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March 2020
INTERNATIONAL DUTY Huddersfield Golf Club star beats stiff competition to earn her place in women’s squad
England call for Heath HUDDERSFIELD GOLF CLUB’S Charlotte Heath has been named in the England Golf’s Women’s squad for 2020. Heath,18, who started this year by winning the Australian Women’s Amateur Championship, is joined by the 2019 Justin Rose Telegraph Junior Masters winner Mimi Rhodes, reigning Women’s Amateur champion Emily Toy and Curtis Cup player Lily May Humphreys. Women’s performance manager Rebecca Hembrough insists the job of selecting the squad for 2020 was trickier than ever due to the quality of players at all levels of the women’s and girls’ games. “We are very excited to finally announce the national squad for 2020,” said Hembrough. “They are a strong and dedi-
cated group of young women that have been challenging themselves and one another with the support of the coaching programme since October. “There were some extremely tough decisions to make, but the squad sizes were reduced to provide more individualised coaching support with an eye on a big year at the Europeans, Home Internationals and World Amateur Team Championships.” The Club de Golf Escorpion in Valencia, Spain will stage the European Ladies’ Team Championships between July 711. The Home Internationals will take place at Royal St David’s Golf Club in Harlech, Wales between August 5-7. England’s women and girls will defend titles won last year at a rain-soaked Downfield Golf Club in Dundee. The 2020 World Amateur
Huddersfield Golf Club’s Charlotte Heath pictured at the Vic Open at 13th Beach Golf Links in Barwon Heads, Australia. She also played in the Australian Open Team championships will be held at the Tanah Merah Country Club in Singapore between October 14-17 after organisers switched the event from its original venue in Hong Kong. In January Heath became the first Briton in 24 years and
only the fifth in the 126-year history to win the Australian Women’s Amateur – and she did it in spectacular style. Heath was unstoppable against Indonesia’s Mela Putri, 22, on her way to a 7&6 victory in the 36-hole final at Royal Queensland Golf Club.
Heath’s progress has been rapid. She was ranked 226th in the world going into the event she won Down Under, which was her first in a national championship and just her third anywhere in the world, following two previous wins back home in the Sir Henry Cotton
Junior Masters and the Pleasington Putter. With the Aussie victory came invitations to play in two professional events and her mum had to negotiate time off school for her daughter to compete in the Vic Open at 13th Beach Golf Links in Barwon Heads and the Women’s Australian Open at Royal Adelaide. With aspirations to turn pro after college, starts at two of the country’s largest professional women’s events, both sanctioned by the LPGA tour, gave her a taste of what the future may hold. She missed the cut in the Vic Open after rounds of 71 and 78, but made it right on the mark in the ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open at Seaton, South Australia, carding rounds of 76, 70, 74 and 79 for a seven-over-par total. It was also a good week for Northallerton-born Jodi Ewart Shadoff who has amassed over $3m in prize money on the LPGA Tour. She finished in a tie for 10th and led after round one with a 66 before falling away with rounds of 70, 77 and 72. Her family live in Middleham where dad Harvey, a former jockey, is now a groom-rider for one of the country’s leading trainers Mark Johnston. Horse racing is very much a part of the family as mum Zoe is a former yard manager for the Scot who has sent out more winners than any other trainer in Great Britain.
