Golf Club - Northern Golfer

CoverStoryCoach outlineschallenge for LadiesSteve Robinson has underlined thetask facing England in July’s EuropeanLadies Championship at FulfordThe Sandburn Hall pro, in chargeof coaching England for six years, has someexcellent players to work with includingEuropean number one Georgia Hall, Curtis Cupplayer Bronte Law, British strokeplay championSarah-Jane Boyd and English strokeplaychampion Alex Peters.“Most of our players have experiencedwinning and they know how to get across theline,” he said, “but there are some great teams inthe tournament.“The standard of ladies golf in Europe isfantastic – Germany, Sweden and Spain willbe real threats – and there are no walkovers inthis tournament.”Sweden are expected to be the biggest threatas they seek a hat-trick of victories and Steveadded: “What are our chances? The same as anyother side. I can’t guarantee we will win, but Ican guarantee we will be prepared.“It’s my job is to prepare the team thoroughlyand professionally. You can’t ever control thewinning, but you can control the preparationand we prepare to the best of our abilities.“Victory is what we will be going for. Ifyou don’t have that aim you might as well notturn up.“We will have a young team but we have a lotof promising players coming through and I’m notsure about an over-emphasis on experience. Mybelief is that if you are good enough then you areold enough. It’s a great opportunity for some ofour younger players to come through and shine.“Fulford is a course that’s been kind to meand I hope it’s going to be exactly the samewhen England play there,” said Steve who wonthe Yorkshire PGA Championship and YorkshirePGA Masters there.England ExpectsEngland– and Yorkshire – expectsa double victory on home soilthis year when the men’s HomeInternationals and European LadiesTeam Championships are held in the WhiteRose county.Both tournaments will be at quality venues– the Home Internationals at Ganton andEuropean Ladies at Fulford.There will also be a strong Yorkshire andNorth-East presence at both events, certainlybehind the scenes with Emma Brown captainof the England ladies team and Steve Robinsoncoach while Graham Walker is also coach of theEngland men’s team.The chances of representation at the sharp34 Northern Golferend are looking good as well with Huddersfield’sNick Marsh and Bamburgh’s Garrick Porteous– already a full international - both in with anexcellent chance of making the England men’steam and Rotherham’s Olivia Winning, currentlyin the England Performance Squad, aiming,like Marsh to step up to their respective fullEngland teams.“The Home Internationals tournamentis a massive event and all about nationalpride and rivalry,” said England internationalNeil Raymond.“Players from the four home countries playalongside each other in individual events weekin,week-out, during the year.“But we play against each other in the HomeInternationals and then it’s all about braggingrights,” added Raymond.Raymond was joined at Ganton by Englandcolleagues Porteous, Marsh and JamieRutherford to get a taste of the course andwhile home advantage will help, it’s all aboutperformance in a tournament played on a roundrobin basis where all four countries play eachother with each match consisting of five morningfoursomes and 10 afternoon singles.England won three titles in a row beforeScotland’s triumph last year and they won thelast time it was held at Ganton in 1989.Entry is free to spectators for the tournamenton August 14-16 as it will be when the bestwomen golfers from 19 countries head toFulford, York, for the European Ladies TeamChampionship on July 9-13.SteveRobinson,EngalndcoachThe England Ladies SquadGrahamWalkerEngland men’s coach GrahamWalker will be very much on homeground at Ganton.Based at The Oaks club just southeast of York for nearly 10 years, he’slead coach to the England squadsand Yorkshire County Head Coach.He’s been with England for 13years and has worked with eachof the national squads during thattime and has been influential in thecareers of the likes of European Tourplayers Danny Willett, 2012 winnerof the BMW International Open, PaulWaring and David Horsey.Sheffield-born Graham has alsobeen closely involved in YorkshireCounty golf and during his 11 yearswith them, Yorkshire have wonthe English County Championshipeight times, been Northern Countieschampions for 10 out of the 11 yearsand recently completed a hat-trick ofEnglish County Finals wins.“I don’t have a vote on selectionand I’m not on the selection pane,but I am asked for my opinion,”he said.“The beauty of the selectionprocess is that we have a squadsystem. You have to take match playresults into account but at the endof the day it’s all about opinions.The players get a lot of support fromEngland Golf. They represent Englandwith pride.”