Championships - Girls' British Open Amateur Championship 2009
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09.08.2009
Quality field assembles at West Lancs for British Girls' Championship
Only 144 players out of a record entry of more than 200 can play in the Girls’ British Open championship at West Lancashire Golf Club from August 10 to 14, 2009.Another record is how low a handicap (3.5 or less) a competitor needed to get into the field without going on the waiting list and hoping for others players to withdraw for one reason or another.
The size of the field is determined by the maximum figure (144) who can play two stroke-play qualifying rounds on the Monday and Tuesday to determine the 64 qualifiers for the match-play stages which run through from Wednesday morning to Friday afternoon’s 18-hole final.
Five members of the European squad for the Junior Solheim Cup match against the United States, to be played in Illinois the following week, are in the field for the Girls’ British Open. They have confirmed their entries and will fly out to America after the championship is over at West Lancashire Golf Club.
They are two Spanish players, Ana Fernandez de Mesa from Cadiz and Anna Arrese, winner of the Spanish women’s and girls’ championships this year, from Barcelona, as well as Tonje Daffinrud from Norway, Germany’s Sophia Popov, and Rosanna Crepiat of France.
Given the outstanding record of Continental players in the Ladies' Golf Union’s flagship event for girls who were under 18 years of age at 00.01hr on January 1, 2009, Ana, Anna, Tonje, Sophia and Rosanna must rank among the favourites to succeed Belgium’s Laura Gonzalez-Escallon, winner of the title at Monifieth Links last August.
Ana Fernandez de Mesa disputed the lead in the recent Ladies' European Tour event, the Spanish Women’s Open, until the final round. Twelve months ago she had the same qualifying score as No 1 seed and ultimate champion Laura Gonzalez-Escallon, at Monifieth and reached the last 16.
Since Scotland’s Mhairi McKay, now a professional on the LPGA Tour, won the Girls’ British Open in 1992 and 1993, only two British or Irish players have won the title – Scotland’s Clare Queen in 2001 and Henrietta Brockway in 2007.
In the absence of the 14-year-old Maguire twins, Leona and Lisa, who are playing in the Junior Solheim Cup match, Ireland’s leading hope in the Girls’ British Open may well be their new girls’ champion Emma O’Driscoll (Ballybunion).
Anna Arrese played for the European team in last year’s Junior Ryder Cup match in Kentucky. So too did Curtis Cup player Carly Booth (Comrie) who failed to make the 64 qualifiers for the match-play at Monifieth last year and will be pulling out all the stops to ensure that does not happen again at the West Lancashire venue.
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