AN international calling-card could well be posted by North Yorkshire women's ace Emma Duggleby next week.

The Malton and Norton GC star this weekend opened her competitive calendar at the links course at Formby on the Merseyside coast where she was playing for the Great Britain and Ireland elite squad.

The opposition for the home ranks in the Weetabix Challenge is a team of European Women's Tour professionals, but early bragging rights are not the sole issue at stake.

The match puts Duggleby and her team-mates right in the spotlight for the Great Britain and Ireland selectors who next Tuesday are due to announce their squad for this summer's Curtis Cup showdown against America.

Duggleby has been a stalwart member of the last two Curtis Cup line-ups and would love the chance of a three-timer when Great Britain and Ireland take on their Stateside counterparts - coincidentally back at Formby GC - next summer.

Duggleby told the Evening Press she had revelled during a winter training programme, which included a fortnight in Florida and a week with the elite squad in Spain, as well as lessons with Malton and Norton GC professional Steve Robinson - one of the north's most esteemed coaches.

"I'm hitting the ball as well as I have ever done at the start of the season, so I'm pretty pleased with how things are shaping up," she said before the cross-country trek to Formby.

The reigning English Ladies Open amateur champion - a title she defends in May - is certainly putting in the miles in what is a hectic start to the 2004 campaign.

She hits the high road next week en route to the Scottish Open at Royal Troon before gearing herself up for a championship challenge much closer to her North Yorkshire roots.

Next month she will make a bid for the Yorkshire Ladies title when it is played at York GC.

The Strensall course is one of Duggleby's favourites and she is hoping her delight in competing there will lead her to a third Yorkshire crown.

Defeated in last year's final by Alex Keighley, Duggleby said: "I won the championship in 2000 and 2002, so being another two years down the line I'm hoping it will be my turn again."

CHIPPING has taken on a fresh meaning during development work at the Griffon Forest Golf and Country Club which is due to open at Flaxton, north of York, next summer.

Course designer Bryan Moor, one-time York Hockey Club ace and brother of ex-York City goalkeeper and Scarborough Cricket Club captain Tony Moor, said that the land's farming origins had thrown up a problem now being tackled by a top construction company.

The farmland on which the course stands comprised potato fields which has turned up buried stone.

So the course's owners have asked M J Abbott of Salisbury, who installed the drainage systems at the planned 18-hole, 6,800-yard course, to 'stone-bury and seed' the course as part of its programme towards an opening next June or July.

"We have come across a lot of buried cobblestone in what were potato fields. Abbott's are one of the major constructors in Europe so it makes sense for them to complete the work," said Moor, who went into the golf course designing business in the late 1980s.

He was delighted with the progress made at Griffon Forest, which already houses a complex of woodland lodges. Besides the 18-hole course, there is to be a 20-bay driving range which is expected to feature greens at set distances up to 300 yards away; a two-hole golf academy; plus several outdoor tennis courts to supplement the indoor premises which have been built on the site.

By the time the golf club is up and swinging it is expected that more than 160,000 trees will have been planted to augment the conifer forest that stands proud on the estate. Five lakes have also been constructed with water planned to feature prominently around greens for what Moor termed as 'tight targets'.

Charged with providing an experience different from any other club in the area, Moor said a feature of the course will be to provide a secluded backdrop in which "players might not be able to see anybody else playing on any other holes".

BILL fitted the honours in the first round of Fulford Golf Club's President's Putter, the club's first major event of the season.

Bill Woodley was the winner of the first round with a four-under 68, two shots ahead of his nearest rivals.

The Social Cup, a stableford event played in winter over eight rounds with the best four to count, was won by Andy Curran. His 173 total was two points better than Jonathan Plaxton, who ended his term as captain this week. Geoff Hawkins is the new captain.

Meanwhile, Ann Robinson, who has just completed 40 years playing with York Hockey Club, displayed her all-round sporting expertise by winning the first qualifying round of the Jubilee Bowl with a one-under-par nett 73. Other qualifiers were Trish Mitchell, Judith McHenry and Elizabeth Burns.

QUICK off the mark was Forest of Galtres' Nick Marchant. Last season's order of merit champion, he won the first scoring event of the new season, the April midweek medal, with a fine nett 70.

GRAY was the colour that ruled in Forest Park's April Medal. Martin Gray shot a nett 67 to take the honours in the event which was started by an inspired drive from new club captain Ken Russell.

FORMER York Racecourse manager John Smith shot a fine three-under-car 69 to win Fulford's midweek medal.

Updated: 10:31 Saturday, April 17, 2004