Leading Amateurs Tee Up in the Final Qualifying for


the 2010 Ricoh Women’s British Open


NEWS RELEASE ISSUED BY IMG
Six members of the 2010 GB and I Curtis Cup team will be among the top names to tee up in the 2010 Ricoh Women’s British Open Final Qualifying, to be staged at Hillside Golf Club, Southport, on Monday July 26.
Hannah Barwood (Knowle), Holly Clyburn (Woodhall Spa), Rachel Jennings (Isaak Walton), Sally Watson (Elie and Earlsferry Ladies’) and the 15-year-old Maguire twins, Leona and Lisa (Slieve Russell), will be competing against a strong field that also includes 2000 British Amateur champion Rebecca Hudson, 2009 European Solheim Cup team member Tania Elosegui, and former LPGA Tour winners, Laura Diaz, Louise Friberg and Julieta Granada.
They will also be joined by America’s Jill McGill, who won last year’s Final Qualifying at Fairhaven Golf Club and also by two other promising young amateurs, Hannah Burke (Mid-Herts) and Julie Yang (Kings Acre) who carded four under par rounds of 68 to head the field of 29 qualifiers from last week’s Ricoh Women’s British Open Pre-Qualifying at The Berkshire.
The field will comprise a total of 90 golfers from 27 different countries all of whom will be bidding to earn one of the 14 available places in the 2010 Ricoh Women’s British Open to be played at Royal Birkdale Golf Club on 29th July to 1st August.
Barwood, the 2008 English Women’s champion, Clyburn, the 2008 English Girls’ champion, and Jennings, the 2006 English Girls’ champion, have been three of their country’s most successful amateur golfers in recent years. Watson, who first came to the fore as a 13 year-old when she beat Carly Booth in the final of the 2005 Scottish Girls’ Championship, is now a successful competitor on the US collegiate circuit while the Maguire sisters became the youngest GB and I representatives to play in a Curtis Cup when they teed up at Essex County Club, Massachusetts, in June. Both will now be bidding to go one better than another 15-year-old, Lauren Taylor from Rugby, who carded a highly credible one over par 75 at last year’s Final Qualifying event but then lost out on a place in the main draw on the fifth hole of a sudden-death play-off against Swedish amateur, Caroline Hedwall.
Burke and Yang both came into the Pre-Qualifying event in fine form and so it was no surprise to see them finish one shot ahead of Victoria Italy’s Valvassori and Sarah Hassan from Wales and progress to the Final Qualifying at Hillside.
The English girl is currently on vacation from Baylor University in Texas and she has enjoyed considerable success since her return, winning the Irish Women’s Stroke Play Championship and the Astor Salver as well as helping her county, Hertfordshire, to progress to the Finals of the prestigious English County Match Week event.
Meanwhile, the South Korean, Yang, a product of the renowned Loretto Golf Academy in Edinburgh, won the recent Welsh Women’s Open Championship at Southerndown and the Paul Lawrie Scottish schoolgirls championship at Murrayshall.
Burke and Yang were two of a total of 13 amateurs who came through Pre-Qualifying at The Berkshire. The others were England’s Heidi Baek, Charlotte Dalton, Charley Hull, Sian James, Emma Sheffield, Jess Wilcox and Lucy Williams, French women Lucie Andre and Valentine Derrey, plus Welsh duo Amy Boulden and Tara Davies, and now all of them have a chance to claim a place in the main draw if they can reproduce that sort of form alongside the professionals at Hillside.
Arguably the most recognisable names in the draw for Final Qualifying are Spain’s Tania Elosegui and England’s Rebecca Hudson both of whom enjoyed successful amateur careers before turning professional and joining the Ladies European Tour.
Elosegui, a 28 year-old from San Sebastian, Spain, won two gold medals in the European Team Championships and a bronze medal in the 2002 World Championship in Malaysia before claiming her first LET title at last year’s ABN AMRO Ladies Open at Eindhovenische Golf Club in the Netherlands. That, plus a further three runner-up finishes, earned her a place in the European Solheim Cup team and she also teamed up with compatriot, Paula Marti, to finish sixth in the Communitat Valenciana European Nations Cup.
Hudson, 31, can lay claim to arguably the finest amateur career of the modern era. She won the 1997 French Under-21 Championship, the 2000 British, Spanish, Scottish, and English Stroke Play Championships, the 2001 British and English Match Play Championships, the 2002 British Stroke Play Championship as well as the Smyth Trophy, awarded to the leading amateur, at the 2001 Women’s British Open at Sunningdale before turning professional late in 2002.
Subsequently, she has won three times on the LET, at the 2006 OTP Bank Ladies Central European open in the Hungary, the 2008 Tenerife Ladies Open and the 2008 Ladies English Open as well as at the 2006 Acer SA Open on the South African Tour.
The qualifying will also include Moriya Jutanugarn from Thailand. At 15 years of age and no more than four feet 11 inches tall, she came out top Duke of York Young Champions Trophy last September, winning a special Ricoh invite into final qualifying draw.
This year’s Ricoh Women’s British Open has attracted its strongest ever field. With entries closed, all of the World’s Top 20 are in the field including world Number One, Cristie Kerr, defending Champion, Catriona Matthew, 2008 Champion Jiyai Shin and recent US Women’s Open Champion Paula Creamer.
For the first time this year fans will be able to watch the BBC’s extensive coverage of the Ricoh Women’s British Open in HD (high definition) underlining the significance of the Championship in the BBC’s sports portfolio.
The Ricoh Women’s British Open was founded by the LGU in 1976 and is staged in conjunction with IMG, the world’s largest sports marketing company. The event has been co-sanctioned by the LPGA and LET since 1994 and gained Major status in 2001.