Florentyna Parker earns call-up to fulfil Curtis Cup dream

Mar 11 2008 by Richard Williamson and Harold Brough, Liverpool Daily Post

FLORENTYNA PARKER is gearing up for the biggest date of her golf career after her dream of being chosen for the Curtis Cup team came true.

The Royal Birkdale golfer has been selected for the eight-strong Great Britain and Ireland side to face the Americans from May 30 to June 1.

But the teenager was made to wait before confirmation of her selection was formally announced.

“The team was due to be posted on the website at 12 noon, but it was 10 minutes late,” she explained. “It was a very nerve-wracking wait! I am really excited about being in the team. It’s a great honour and should be fun, too.”

The 35th staging of the biennial match is being held over the historic Old Course at St Andrews for the first time.

The 18-year-old, who will be making her Curtis Cup debut, has visited the Scottish home of golf, but has never played the course.

However training sessions will ensure the squad is fully prepared.

“It is an awesome place,” she said, “and I’m really looking forward to it.”

Before the match unfolds, the team has another important date with a visit to Buckingham Palace. Florentyna has already visited 10 Downing Street to attend a garden party hosted by then Prime Minister Tony Blair.

She goes into the match with an impressive pedigree, stretching back to her success as the youngest winner of the Faldo Series when she was 13.

A member of the Gut Waldhof Golf Club in Germany, where dad Tim is a professional, the 2006 Lancashire County Champion has already demonstrated her ability in match play.

She has been selected twice for the Junior Solheim Cup Team in 2005 and 2007, scoring maximum points last year in helping Europe beat the US. She was named as third reserve for the 2006 Curtis Cup match, but since then had increased her chances of being chosen for the team outright by winning the 2007 French under 21 Junior Women’s Open Championship. She was also runner-up at the 2007 Ladies’ British Stroke Play Championship.

A timely reminder to the selectors came in the opening months of this year when she finished second at the Portuguese Amateur Championship.

She will now begin her preparations for the match by defending her title in France next week while she will spend three weeks in Australia as part of an England team taking on the host nation. While she is there, she will play in the Australian championships.

After the Curtis Cup, Parker’s ambition is to try for her European Ladies Tour card at the end of the year.

Carly Booth will become the youngest ever GB & I team member at the age of 15, but both teams contain a string of teenagers.

“It shows the quality of the younger players coming through,” says Florentyna. “A lot of work goes into developing young players and it is paying dividends.”

Florentyna’s appearance in the Curtis Cup will continue the strong local ties with the event.

Royal Birkdale’s Bunty Stephens – later Smith – made six appearances in the match in a distinguished career which included being Lancashire county champion 10 times, with her first win in 1948.

The present Lancashire county captain, Sheila Maher, from Huyton and Prescot, was a Curtis Cup player in 1962 and 1964 while Elaine Ratcliffe of Sandiway and Lisa Dermott from North Wales and later a member at Royal Liverpool were in the 1996 team. Ratcliffe also played in the 1998 team, together with Fiona Brown from Heswall.

Ratcliffe has been teaching at the Faldo Golf Institute at Brocket Hall, Hertfordshire but has had her second son five weeks ago. Brown has also been teaching in Surrey and working on sports development with children.

Mary McKenna, Captain of the GB & I team said: “I am delighted with the team that has been selected. It was no easy task with the quality of the squad being so high. I feel very confident that we can win the Curtis Cup on this historic occasion.”

This year, a new three-day format has been introduced, featuring three foursomes and three four-ball matches on the first two days. All eight players will play singles matches on the Sunday.

The USA team has won the last five Curtis Cup matches and leads the series 25-6 with three matches drawn. The Curtis Cup was donated by sisters Harriet and Margaret Curtis in 1927 and is inscribed: “To stimulate friendly rivalry among the women golfers of many lands”.

TEAM: Liz Bennett (25) Brokenhurst Manor; Carly Booth (15) Comrie; Krystle Caithness (19) St Regulus; Jodi Ewart (20) Catterick; Breanne Loucks (20) Wrexham; Florentyna Parker (18) Royal Birkdale; Michele Thomson (20) McDonald Ellon; Sally Watson (16) Elie & Earlsferry Ladies