Golf Australia nominates players for upcoming Astor Trophy and British Amateur Championship
Golf Australia finally announced the names of the amateur players who would be participating in the upcoming Astor Trophy at Fairhaven Golf Club from 15-19 June in Lytham, England. The five players include Ashley Ona of Queensland, Breanna Elliott of Victoria,
Cathleen Santoso and Emma De Groot of New South Wales, and Minjee Lee of Western Australia.
Astor Trophy, formerly known as the Commonwealth Trophy, is played every four years and comprises of Foursomes and singles Match Play formats. The tournament includes teams from Australia, Great Britain & Ireland, Canada, South Africa and New Zealand.
Prior to Astor Trophy, the members of the Aussie squad will participate in the British Amateur Championship at Royal Portrush Golf Club in Ireland from June 7 to June 8. The team manager is Matt Cutler, who is also the High performance Manager of Golf Australia,
while the serving coach is the former LPGA player Shani Waugh.
Brad James, the current Director of Golf Australia said that the event provides great opportunity for the budding women golfers to participate in International events and build their experience.
“The Astor Trophy has a reputation for attracting high quality fields on challenging golf courses which is invaluable experience for our Australian players rising in the rankings,” James said.
The five member team constitutes part of the strongest amateur players among ladies golfers and each one has won a tournament in the local circuit. Ona, the former Junior Champion, is the winner of ActewAGL Royal Canberra Ladies Classic on the ALPG Tour.
Elliot is the former winner of the Queensland Stroke Play Championship and is currently the reigning champion of this year’s Lake Macquarie Amateur.
Santoso, who is just 16, won the Australian Girls Amateur title held recently and also made it into the quarter finals of the Srixon Australian Amateur in March. Groot is the winner of Southern Conference Championship while Lee, who is just 14-years-old,
is one of the prodigies to have come out on the Australian Amateur Circuit in recent times. Former Western Australian Amateur Champion, Lee is also the winner of Aaron Baddeley International Australian and finished runners up in Srixon Australian Amateur Championship.
Besides rolling out the Astor Trophy participants, Golf Australia also nominated players for the upcoming Toyota World Junior Championship scheduled in Japan this year. The tournament is, however, likely to be cancelled in view of the devastation caused
by the March 11 earthquake in the country.
“Our thoughts are with everyone in Japan as they work to rebuild their country and we look forward to sending an Australian team again in 2012,” James said.
The junior team included the leading Australian amateur golfer Cameron Smith, the Queensland Amateur Champion Jake Higginbottom, who won the title last week, Ryan Peake and Oliver Goss of Western Australia and Maverick Antcliff from Queensland taken as reserve
player.
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