Astor Salver Website Golf Australia National Squad member Jessica Speechley (WA) will be hoping to keep the Astor Salver title in Western Australian hands after Whitney Hillier claimed the title at Berkshire Golf Club in 2009. Hillier shot a total 9-under-par across both championship courses in the 36-hole Stroke Play event. Joining Speechley are National Squad members Stacey Keating (VIC), Ashley Ona (QLD) and Justine Lee (NSW). It will be the third stop for the travelling group following their involvement in the St Rule Trophy at St Andrews and the Irish Ladies Stroke Play Championship at Newlands Golf Club in Ireland where Ashley Ona has written a note giving an insight to her trip so far. We have just finished the Irish Women’s Stroke Play played at the Newlands Golf Club in Dublin. We have had great results with Justine finishing runner up, myself in 4th, Stace 5th and Jess 7th and Australia again has taken out the teams event with flying colours. The weather for the week has been up and down – our practice round on the Friday was perfect – nice and sunny and I think we all might have had socks tans at the end of it! Saturday was good as well and it was lucky we had 36 holes that day because today (the final round) was horrendous. We had an hour and a half rain delay before hitting off, then most of the greens were under water and the organisers had to round up some of the juniors to squidgy the water off the greens. If that wasn t enough with 7 holes to go there was another delay for the greens to dry up – the rain today would not go away! The ladies of the Golf union were very nice, always willing to help although if you were playing slowly they really got strict. Most of the groups received warnings and further warnings. We were constantly running! On a different note after our practice round on Friday Justine, Jess and I went into Dublin. The city is very crowded and eventful although there were some very crazy characters in Dublin – the men don t seem to like wearing any t-shirts – I suppose because it was a sunny day they were trying to soak it up. The place we stayed at is called Louis Fitzgerald and it s nice although on the last night at 3.30am someone decided to have a late cigarette in their room which triggered the fire alarms and woke everybody in the hotel up. It was a very strange feeling trying to figure out what was happening but luckily us Aussie s had late tee times so we still had plenty of sleep, though it was very annoying! We all are having a lot of fun and enjoying meeting new people and playing different courses. It’s a great experience and I am learning a lot along the way. We are off to London tomorrow around 2pm to start a new chapter. The smile keeps getting bigger! Ash