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GB&I Curtis Cup team ready for action at St Andrews Old Course

Posted by Big G under Curtis Cup, Latest Golf News

Below pictured, England’s Liz Bennett has told how she and her GB&I team-mates are preparing for the Curtis Cup match, which starts tomorrow on the Old Course at St Andrews.

 

The key for the team has been to get ready for anything the course and the weather can throw at them.

Liz said: “We’ve been working on where we want to hit our tee shots, what strategy we are going to take, pretty much trying to get ourselves prepared for any circumstance that the weather is going to throw at us, that anything can happen.”

“Lawrence Farmer, our coach, has been helping us work on different shots, choosing the right shots and having plenty of shots in one situation.”

Liz, from Brokenhurst Manor in Hampshire is one of three England internationals in the team, alongside Jodi Ewart of Catterick in Yorkshire and Florentyna Parker of Royal Birkdale, Lancashire.

They are joined by Breanne Loucks of Wales and four Scots: Carly Booth, Krystle Caithness, Michele Thomson and Sally Watson.  The young team ranges in age from 15-year-old Carly Booth to 25-year-old Liz Bennett.

For the first time this year the match will be played over three days with foursomes and fourballs tomorrow and Saturday, followed by singles on Sunday. The opening ceremony takes place this evening at 6pm.

Earlier this week Curtis Cup stars of yesteryear held a reunion dinner in the R&A clubhouse. Among those attending was England’s Phil Wylie who is the oldest surviving Curtis Cup player on either side of the Atlantic.

Phil, who will be 97 in August, was English amateur champion as Phil Wade in the mid-1930s and she was first reserve in attendance for the third Curtis Cup match ever played - at Gleneagles in 1936. Two years later she played for GB&I against the United States in Massachusetts.

The 2008 Curtis Cup match will be featured on Sky with a preview tonight  and a highlights package within the Golf Night programme.

Golf Night times are:
Thursday Sky Sports 2: 19.30-22.00
Friday Sky Sports 2: 20.30-23.00
Saturday Sky Sports 3: 19.30-22.00
Sunday Sky Sports 3: 20.00-23.00