Four current internationals, Ben Loughrey (Wrag Barn, Wiltshire) and Neil Raymond (Corhampton, Hampshire IoW & CI), along with Charley Hull and Lauren Taylor (both Woburn, BB&O) will represent the English Golf Union and the English Women’s Golf Association respectively in the biennial Spirit International Amateur Championship being staged at the Whispering Pines Golf Club, Houston, Texas on 2nd - 5th November.
The event attracts leading players, men and women, from many overseas nations so the English quartet will face a tough test. Each team comprises two men and two women and is played on a four ball, better ball format over 72 holes.
Loughrey and Raymond were members of the victorious England team in the recent Home Internationals while Hull and Taylor helped England win the ladies Home Internationals for the first time in four years.
Loughrey, 22, became a full England international against Spain at The Berkshire last May. He won the New South Wales Cup in Australia earlier this year and finished third in the Welsh Open Stroke Play. He was also a member of the victorious Wiltshire team that won the English County Championship at Ganton last month while in 2010 he won the Lee Westwood Trophy.
Raymond, 25 (picture © Tom Ward), also made his England debut against Spain this year. His best achievement to date was winning the Brabazon Trophy at Burnham and Berrow in June after finishing second in the Selborne Salver. Like Loughrey, he was a member of the squad that toured Australia early this year and both are members of the revamped England squad named for winter training and for 2012.
Hull, 15, won on the US Orange Blossom Tour early in the season then captured the Welsh Open Stroke Play Championship and the English Women’s Open Stroke Play Championship in August. She was also runner-up in the English Women’s Amateur Championship, became a full England international at the age of 14 and this year represented GB&I in the junior Vagliano Trophy.
Taylor, 17, became the youngest winner of the women’s British Amateur Championship in June when she was 16. She has since played in the Women’s British Open, helped England win the silver medal at the European girls’ team championship, won the Dutch Riverwoods girls’ open and become the first girl to win the annual Ian Poulter junior invitational.
Both players also represented Europe in the Junior Solheim Cup in Ireland last month.
England has a fine record in recent Spirit Internationals. In 2005, Sophie Walker and Felicity Johnson won the gold medal in the women’s event and, with Oliver Fisher and Jamie Moul, took the international team gold.
Four years ago, the England quartet of Gary Boyd, Danny Willett, Elizabeth Bennett and Naomi Edwards came out on top to take the gold medals, while in 2009 England, represented by Matt Haines, Stiggy Hodgson, Holly Clyburn and Rachel Jennings, finished fourth in the team event.
The field contains the best 20 international teams who qualified through their final positions in the Eisenhower and Espirito Santo Trophies.
