Meet The Teams Competing For The Astor Trophy
- Details
- Category: Across Canada
- Published: 2019-08-28
There are 20 top amateur players from around the world competing at Royal Colwood on five different national teams...
The person on the far left is the first person profiled in the text that follows. Second from the left is second and so on.
All content courtesy Royal Colwood Golf Club.
Meet Team South Africa
South Africa has never won the Astor Trophy and will be fielding the youngest team in the competition with an average age under 18.
Caitlyn Macnab (17)
Macnab is from Johannesburg and attends Home Zone Education Centre. Macnab, South Africa’s top ranked junior, has won four major South African Championships in 2019, so far. She was a member of the SA Team that won the All Africa Junior Challenge in Morocco in 2018 and Botswana in 2019. Macnab represented SA at the 2018 World Amateur Championships.
Kaleigh Telfer (21)
Telfer is from Johannesburg and attends Auburn University in Alabama. Telfer was South Africa’s lone representative at the Augusta National Women’s Amateur – she placed 12th. Telfer was also runner-up in both the 2016 World Amateur Team Championships and the 2014 Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China.
Kaylah Williams (17)
Williams is from Cape Town where she attends Fairmont High School and plays out the Durbanville Golf Club. Williams placed 7th in the Stenson Sunneson Junior Golf Challenge in 2019 and has won several national tournaments. In March 2019, she edged out her Astor Trophy teammate Caitlyn Macnab to win the prestigious Nomads SA Girl’s Rose Bowl Championship.
Kiera Floyd (14)
Floyd is from Johannesburg and attends Home Zone Education Centre. Floyd is a rising star in South Africa and made junior golf history when she beat a predominantly male field at Royal Johannesburg and Kensington Golf Club with a seven-under 65 on the East Course to become the first female champion on the Bridge Fund Managers Junior Series last year. Floyd was also a member of the SA team that won the 2019 All Africa Junior Challenge in Botswana.
Meet Team Australia
Australia has won the Astor Trophy five times – twice in Canada, once in New Zealand and twice in Australia. Australia is bringing an experienced team to defend their 2015 win.
Emily Mahar (20)
Mahar of Brisbane, Queensland is a Junior at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. In 2019 she placed 3rd at the Lady Puerto Rico Classic, 2nd at the Minnesota Invitational and was in the Top 20 at the Australian Amateur Stroke Play. Mahar has competed in three USGA Girls’ Junior Amateurs as well as the USGA Women’s Amateur. The Mahar family moved to the US in 2012 so that Emily could play college golf and work towards fulfilling her dream of playing in the LPGA.
Kirsty Hodgkins (21)
Hodgkins of Brisbane, Queensland is an engineering major at the University of Colorado in Boulder. Her achievements are Champion of the 2016 Riversdale Cup and 2017 Coeur d’Alene Collegiate and placing 3rd in the 2018 Pac-12 preview Championships. Kirsty visited Disneyland earlier this year to run 48.6 miles, over four consecutive days, in Disney's Dopey Challenge, which includes a 5k, 10k, half marathon and a full marathon.
Stacey White (21)
White of Brisbane, Queensland is a Junior at Campbell University in Buies Creek, North Carolina. White placed 2nd in both the 2019 Big South Championship and 2019 LSU Tiger Golf Classic and has been named Big South Golfer of the Week twice.
Amelia Grohn (22)
Grohn of Coffs Harbour, New South Wales is a criminal justice major at Iowa State University. In 2019 Grohn qualified for the US Women’s Amateur and earned a spot on the First-Team Academic All-Big 12 for the second year in a row maintaining a 3.2 GPA.
Meet Team New Zealand
New Zealand has never won the Astor Trophy, but they have finished runner-up five times.
Wenyung Keh (22)
Keh, a Senior at the University of Washington, plays out of the Pakuranga Golf Club in Auckland. In 10 events on the year, she finished with a 74.60 stroke average, two top 10 showings, four rounds under 70 and 9 rounds under par. Keh was invited to compete in the Inaugural Augusta Women's Amateur Championship in April 2019. Wenyung’s sister, Munchin is a pro-golfer.
