Top ten book places in Grand Medal Final

Ten women golfers led by Dawn Hodge from the Isle of Wight, are heading to England Golf’s Grand Medal Final after they secured their places in qualifying. They are: Dawn Hodge of Shanklin & Sandown; Terri Linskey of Wrotham Heath, Kent; Deidre Ann Hope-Gates of Lindfield, Sussex; Melanie Newport of Sutton Green, Surrey, Judy Ames of Royal Winchester, Hampshire; Stephanie Marshall of Birchwood Park, Kent; Jo Elder of Wimbledon Common, Surrey; Junko Moriuchi of Hendon, Middlesex; Lynda Guppy of Cuddington, Surrey; Pat Whitty of Hever Castle, Kent.

They will play off with qualifiers from five other events to find the country’s top handicap golfer at the Grand Medal Final at Frilford Heath in Oxfordshire on Thursday, 13 August. It will be a feature of the new Golf Week festival, staged by England Golf to create a national grand finale for a host of handicap and team championships.

The qualifiers were among more than 100 women club winners who took part in the South regional medal final at Royal Blackheath in Kent, which was the first England Golf championship event of the 2015 season. All the regional finalists had returned the best four scores at their club in the England Golf Medals during 2014.

Dawn Hodge (pictured), played under her eleven handicap for a net score of one-under 71 to win the event and claim her place in her first national final. She said, “It will be brilliant, absolutely fantastic. I’m not used to playing in big competitions and it’s been a brilliant experience. You don’t normally have tee markers and a giant scoreboard at club competitions and it makes you feel special!”