England scored a magnificent victory in The Spirit International Amateur Championship at Whispering Pines, Houston – winning their second consecutive gold medal at this biennial event.

Naomi Edwards, Liz Bennett, Daniel Willett and Gary Boyd held off the challenge of Korea and the USA to win the international team prize by two shots.

They had a narrow lead going into the final round of the fourball betterball competition, but both Korea and the USA made huge efforts to catch them.

Korea, who had been halfway leaders, were eight-under for the day, while the USA made up even more ground with a 11-under score and both countries finished on 30-under for the tournament.

However England held firm with a seven-under score in the last round which took them to 32-under par. They had a strong finish with the men scoring six birdies and the women adding two more over! the last nine holes.

Willett, the English champion, and Boyd, an international, also won the gold medal in the men’s team event, finishing on 27-under par. They were six shots ahead of joint runners-up Australia and the USA.

English champion Naomi Edwards (Ganton) and international Liz Bennett (Brokenhurst Manor) tied sixth in the women’s team event with an overall score of five-under par 238. Korea won with 275 (13 under), and Chinese Taipei, Canada and USA were tied 2nd on 279.

The field was made up of 24 international teams in the world who qualified through their positions in the 2006 Eisenhower and Espirito Santo Trophies.

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Lyndsey Hewison
Press & PR Officer

Tel. 01603 507 416
Email: lyndsey.hewison@tiscali.co.uk

Visit our web site at www.englishladiesgolf.org

Editors Notes

• The English Ladies' Golf Association was founded in 1952 and is the governing body for female amateur golf in England.
• ELGA represents over 127,000 members in more than 1780 golf clubs, trains the country's elite golfers, runs a full rota of national championships as well as events for handicap golfers, and actively encourages new golfers.
• ELGA has formed the England Golf Partnership with the English Golf Union and the Professionals Golfers' Association. Their Whole Sport Plan, supported by Sport England, aims to make England the world's leading golf nation by 2020.
• The association also has a charity, The ELGA Trust, which supports schemes to introduce girls to golf and helps promising players. ELGA is based at Edgbaston Golf Club.

Labels: golf