Ganton par wars

The prestigious links course just seven miles from Scarborough will host the championships from June 21 to 26 when the cream of European amateur golf will be in action.

Spearheading the North Yorkshire challenge will be Emma Brown, who under her maiden name of Duggleby won the British crown in 1994 and who also reached two finals in successive years in 2000 and 2001 when she was beaten by Rebecca Hudson and Marta Pietro respectively.

Brown, a previous winner of English ladies stroke-play title in 1998, the Welsh stroke-play crown (1996), the European ladies title (2000), the South Africa championship (2002) and the Scottish ladies open six years ago, was looking forward to the premier championship on the Ladies Golf Union calendar returning to Ganton, her favourite course in the county.

It was also at Ganton in 2000 that Brown was a member of the Great Britain and Ireland Curtis Cup team that narrowly lost 10-8 to America. That was her first of three Curtis Cup appearances in the world’s leading amateur team competition for women.

Said Brown, who is now the golf manager at Sandburn Hall Golf Club: “It will be great to go back to Ganton for the British Championship.

“It is my favourite course in Yorkshire and it’s great to have such a big championship back on the course.”

Two Ganton players will be hoping to make home knowledge count.

Both Naomi Edwards and Sara Garbutt have also entered the June championships.

However, last year’s winner at Royal St David’s club in Harlech, Azahara Munoz of Spain, will not be defending her crown.

Since that triumph, she has turned professional.

The event will comprise two rounds of stroke play qualifying on the Tuesday and Wednesday.

The 64 players with the lowest 36-hole scratch aggregates will go forward to the match-play stages on an automatic draw basis, i.e. number one qualifier plays Nnumber 64, number two against number 63 and so on.