ENGLAND SQUAD PREPARE FOR EISENHOWER TROPHY
England is sending a party of seven players, mainly from
its World Class Performance Programme Elite Squad, to Puerto
Rico next month for an acclimatisation trip in preparation
for this year’s Eisenhower Trophy.
Lee Corfield, Ross Fisher, James Heath, Jamie Moul, Michael
Skelton, Richard Walker and Gary Wolstenholme will make up
the playing party together with Keith Williams, the EGU’s
National Coach, Physiotherapist Paul Darby, Psychologist Brian
Hemmings, and Nigel Furniss, the EGU’s World Class Performance
Director.
The group will be in Puerto Rico from 7th to 12th February
playing the Ocean and River Courses at the Westin Rio Mar
Beach Resort, which will host the World Amateur Team Championship
from 28th to 31st October.
Performance Director Nigel Furniss explained “This
visit is most important in our preparation for the World Championships
later in the year. It will present us with an excellent opportunity
to survey the golf courses and make detailed plans for our
2nd attempt to win the Eisenhower Trophy as an English Team”
Two years ago, England undertook a similar acclimatisation
trip to Kuala Lumpur ahead of the 2002 Eisenhower Trophy.
Walker and Wolstenholme were in that party and were duly selected
along with Jamie Elson for the three-man team that eventually
finished seventh.
Walker, 32, and 43 year old Wolstenholme, England’s
most experienced players, will travel again along with five
talented youngsters.
Corfield, 21, from Somerset, earned his full England debut
in the 2002 Home Internationals in Wales and was a member
of last year’s Elite Squad. A former winner of the Lytham
Trophy, he represented England in Australia and Portugal in
2003 and finished runner-up in the St Mellion Trophy.
Fisher, 23, joint holder of the Berkshire Trophy and winner
of the Finnish Amateur Championship, joined the Elite Squad
last June before making his full England debut in the European
Men’s Team Championships in Holland. Ross also played
in the Home Internationals in Ireland and represented England
in The Spirit Amateur in Texas last autumn.
Fisher’s Surrey teammate Heath, 20, just back from
college in the United States, is a former under-16 and boy
international who earned his first full England cap in last
September’s Home Internationals.
A semi-finalist in the 2001 British Boys Championship at
Ganton, he finished runner-up in the European Amateur Championship
in Portugal in 2002 and also won the Greek Amateur title at
Glyfada. However, the reigning Surrey champion missed out
on selection for the 2003 Walker Cup after being added to
the squad last January.
Moul, who won’t turn 20 until September, was drafted
into the Elite Squad in September. A long-standing boy international,
the Suffolk player enjoyed a successful 2003 in which he finished
third in the Irish Open Amateur, fourth in the Welsh Open
Amateur, and fifth in the Hampshire Hog.
A former winner of the Suffolk Open, Moul lost a play-off
for the Suffolk Amateur last year but won the individual title
in the South East Qualifying at Ealing. He was reserve for
last September’s Home Internationals and represented
England in the Chiberta Grand Prix in France and the Greek
Amateur at Glyfada.
Skelton also had a successful 2003, highlighted by a place
in the victorious Walker Cup team at Ganton. The 19 year old
from Yorkshire won the Welsh Open Amateur Stoke Play, finished
runner-up in the English Amateur Championship at Alwoodley
and third in the Finnish Open Amateur in Helsinki.
The ex-boy international and winner of the McGregor Trophy,
Skelton has also represented GB&I in the Jacques Leglise
Trophy, England in the Spanish and German Amateur Championships
and has played a major role in Yorkshire’s successes
in recent years.
Walker, a former winner of the Brabazon Trophy and the German
and Portuguese Open Amateur Championships, reached the last
eight of the English Amateur in the past two years and was
a reserve for the Walker Cup at Ganton.
Wolstenholme, England’s most capped international,
is seeking his fourth Eisenhower selection. He played for
GB&I in 1996 and ‘98, was reserve in 2000 and represented
England in 2002.
The three-man England team for Puerto Rico will be named
later in the year.
The England Elite Squad forms part of the English Golf Union’s
highly successful World Class Performance Programme supported
by Sport England Lottery Fund.
England’s travelling squad:
Lee Corfield (Burnham & Berrow)
Ross Fisher (Wentworth)
James Heath (Coombe Wood)
Jamie Moul (Stoke-by-Nayland)
Michael Skelton (Middlesbrough)
Richard Walker (Frodsham)
Gary Wolstenholme (Kilworth Springs)
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