Sally Watson, the only GB&I squad member to play in the
2008 Curtis Cup, likely has earned a return visit this year.
LEWINE;MAIR
The wind was flapping and, inwardly at
least, so were some of those GB&I Curtis
Cup hopefuls playing in the weekend’s 54-
hole Helen Holm Trophy at Royal Troon.
The pressure was way beyond the norm in
that this was their last chance to impress
before the selectors finalised the side
for Boston. The team is to be announced
today, Monday.
“I’ve got my fingers crossed because
it’s now or never as far as I’m concerned,”
said England’s
Holly;Clyburn
after
crunching a practice drive down the 13th.
With still no traffic taking off from Prest-
wick Airport because of the volcanic ash,
Clyburn’s drive was the nearest thing to a
long-haul flight.
Lisa
and
Leona;Maguire
, the 15-year-
old Irish twins who were playing behind,
had nothing to worry about. This gifted
pair’s results would have had them safely
aboard the side almost before anyone
else. “They have this extraordinary focus,”
said
Isabel;Crawford
from the selection
panel. “Other teenagers tend to have great
days and not so great, but the twins are
able to produce consistently good golf.”
By way of drawing attention to the
youngsters’ extraordinary powers of con-
centration, Crawford recalled the last day
of the ’09 Helen Holm. Leona was ahead
but was being chased by
Kelsey;Mac-
Donald
, who, like the Maguires, had been
named on the 16-strong Curtis Cup squad.
“When Kelsey was playing,” said Craw-
ford, “I never saw Leona watch her swing.
She just looked down at the grass and
stayed focused on what she had to do.”
Sally;Watson
, the only squad member
to have played in the ’08 match, is another
who should be getting a confirmatory call
today, as should
Danielle;McVeigh
, win-
ner of last year’s British Women’s Open
Stroke-Play championship.
Two more would have been feeling 50
percent confident on the strength of their
performances in last year’s Vagliano match
versus the Continent.
Rachel;Jennings
was
in this category, as was
Pamela;Pretswell
.
Jennings, a former English Girl champion,
finished second in last year’s English Order
of Merit. Pretswell, for her part, has a
Swiss Amateur title to her name.
Now for the last two places. The selec-
tors had to be drawn to MacDonald, a
teenager who is bang in form. The Stirling
University student won the Hacienda del
Alama Open earlier this year and from
there went on to finish second overall in
the R&A’s Scholars’ tournament. This was
a mixed championship in which her clos-
ing 68 over St Andrews’ Castle Course was
the low round of the week.
This correspondent’s feeling is that
the selectors, along with
Mary;McKenna
,
the captain, were poised to talk long into
last night about the respective merits of
Clyburn,
Charlie;Douglas
, the ’09 English
champion, and two Welsh players in
Tara
Davies
and
Gemma;Bradbury
. Davies and
Bradbury played on the Welsh team which
came out on top in last year’s Women’s
Home Internationals.
COMMENT;ON
OR
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