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The Ladies European Tour has announced a three-year partnership with the La Manga Club for the Spanish resort to host the tour’s Qualifying School.
La Manga has hosted the LET Q-School five times, most recently in January 2020 when Wales’ Amy Boulden topped the leaderboard before claiming her maiden tour title at the VP Bank Swiss Ladies Open later the same year.
Anna Nordqvist, Caroline Masson, Caroline Hedwall and Jodi Ewart Shadoff were previous medallists in 2008-11 and all have since represented Europe in the Solheim Cup.
“We are so grateful that La Manga Club has provided the opportunity for the next generation of talented international players to compete to become part of the LET (and providing) the platform to achieve their dreams,” LET chief executive officer Alexandra Armas said.
La Manga Club’s North and South courses will stage the four-round Pre-Qualifying Stage on 9-12 December, and five-round Final Stage on 16-20 December.
Germany’s Helen Briem and Savannah De Bock of Belgium head a list of five players added to the European Junior Solheim Cup team for the match against Team USA at the Sylvania Country Club in Toledo, Ohio, 1-2 September.
Briem and De Bock finished first and second in the recent European Young Masters at Vierumäki Golf Club in Finland, and are late additions to the European team together with Italy’s Francesca Fiorellini, France’s Vairana Heck and Denisa Vodickova from the Czech Republic.
Seven players – Amalie Leth-Nissen (Denmark), Constance Fouillet (France), Paula Schulz-Hanssen (Germany), Spanish pair Andrea Revuelta and Cayetana Fernádez, and Sweden’s Meja Örtengren and Nora Sundberg – had already been named to the European team.
No British or Irish players have made the team for the second time in the last three matches, although COVID-19 restrictions this year have made travelling to Continental Europe difficult for GB&I players.
“We have now selected all the players,” European captain Annika Sörenstam said. “We have a young and talented team from eight different countries and I look forward to being their captain.
“The Ping Junior Solheim Cup team is such a fun event and we look forward to competing against Team USA with captain Renee Powell and her players in Toledo.”
Oscar-winning actor Mark Rylance is to star in a film telling the story of Maurice Flitcroft, a crane operator from Barrow-in-Furness who duped the R&A into allowing him to play in qualifying for the 1976 Open Championship despite never having played on a golf course before. His only previous golf experience was hitting balls on a beach near his home in Cumbria.
“The Phantom of the Open,” based on an eponymous book by Scott Murray and Simon Farnaby, is being distributed in the UK by eOne and will be shown in cinemas from 5 November. It is directed by actor and filmmaker Craig Roberts, from a screenplay by Farnaby. Sony Picture Classics will distribute it in North America, Thailand, France and China.
Flitcroft secured his place in Open history at Formby Golf Club ahead of the 1976 Open at Royal Birkdale. He racked up a first-round score of 49-over-par 121 before being asked to leave the course and then banned from future championships. He tried, unsuccessfully, to enter several subsequent Opens using pseudonyms such as Gene Paychecky, Arnold Palmtree, Count Manfred von Hoffmenstal and James Beau Jolley.
“I have been insulted, abused, pelted with stones, manhandled by police and finally physically assaulted,” he said at the time. “In spite of it all I shall continue to try to be a professional golfer, and no amount of sabre rattling is going to stop me.”
Flitcroft died, aged 78, in 2007.
The top three Americans in the women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking as of July 21 earned places on the 2021 U.S. Curtis Cup team, the USGA announced. No. 1 Rose Zhang, No. 2 Rachel Heck and No. 12 Allisen Corpuz will compete in the 41st Curtis Cup match against a female team from GB&I on 26-28 August at Conwy Golf Club in Wales.
Zhang is the reigning U.S. Women’s Amateur and U.S. Girls Junior champion. Earlier this year, Stanford freshman Heck became the third player in women’s college golf history to sweep conference (Pacific 12), regional (Stanford Regional) and national titles (NCCAs). In 2008, recent University of Southern California graduate Corpuz surpassed fellow Hawaiian Michele Wie as the youngest qualifier in U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links history at 10 years, three months and nine days.
“The level of talent in the women's amateur game has never been stronger,” said U.S. team coach Sarah Ingram. “Rose, Rachel and Allisen have all had unbelievably impressive years, with notable accomplishments at the junior, amateur and collegiate levels, and we're honored and fortunate to have them a part of the USA Team.”
The remaining five players will be chosen by the USGA’s International Team Selection working group prior to the three-day competition. The winner of the 2021 U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship, played 2-8 August at Westchester Country Club in Rye, New York, will also receive an automatic selection, if American.
The 12th Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship is set to return this November after a year’s absence caused by the global pandemic.
The 2021 tournament will be played over the Championship course at Dubai Creek Golf and Yacht Club on 3-6 November. It marks the first time the event will be played in the United Arab Emirates, one of 42 member countries which form the Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation.
