Women golfers to defend world title
26 August 2008
South Africa has announced its three-member team to defend the bi-annual Espirito Santo Trophy in Australia in October. South Africa will be defending the trophy they won on home ground at the World Amateur Team Championships in 2006.
The team is Monique Smit (Oubaai, Southern Cape), Iliska Verwey (Cradock, Eastern Cape) and Kim Williams (Centurion, Gauteng North). The non-playing Captain is Sandra Winter and the Manager, Erica Lefson. The non-travelling reserve is Bertine Strauss (Rustenburg, North West).
The Espirito Santo Trophy is the most prestigious women's amateur team golfing trophy in the world and the event is being played on the East and West courses of The Grange Golf Club in Adelaide, South Australia from Wednesday 8 to Saturday 11 October 2008.
45 teams
It is anticipated that the Espirito Santo will attract over 45 International teams, each consisting of three players with the best two scores to count in each round.
Iliska Verwey represented South Africa at the Five Nations Commonwealth Tournament at Royal Johannesburg and Kensington in 2007 and is presently on a scholarship at Georgia State University. She previously represented SA at the Australian Amateur Championship in Sydney in 2006.
She has been playing in South African events during her summer break and returns to the USA this month. In preparation for the World Amateur Team Championships, she travelled with Kim Williams, Monique Smit, Bertine Strauss and coach Val Holland to Adelaide in July to compete in the Rene Erichsen Salver on the East course of The Grange Golf Club.
Weather conditions were abysmal on the second day of the championship as Williams finished tied for eighth and Verwey tied for thirteenth.
Very successful run
Kim Williams is presently second on the SA Order of Merit and enjoying a very successful run of golf. She won the North West Championship in March, was runner-up to Bertine Strauss in the KwaZulu Natal Championships in April, won the Gauteng Championship match play title in May, and was the winner at the Gauteng Nomads Stroke Play Championship in July.
In 2007, she represented South Africa at the SAAB International in Belgium and the Regional All Africa tournament in Gaberone, Botswana.
At 17 years old, Monique Smit is the youngest player in the team. Although she had missed a number of provincial tournaments while playing in Europe this year, she is still fourth on the SA Order of Merit and has the lowest stroke average.
Earlier in 2008, she won the Ernie Els Invitational at Fancourt, was runner-up to Breanne Loucks in the SA Match Play Championship, and won the Western Province Stroke Play Championship. In July, she and Lara Weinstein won the Jakarta World Junior Championship, with Smit winning the individual A Division Girls' Championship.
2006 victory
In 2006, South Africa withstood a surge by defending champion Sweden to win the Women's World Amateur Team Championship on a tiebreaker. The victory was the first by a host nation since 1980.
The three women who made up the victorious 2006 team were unavailable for selection in 2008 – Ashleigh Simon and Stacy-Lee Bregman have turned professional, and Kelli Shean, at university in the USA, was not available.
The World Amateur Team Championships fall under the auspices of the International Golf Federation (IGF) which was founded in 1958 to encourage the international development of the game and to employ golf as a vehicle to foster friendship and sportsmanship.
The IGF is the recognized international federation for golf for the International Olympic Committee and comprises the national governing bodies of golf of more than 100 countries.
Women's World Championship
The women's championship was introduced in 1964 as the result of a suggestion from the United States Golf Association to create a women's counterpart to the Eisenhower Trophy, which is contested by men's teams.
One of the championship organisers, Lally Segard of France, asked her friends from Portugal if they would be willing to donate a trophy she'd heard they had in their possession. It was the Espirito Santo trophy, which has a long and circuitous history.
It first belonged to Nicolas II, the last Tzar of Russia. After the Russian Revolution it was auctioned off and the Espirito Santo family of Lisbon purchased it for use in a short-lived Portuguese international event.
The trophy was then donated it to the World Amateur Golf Council for use in the new Women's World Amateur Team Championship. Originally a gold-plated trophy, the Espirito Santo was silver-plated for its new use.
SAinfo reporter
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