World-class field for "British" at Dundonald 

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LADIES GOLF UNION NEWS RELEASE

Five of the victorious Great Britain and Ireland Curtis Cup team at Dun Laoghaire are in the capacity field of 144 for the 113th staging of the Ladies' British Open Amateur Championship which will be played at Dundonald Links, Ayrshire in Scotland from Tuesday to Saturday, June 21 to 25, 2016.
Bronte Law (Bramhall), the first GB and I player to win all five ties since the Curtis Cup was extended to three days in 2008, is certainly among the favourites to win the Challenge Cup and Pam Barton Memorial Salver, but team-mates Leona Maguire (Slieve Russell), Olivia Mehaffey (Royal County Down Ladies’), Alice Hewson (Berkhamsted) and Meghan MacLaren (Wellingborough) will also go into the Ladies Golf Union's flagship event for amateurs full of confidence.
Maguire won the Doris Chambers Trophy by heading the 64 qualifiers for the match-play stages at Portstewart Golf Club, Northern Ireland last year. Leona had a brilliant aggregate of 11-under-par 135 for the 36-hole stroke-play eliminator that opens the programme on the Tuesday and Wednesday. Mehaffey won the Springbok Trophy by reaching the semi-finals 12 months ago and was the only British or Irish player to make it to the last four.

The tournament has been dominated by Continental players since the turn of the century with only two all-British finals in that period - Rebecca Hudson versus Emma Duggleby in 2000 and Kelly Tidy against Kelsey MacDonald in 2010.
Over the last 16 years there have been only five successes by British or Irish players: Rebecca Hudson (2000 & 2002), Kelly Tidy (2010), Lauren Taylor (2011) and Georgia Hall (2013).
Last year's winner, Celine Boutier from Paris, will not be defending the title but last year’s runner up, Linnea Strom (Sweden) will be bidding to go one better this year.

One of the United States' Curtis Cup team at Dun Laoghaire, Monica Vaughn, a 21-year-old from Oregon and a student at Arizona State University, has stayed on to play at Dundonald Links. She is world ranked No 15. Monica Vaughn won three of her five matches in this year's Curtis Cup contest.

Five of the world's top 11 female amateur golfers are in the field for promises to be a great week of golf at Dundonald Links - No 2 Leona Maguire, No 4 Bronte Law, No 7 Linnea Strom (Sweden), No 8 Olivia Mehaffey, No 10 Luna Sobron, the Spaniard who lost to a late hole in one by Georgia Hall in the 2010 final at Machynys Peninsula, South Wales, and No 11 Switzerland's Albane Valenzuela.

 

VIEW FULL LIST OF COMPETITORS

 
THE VENUE
Ayrshire is famous for its championship-class links. Designed by the same man that fashioned Kingsbarns, Kyle Phillips, Dundonald Links opened in 2003 and it has not taken long for the course to climb into the golf magazine's top 100 in the UK and Ireland.
Dundonald Links has played host to a number of professional and amateur tournaments and is owned by Loch Lomond Golf Club

 

The course is located just 10 minutes from Prestwick Airport, half an hour from Glasgow, and an hour and a half from Edinburgh Airport.

 

Further information about the LGU and the Championship is available on www.lgu.org.