APGC chairman Taimur Hassan Amin, Masters chairman Fred Ridley, and R&A CEO Martin Slumbers said in a joint statement: “This year’s historic win at the Masters Tournament by Hideki Matsuyama, a two-time Asia-Pacific Amateur champion, underscores the importance of this event as a platform for the game’s development and rising talent in the region. We are grateful for the support of the Emirates Golf Federation and Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club and we are committed to working closely with all involved to stage this year’s championship with responsible protocols in place so we can provide this life-changing opportunity safely to these deserving players.”
The Asia-Pacific Amateur winner earns exemptions into the Masters and The Open, while the runner(s)-up gain a place in Final Qualifying for The Open.
Fresh from making the cut at The Open, China's Lin Yuxin – winner of the AAC in 2017 and 2019 – will be bidding to become the championship’s first three-time winner. "It's a wonderful tournament that has given me the opportunity to play in both the Masters and The Open, for which I'm very grateful," said the left-hander who ranks No. 16 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking.
Solheim Cup organisers have announced that a BMW Celebrity Match will be held on eve of this year’s transatlantic contest at the Inverness Club in Ohio.
The inaugural Celebrity Match is scheduled for the afternoon of Thursday 2 September. It will feature two teams competing in a scramble format. One of the captains will be Grammy award-winning country artist Darius Rucker. Solheim Cup veterans Juli Inkster and Morgan Pressel and former NFL defensive lineman Mike Golic are among other celebrities signed.
The Trophée Hassan 11 and the Nedbank Golf Challenge have become the latest European Tour events to be cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The events were to be played at Royal Golf Dar Es Salam, Morocco, on 21-24 October and the Gary Player Country Club, Sun City, South Africa, on 11-14 November. The LET’s Lalla Meryem Cup, which was to be played in tandem with the Trophée Hassan 11, has also been scrapped.
Announcing the cancellation of the Nedbank Golf Challenge, Nedbank’s Group Chief Executive Mike Brown said: “The current COVID environment in South Africa is extremely challenging and we feel that to host a tournament of the magnitude and prestige of the Nedbank Golf Challenge would not be feasible or prudent.
“This is Africa’s major and it means so much to so many people,” he added. “It would simply not be possible to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Nedbank Golf Challenge in an appropriate manner at this time. We remain committed to celebrating this milestone, and as such will focus our efforts on working towards the 2022 Nedbank Golf Challenge.”
“The 40th anniversary of the Nedbank Golf Challenge is a momentous occasion and as such it is only right this milestone is celebrated in a manner deserving of this event,” said European Tour Chief Executive, Keith Pelley.
The R&A is to break new ground by playing the match-play stages of their 2022 Girls’ and Boys’ Championships simultaneously at one venue.
They are both to be staged at Carnoustie on 10-14 August. Stroke-play qualifying for the Boys’ Amateur will be played at Panmure and Montrose on 8-9 August while Carnoustie will host stroke play qualifying for the Girls’ Amateur on the same days.
The R&A’s flagship event, the 127th Amateur Championship, will be hosted by Royal Lytham & St Annes and St Annes Old Links on 13-18 June, 2022, with a new 18-hole pre-qualifier preceding the championship on Friday 10 June. The 119th Women’s Amateur Championship will be held at Hunstanton from 20-25 June.
In another first, the Women’s and Men’s Senior Amateur Championships will also be played concurrently at Royal Dornoch on 5-8 July. The R&A Girls’ Under 16 Amateur will be held at Enville from 22-24 April, with the R&A Junior Open being played at Monifieth on 11-13 July ahead of the 150th Open at St Andrews, continuing a tradition of staging the championship at a course close to the host venue of The Open.
The St Andrews Trophy, which pits GB&I’s top male amateurs against their counterparts from the Continent of Europe, will be staged at Penati Golf Resort, Slovakia, on 21-22 July while the Jacques Leglise and Junior Vagliano Trophies will be played over the Rosemount course at Blairgowrie on 26-27 August. The United States will host the 42nd Curtis Cup at Merion, outside Philadelphia, on 10-12 June.
“We want to ensure that elite amateur golfers are given the best platform to show just how good they are and so we are excited to be playing our championships and international matches on some of the world’s best courses in 2022,” said Phil Anderton, Chief Development Officer at the R&A.
“We are continuing to make enhancements to the staging of our championships. The move to schedule some of the most eminent amateur titles for both male and female players at the same time, and at the same prestigious venues, allows us the opportunity to best showcase the breadth of talent across all levels of the game.
“These championships now bring together the very best amateur golfers, this is an opportunity we believe will reap the benefits of spectating two championships being played on one course.”
Colin Callander and Alistair Tait