Date: September 27, 2012
Author: Golf Australia

Espirito Santo – Aussie women ready for battle

The stage is set for the Australian team of Breanna Elliott (VIC), Whitney Hillier (WA) and Min Jee Lee (WA) to tee off tonight (AEST) at the World Amateur Team Championships in Antalya, Turkey from 27-30 September. The Australians begin their campaign on Gloria Golf Club’s New Course, chasing Australia s first Espirito Santo Trophy since 2002 and have been paired with Slovenia and Mexico in the opening two rounds. Elliott (Yarrawonga and Border), the World Number 9, won the Trans-National Amateur in South Carolina in July and won the South Australian, Western Australian and New South Wales Stroke Play titles earlier in the year. Hillier (Joondalup) won the Malaysian Amateur Championship, Lake Macquarie Amateur and the Riversdale Cup earlier in the year and was the medallist at the Trans-National Amateur in the United States in July. Lee (Royal Fremantle), the World Number 6, became the first Australian to win the US Girls Junior Championship last month. She is a former Singapore Ladies Amateur, Western Australian Amateur and Handa Junior Masters champion and was runner-up in the Australian Amateur Championship in 2011. The Australian women’s team coach is former LPGA and ALPG Tour player Shani Waugh and the team manager is Matt Cutler. The winning Australian team in 2002 included current LPGA Tour players Katherine Hull, Lindsey Wright and Vicky Thomas (nee Uwland). Each team has two or three players and plays 72 holes of stroke play over four days. In each round, the total of the two lowest scores from each team constitutes the team score for the round. The four-day (72-hole) total is the team s score for the championship.