Curtis Cup campaigner Brown targets Spanish silver with Malton pals
EMMA BROWN’S Curtis Cup experience could prove crucial in Spain this week as one of the country’s most successful amateur golfers targets more silverware, this time with Malton & Norton in The Mail on Sunday Classic grand finals.
As Emma Duggleby, she appeared in three Curtis Cups, won the British Amateur in 1994 and the English Amateur twice. Now 44, and a mum to twoyear-old Jack, she focuses on club team competitions. She said: ‘It’s great to be in a national tournament with my friends and my own team from Malton. A few have not played abroad before. It’s brilliant.
‘We’d love to win it. Everyone is on neutral ground, so we just need to get stuck in.’
After nine knockout rounds featuring almost 3,000 teams, the top four women’s and men’s clubs will contest the semi-finals and grand final of the world’s biggest golf club championship on the North Course at the El Rompido resort.
Joining the Yorkshire club in the women’s competition are Gosport & Stokes Bay from Hampshire, Oxford Ladies and Lancashire club Accrington & District, whose player Lil Dykes is a relation of five times Open champion James Braid.
Scott Woolford cut short his honeymoon to play in the quarterfinals for Kent club Marriott Tudor Park, but has no regrets after winning a sudden-death decider to get them this far.
‘This is a chance to live the dream of a tour player. For us club amateur golfers who scratch around on a Saturday and Sunday in all weathers, it’s a money-can’t-buy experience,’ said the 12-handicapper.
‘We said if we make it to Spain, that will be the prize, but now no one wants to be third or fourth. You’re there to win it.’
Out to stop them are Muthill, from Scotland, Welsh champions Brynhill and Scunthorpe’s Normanby Hall.