Welsh golfers to compete in Nations Cup

Wales have announced both their male and ladies’ teams to compete in the European Nations Championship in Sotogrande next week.

The men’s team consists of four players in the Top 200 of the European Golf Rankings, while the women’s team includes The World Amateur Golf Ranking’s No45.

Jonathan Bale (Royal Porthcawl), Will Jones (Oswestry), Jason Shufflebotham (Prestatyn) and Ben Westgate (Trevose) will compete for the men in Spain.

Jones recently crashed out of the Spanish International Amateur Championship at the last 16 stage to the eventual champion, Ireland’s Reeve Whitson.

He will be looking to continue his good form alongside Shufflebotham, who had a tournament to forget at La Manga, Bale, who posted a Top 25 finish at last year’s South of England Open Championship, and Westgate, who finished third at last year’s Lytham Trophy behind German Moritz Lampert and Daan Huizing of the Netherlands.

For the ladies, Amy Boulden (Conwy), Becky Harries (Haverfordwest) and Chloe Williams (Wrexham) are set to do battle, while Tadmarton Heath’s Kath O’Connor has been named as a non-travelling reserve.

Top-ranked Welsh star Boulden was part of the British & Irish team that picked up the Curtis Cup last year for the first time since 1996, scoring two out of four points, as well as the Leveret Trophy and the Helen Holm Scottish Open Stroke Play Championship individually.

She will be looking to kick off 2013 with another team victory, and will be backed up by Wales’ No2 and No3 golfers. Williams had a very consistent 2012 and recently starred for Team GB at the Australian Youth Olympics Festival in Sydney in January – taking bronze individually and helping Team GB to the gold.

Harries recently competed against Boulden at the Portuguese International Amateur and the WAGR No72, who jumped up 20 places in the rankings this week, will be looking to climb even higher with a good performance at Sotogrande.

The event kicks off on March 13, with play concluding on March 16.