Top amateurs primed for 72 Hole Teams Championship

In 2013, Gauteng North not only notched their fifth successive Swiss Team Trophy title in the 72 Hole Teams Championship, but also scored an unprecedented double triumph by also winning the Challenge Trophy in the B-Division at Maccauvlei Golf Club.

Yet, despite fielding three teams in the prestigious national event last year, the defending champions were no match for the feisty threesome from KwaZulu-Natal, who claimed a three stroke victory at Mossel Bay Golf Club.

Gauteng North will once again hunt down a sixth A-Division victory in Buffalo City with a triple attack when the championship tees off at East London Golf Club on Sunday.

Gauteng North A’s Carrie Park, Danielle du Toit and Marne Clack will lead the union’s title bid.

Chantelle Hefer, Larissa du Preez and Ruzanne van der Walt are lining up for Gauteng North’s B-team and the C-team will feature Mercedes Kreissel, rookie Karin Watts and Marike Reyneke.

However, their task will certainly be made more challenging with the likes of the country’s top ranked amateur Ivanna Samu leading Gauteng’s A team and 2013/2014 Player of the Year Cara Gorlei heading up the Western Province assault.

Samu will have Woo Ju Son and Kaleigh Telfer in support, while Gorlei will partner with Amy Henning and Ji Sun Kang in Province’s A-side.

Port Shepstone’s Lizzie Currie returns for duty and will lead KwaZulu-Natal’s title defence alongside Brittney-Fay Berger and Pippa Payne, while Southern Cape’s Sonja Bland, Desiree Geldenhuys and Anzelle Zeelie will aim to reproduce a spectacular B-Division victory last year with another winning performance in their A-Division debut in East London.

In addition to Gauteng B and Western Province B, Boland A, Mpumalanga and North West A will also looking to impress in the A-Division this week.

Meanwhile, the Challenge Trophy battle will draw a lot of local support as Zethu Myeki and sisters Siviwe and Yolanda Duma will be challenging for B-Division glory.

Myeki, a graduate from the South African Golf Development Board, held off Demi Flanagan, Gorlei, Son and Telfer to lift the Border Ladies Championship title at East London Golf Club in February.

Late last year, the trio celebrated a B-Division victory in the 2014 SA Women’s Inter-Provincial and they will undoubtedly draw on their knowledge of the course and the conditions in the windy city to be eligible for another promotion.

The rest of the teams making up the B-Division in the Challenge Trophy contest include Boland B, Eastern Province, Ekurhuleni A and B, Free State, Gauteng C, KwaZulu-Natal B, Limpopo, North West B, Western Province C and a WGSA Invitational side featuring Tara Griebenow from Western Province, Cassidy Williams from Boland and Caro Els from Namibia.

Written and released by Lali Stander on behalf of Womens Golf South Africa.

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