DOUBLE DATE FOR CORFIELD AND RICHARDSON IN ARGENTINA
Brabazon Trophy winner Matthew Richardson and Lee Corfield,
who was runner-up in the Amateur Championship, and will aim
to extend England’s recent impressive record in South
America when they fly to Buenos Aires next month.
Both are members of the English Golf Union’s (EGU)
World Class Performance Elite Squad and the 2005 Walker Cup
Squad and in Buenos Aires they will be making a twin assault
on the Juan Carlos Tailhade Cup and the Argentina Amateur
Open.
The Juan Carlos Tailhade Cup, a two-man team competition
in which both players’ scores count, is scheduled to
take place at Los Lagartos Country Club on 2nd - 5th December.
The Argentine Open, a 72 hole stroke play event, will be played
at Buenos Aires Golf Club on 9th -12th December.
Corfield and Richardson are experienced foreign travellers
and will be seeking to add to England’s successful overseas
performances, most noticeably in the Juan Carlos Tailhade
Cup. English players have won the event for three of the past
four years - Nick Dougherty and Gary Wolstenholme in 2000;
Zane Scotland and David Skinns in 2001; and Gary Lockerbie
and Michael Skelton in 2003.
Richardson, 20, from Middlesex, has been on the international
scene since 2002 and secured his first major title this year
when he won the Brabazon Trophy at West Lancashire Golf Club.
In 2002 he represented England in the European Boys Team
Championships in Iceland as well as in the Boys Home Internationals
which were held in Scotland. In the same year he won the McEvoy
Trophy, was a semi-finalist in the British Boys Championship
at Carnoustie, and represented GB&I in the Jacques Leglise
Trophy in Switzerland.
In 2003, he was included in the Elite and Walker Cup Squads,
reached the quarter finals of the Spanish and Portuguese Amateur
Championships, and made his full England debut against Spain.
This year, Richardson, who now represents The Buckinghamshire
Club, has travelled to South Africa, Australia, Spain and
the United States representing the EGU. Before winning the
Brabazon he was called up by England for the match against
France in May as well as for the Home Internationals.
He was also a member of the England team that finished runners-up
in the European Youths Team Championships in Ireland and further
boosted his profile by winning the European Amateur title
in Sweden. A week later both he and Corfield were members
of the victorious GB&I team in the St Andrews Trophy at
Nairn.
This will be Richardson’s second visit to Argentina.
He played in both Buenos Aires events in 2002 with Richard
Walker.
Corfield, from the Burnham and Berrow Golf Club in Somerset,
secured his first major title when he won the 2002 Lytham
Trophy. He then became a member of the Elite Squad and made
his full England debut at the 2002 Home Internationals in
Wales.
In 2003 he represented the EGU in Australia and Portugal
and finished runner-up in the St Andrews Links and St Mellion
Trophies.
Corfield has visited South Africa, Puerto Rico and Spain
as a member of EGU squads and in March this year he was part
of the winning team in the Sherry Cup at Sotogrande. Following
that he finished second in the Selborne Salver, won the West
of England Stroke Play Championship and earned another cap
in England’s match against France.
In spite of scoring a course record 66 in the Brabazon Trophy,
arguably his best performance came at St Andrews in June when
he reached the final of the Amateur Championship only to lose
out to Scotland’s Stuart Wilson. In September’s
Home Internationals, he helped England regain the title with
a personal record of four points from five matches.
|