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Kelly Tidy and Florentyna Parker take centre stage at British Open
28 July 2010
England’s Florentyna Parker and Kelly Tidy will take centre stage tomorrow when they tee up in the Ricoh Women’s British Open at their home course, Royal Birkdale.
Florentyna, who was one of England’s top amateurs before turning professional, and Kelly, the British ladies’ champion, have been placed in marquee groups for the first two rounds.
Florentyna will start at 7.14am tomorrow, alongside the defending champion Catriona Matthew of Scotland and the recent US Women’s Open winner, Paula Creamer of the United States.
Kelly has been paired alongside the 2004 champion Karen Stupples of England and the 2006 winner, American Sherri Steinhauer, who will tee off at 11.26am.
Florentyna, 21, is playing her second season as a professional and won her maiden professional title at the ABN AMRO Ladies Open in Holland last month and is one of 62 Ladies European Tour players in this year’s final Major Championship. She said: “When I heard that it was being played at Birkdale, I said, okay, that's my aim: to be playing on my home club in such a big event. I'm really happy I am able to play here.”
Kelly, 18, an England international from nearby Bolton, won the ladies’ British amateur championship at Ganton a month ago. She has just been selected to represent Europe for the second time in the Junior Ryder Cup team and has also previously played in the Junior Solheim Cup.
She’s relishing the atmosphere in her first professional tournament and said: “It's great for me, obviously, especially to have the home support and for my family to be able to come.”
The 15-strong British challenge includes eight English women, five Scottish players and two Welsh competitors. England’s Laura Davies, who leads the Ladies European Tour’s Henderson Money List after wins this year in New Zealand and Germany, will be targeting her fifth Major triumph, having won the British Open at Birkdale in 1986 before the tournament was a Major. Meanwhile Stupples, who won in 2004 at Sunningdale, will be aiming for a double.
Trish Johnson, who claimed her 19th career title a month ago in Tenerife, is experiencing a renaissance and will be one to watch, along with young hope Melissa Reid, who claimed her first title earlier this year in Turkey. Two other English players aiming for their first career titles are Georgina Simpson and Henrietta Zuel.
It will be the 35th staging of the tournament, which gained major title status in 2001 and the field features 144 players from 26 different countries worldwide. There are 19 of the world’s top-20 players from the Rolex Women’s World Golf rankings competing, including the newly crowned No.1, Jiyai Shin of South Korea, the 2008 champion at Sunningdale who also won the Evian Masters in France last week.
For the first time this year fans will be able to watch the BBC’s extensive coverage of the Ricoh Women’s British Open in HD (high definition) underlining the significance of the championship in the BBC’s sports portfolio. On Thursday and Friday, the action will be broadcast on BBC Two from 2pm-5.15pm. Saturday’s play will be on BBC One from 2.30pm-5pm, then on BBC Two from 5pm-5.45pm. Sunday’s final round action will be on BBC Two from 3pm-6pm.
