Daisies look good to defend the WGSA 72 hole championship at Langebaan

Losing Connie Chen to the professional ranks has not lessened the chances of the Gauteng A team (the DAISIES) successfully defending their WGSA 72 hole teams championship title which they won at Graceland, Mpumalanga in 2010.

This prestigious national stroke play event will be played at Langebaan Country Estate from Monday 23 May 2011 and 72 of South Africa’s top women golfers from all provinces will be competing in two divisions.

Pictured on the left are the 2010 winners Connie Chen, Kim Williams and Henriëtte Frylinck.

Swaziland’s Nobuhle Dlamini has replaced Chen in the Gauteng North team, which also includes Kim Williams and Henriëtte Frylinck. The trio currently all play off +1 handicaps and look good to retain the Swiss Team Trophy

Former SA Match Play Champion and the 2011 losing finalist, Dlamini is studying at the High Performance Centre in Pretoria and is a member at Pretoria Country Club. Current SA Stroke Play Champion Kim Williams and Henriëtte Frylinck are part of the five women South African team leaving on 4 June to compete in the British Open Amateur Championship and the Astor Trophy (formerly the 5 Nations Commonwealth Trophy). The other members of that team are Bertine Strauss (North West), Iliska Verwey (Southern Cape) and Tiffany Avern-Taplin (KwaZulu Natal).

The strongest opposition at Langebaan is expected to come from the 2009 winners, North West’s Bertine Strauss (+1), Nicole Becker (0) and Namibian Bonita Bredenhann (0) but Gauteng A’s Lara Weinstein, Lejan Lewthwaite and Michelle Leigh all playing off 1 handicaps, could also threaten the champions.

The B Division Challenge Trophy is wide open but Southern Cape B or North West B look good to won this division and gain promotion.

The programme is 18 holes stroke play on Monday, 36 holes on Tuesday and 18 holes on Wednesday morning – probably with a four-tee start enabling all the players to get back home that day.