As the season springs into action, England Golf has named two teams for the Nations Cup event at this month's Spanish ladies’ amateur championship to be held in Seville from 25 February to 1 March.
England Golf has named two teams for the Nations Cup event at this month's Spanish ladies’ amateur championship to be held at Real Club Pineda in Seville from 25 February to 1 March.
India Clyburn of Lincolnshire, Alice Hewson of Hertfordshire and Inci Mehmet of Surrey will combine in one team; while Gemma Clews of Cheshire, Sammie Giles of Cornwall and Bethan Popel of Gloucestershire make up the other.
After two rounds of stroke play qualifying the leading 32 players will go forward to the match play. The Nations Cup will be played on the qualifying days when each team’s best two scores will count in both rounds.
The players:
Gemma Clews, 20, (Delamere Forest, Cheshire) was in England’s winning team at the ladies’ Home Internationals and won two scratch events last season: the Pleasington Putter and the inaugural Delamere Comboy Trophy. She was third in the Welsh open stroke play, sixth in the English amateur and 12th in the British stroke play.
India Clyburn, 18, (Woodhall Spa) won the 2014 England Golf Girls’ Order of Merit, sponsored by Ascot Golf, in her last season as a junior. Her individual successes included winning the English girls’ championship, the Scottish junior open, the girls’ title at the Daily Telegraph junior championship and the Royal Birkdale scratch trophy. She was in England’s winning teams at the girls’ and ladies’ Home Internationals – winning all six of her matches at the girls’ event.
Sammie Giles, 20, (St Mellion) is the English women’s mid-amateur champion and the winner of the 2014 Liphook Scratch Cup. Last season she enjoyed consistently good form and had a top ten finish at the St Rule Trophy and was in the top 15 at the Helen Holm, the English amateur and the British stroke play.
Alice Hewson, 17, (Berkhamsted) was a member of England’s winning team at the girls’ and ladies’ Home Internationals. She won the Critchley Salver at Sunningdale and the U18 prize at the St Rule Trophy where she also helped England win the Nations Cup and was fourth overall. She was sixth in the English girls’ championship and ninth in the English women’s amateur.
Inci Mehmet, 18, (Royal Mid Surrey, Image © Leaderboard Photography) was also a member of the team which won the girls’ Home Internationals for the seventh successive year. She was runner-up at the English women’s amateur championship and has amassed a series of other good results last season, including fourth place in the Portuguese championship, fifth in the Irish open stroke play and fourth in the Critchley Salver.
Bethan Popel, 19, (Long Ashton) was also a member of the winning team at the women’s Home Internationals and helped England win the Nations Cup at the St Rule Trophy. Her other good results last season included fifth place in the English amateur, seventh place in the women’s Welsh stroke play, 12th place in the Helen Holm Scottish stroke play and 11th in the Portuguese amateur.
