boys and four girls on her elite programme and is expecting three to head for tour school this year.
Dallas, one of the few coaches ever to graduate from the PGA with an “A” for swing knowledge, was frustrated by criticism early in her career for being too simplistic and not placing enough emphasis on swing development.
Karyn always refuted this, pointing out that some of the best players in the world have unusual swings and that a coach had to be able to adapt to the players and not the other way around if the players were to maximise their potential.
Who can disagree? Her achievements speak for themselves but Karyn is keen to point out that there is much still to be done.
For more information on Karyn Dallas’s work you can visit her website http://www.tg54.com/

Galloway win South Division title
Galloway won the South Division women's inter-county team championship and will be heading for Baberton Golf Club, Edinburgh as one of the four qualifiers for the Scottish women's county championship finals.
Galloway finished on 10.5 points, Dumfriesshire 8.5 points and Borders 8 points at Wigtownshire Golf Club.
Results of matches:
Galloway bt Dumfries-shire 5.5 to 3.5.
Dumfries-shire bt Borders 5 -4.
Galloway bt Borders 5 - 4.

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Lorena Ochoa looking to recover form

with new caddie

It's been a few weeks since Lorena Ochoa, the world's No 1 female golfer, won a tournament so what does she do about it?
Change her caddie, of course! Isn't he the guy who gives her the clubs and she's the one who actually uses them?
The 26-time LPGA Tour winner is switching to veteran Greg Johnston starting next week at the Jamie Farr Classic in Ohio.
Ochoa won two majors and reached No. 1 in the world with Englishman David Brooker as her bag man, but she said yesterday that they are parting because of a new phase in her career.
She did not elaborate on what would be happening in the "new phase."
"It's not easy to let him go knowing he is such a great caddie and person," Ochoa said.
Johnston spent a dozen years working for Juli Inkster, and together they won 20 times, inclduing four majors. He left Inkster to work for Michelle Wie when she was 15 and had at least a share of the lead on the back nine of three majors. He also has worked for Britanny Lincicome, Suzanne Pettersen and Angel Park.

BETH BALDY WRITES ON THE GOLFWEEK WEBSITE:
Lorena Ochoa has fired David Brooker, her caddie of nearly three years.
Brooker fractured his ankle during an organised soccer match at the Corona Championship in April and tried to make a comeback two weeks ago at the McDonald’s LPGA Championship. He carried the bag for one round before enlisting the help of long-time caddie Greg Johnston to finish the week.
Ochoa now has hired Johnston full-time.
“It came as a shock to me because I haven’t really been working lately,” said Brooker, who hoped to make his return in July at the Evian Masters. “Things seemed fine before my injury. Obviously that didn’t help the situation.”
Ochoa won twice with Brooker on the bag this season, first in Thailand and then in Mexico, although her instructor, Rafael Alarcon, worked the final round of the Corona after Brooker’s injury.
Brooker, 35, of England, began working with Ochoa in August 2006, and they won their first week together at the Wendy’s Championship for Children. Ochoa won 21 of 58 events with Brooker on the bag.
“I know Lorena is going through a lot of changes right now,” Brooker said. “But I didn’t think one would be me.”

Stephanie Kono leads US Public Links qualifiers

Stephanie Kono made six birdies Tuesday in a four-under-par 68 to earn medalist (leading qualifier) honours at the US Women’s Amateur Public Links championship.
The 19-year-old Kono, who completed her freshman year at UCLA in the spring, ended the stroke-play qualifying at Red Tail Golf Club in Devens, Massachusetts at six-under 138.
Annie Park, 14, is second at 139.
Also moving into match play are USC stand-outs Lizette Salas (T-8) and Golfweek’s Women’s Player of the Year Jennifer Song (T-12), 2006 U.S. Women’s Amateur champion Kimberly Kim (T-25), and Auburn All-Americans Cydney Clanton (T-8) and Candace Schepperle (T-29).
Song was last year’s runner-up. Salas was last year’s joint leading qualifier for the match-play stages.
LEADING QUALIFIERS.
Par 144 (2x72) 6,627yd
1. Stephanie Kono 70-68--138
2. Annie Park 70-69--139
3. Whitney Neuhauser 71-69--140
4. Brittany Altomare 71-70--141
4. Alice Kim 69-72--141
4. Joanna Coe 70-71--141
4. Caroline Kim 72-69--141
8. Lizette Salas 68-74--142
8. Cydney Clanton 69-73--142
8. Sara-Maude Juneau 69-73--142
8. Leanne Bowditch 71-71--142
Sixty-four qualifiers down to and including 152

Beaten finalists Cults Academy (left to right): V Powell, R Polson, E Robertson, J Pryde, C Sutherland, R Yule.

Champions Aberdeen Grammar School (left to right): Back - A Burr, A Anderson, N Macandrew (holding trophy), W Rennie, C Johnstone, L Kinnear. Front - deputy head teacher Helen Innes, invited into the picure by the players in recognition of her hard work behind the scenes (images by courtesy of Derek Johnstone).

Grammar School beat Cults Academy

to win Aberdeen Schools League

By DEREK JOHNSTONE
Aberdeen Grammar School claimed the Aberdeen Schools’ League Trophy after a narrow 2-1 win over Cults Academy at a mist-shrouded Hazlehead No 1 course last night.
It was the experienced Grammar School team’s third win in five years, having previously won the trophy in 2005 and 2007. Nick Macandrew, in captaining his team to victory, became the first player in the history of the competition to gain three winners’ medals.
Nick, partnered by William Rennie, set the foundation to the victory with a two-hole victory over Evan Robertson and Calum Sutherland. In a tight affair the Grammar pair found themselves one down after six holes, but birdies at 9 and 11 put them in the ascendancy.
The Cults pairing drew level at the 15th, where both Grammar players lost a ball in the trees, but immediately fell behind at the next to Nick’s tap-in birdie. The 17th was halved in birdies before a conceded par at the last gave the Grammar duo a two-hole win.
An overall Grammar victory was assured when their third pairing of Cameron Johnstone and Ashley Anderson proved too strong for Ross Yule and Vicki Powell. The Cults pairing got off to a flyer by winning the first with a par. However their joy was short-lived as the Grammar pairing fought back to be two up after eight holes. Birdies at 9 and 10 extended their lead, and, with pars at the remaining holes, they closed out the match on the 15th.
The final tie proved to be a tense affair before the Cults pairing of Rachel Polson and Jamie Pryde scraped through by one hole against Lewis Kinnear and Andrew Burr. Never behind in the tie and two up after six holes, Rachel and Jamie could not shake off their dogged opponents. The Grammar pairing levelled the tie with pars at 14 and 15 before Jamie holed from 10 feet for birdie on the next. Pars at the last 2 holes secured a hard-fought victory.
Match details:
CULTS ACADEMY 1, ABERDEEN GRAMMAR SCHOOL 2
Cults names first
E Robertson & C Sutherland lost to N Macandrew & W Rennie 2 holes
J Pryde & R Polson beat L Kinnear & A Burr 1 hole.
R Yule & V Powell lost to C Johnstone & A Anderson 4 & 3