Cavan's Leona and Lisa Maguire have been selected on the European PING Junior Solheim Cup Team to play the United States at Aurora GC, Illinois, on 18-19 August.
Leona and Lisa's awesome foursome and four ball pairings were a major factor in Ireland' s success at the European Girls' Team championships in Finlan, with the girls boasting a 100 percent record in the foursomes matches played over the week.
Leona was the first of six players to qualify automatically, while her sister Lisa received a wildcard selection from Carin Koch, the European Captain. The United States team will be announced on 20 July by US Team Captain Nancy Lopez.
Leona is the current French U21 Champion and won the recent Helen Holm Scottish Open Strokeplay title, while Lisa is the 2009 Irish Women’s Amateur and Irish Women's Close champion.
On qualifying for The PING Junior Solheim Cup, Leona said: 'I am really looking forward to this event. Last week at the European Girls' Team Championship, Ireland played really well and Lisa and I were unbeaten in the foursome matches. It is great to have her in the team. We would like to bring the Cup home to Europe.”
Lisa added:'We might look exactly similar to one another but our swing is different. You can definitely see the difference. Right now, I hit it a little bit further and Leona might be a little bit better around the green. I am so happy about receiving a wild card.'
The five other players who earned automatic selection for the European squad were the 2009 German Girls’ Open champion Klara Spilkova (Czech Republic), Ana Fernandez de Mesa (Spain), Johanna Tillström (Sweden), Spanish amateur champion Anna Arese (Spain) and Tonje Daffinrud (Norway).
The five further players selected were Sherlyn Popelka (Switzerland), Sophia Popov (Germany), Rosanna Crepiat (France), Sally Watson (Scotland) and Kelly Tidy (England).