Julianne Alvarez (23)
Alvarez, also a Senior at the University of Washington, led the Huskies with a scoring average of 73.78 and posted three top 10 showings in 2018-19 with her top effort a tie for third. In 2016 Alvarez was a key component of UW’s winning their first women's golf title, winning all three of her matches, resulting in an invitation to throw out the first pitch at a Seattle Mariners game. This is her 3rd Astor Trophy appearance.
Carmen Lim (15)
Lim, of Auckland, recently won New Zealand’s National Stroke Play Championship. The women’s event was a one-horse race as the teenager claimed a breakthrough victory by seven shots. Lim’s idol Lydia Ko won the event back in 2011. "It's pretty cool to have your name on the same trophy as Lydia's and it's certainly a goal to join her on the LPGA Tour at some stage. It's probably one of the best moments of my career and it hasn't really hit home yet," Lim said.
Amelia Garvey (19)
Garvey was born in the UK and began playing golf in 2006. Garvey is a Sophomore at the University of Southern California. In 2019 she was the runner-up at the Ladies British Amateur held at the County Down course in Northern Ireland. Garvey plays out of the Kaiapoi Golf Club in Canterbury, near Christchurch.
Meet Team Great Britain-Ireland
Great Britain was the winningest team, with seven victories, when the tournament was called the Commonwealth Cup. Since the change to Astor Trophy and the inclusion of Ireland, they have had one victory, in 2011.
Lily May Humphreys (17)
Humphreys is from Stoke-by-Nayland in the UK. Humphreys is the youngest member of Team GB-I and has won six events dating back to April 2017, including victories in the 2017 Girls British Open Amateur Championship and 2018 Helen Holm Scottish Women’s Open Championship. She was also a member of the 2018 GB-I Curtis Cup team. Humphreys didn’t begin playing golf until 2013 and just a few years later in 2018 she won England Golf’s Rising Star Award after winning five times in 2017.
Emily Toy (21)
Toy is from Cornwall in the UK, plays out of the Carlyon Golf Club and attends the University of Exeter. Toy didn’t let her 450th world ranking stop her from taking the biggest prize in European amateur golf in 2019, the Women’s British Amateur at Royal County Down. The win earned her invitations to this year’s AIG Women’s British Open and Evian Championship, and places in next year’s US Women’s Open and the Augusta National Women’s Amateur Championship.
Olivia Mehaffey (21)
Mehaffey is from Banbridge, Ireland and has earned her place on Team GB-I based on her lofty 16th place standing in the World Amateur Golf Rankings. Mehaffey played in the 2019 Augusta National Women’s Amateur, was a member of the 2018 Curtis Cup team and placed 2nd in the 2016 Helen Holm Scottish Championship. It’s been a long road to recovery for Mehaffey who missed out on a summer’s worth of golf after suffering a heavy fall on a family hike. Mehaffey attends Arizona State University.
Alice Hewson (21)
Hewson is from Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire in the UK and is a Senior at Clemson University in South Carolina. Hewson aspires to play on the LPGA and Ladies European Tour and was the first Englishwomen to play competitively at Augusta National – she called it “the thrill of my life” – she tied for 10th. Hewson’s latest win was the 2019 European Ladies' Amateur Championship at Parkstone Golf Club. She is also a two-time Curtis Cup winner, and a three-time winner on the College Circuit as well as the European Team Championships.
Meet Team Canada
Canada has won the Astor Trophy twice, in 1979 and 1987. The tournament has been held in Canada three times and Canada is looking to win on their home turf.
Mary Parsons (20)
Parsons is from Delta, BC and is a junior at Indiana University. Parsons recently competed at the Pan American Games in Lima, Peru, where she was part of Canada’s bronze-medal-winning mixed team, finishing 5th in the women’s competition. This year Parsons won her first collegiate event at the Lady Boilermaker and was a semi-finalist at the PNGA Women’s Amateur Championship. In 2018 Parsons won the BC Women’s Amateur Championship. She is a former member of Golf Canada’s National Junior Girls Squad.
Noémie Paré (21)
Paré is from Victoriaville, Quebec and is heading into her senior year at Barry University in Miami Shores, Florida. Paré qualified for match play at the 2019 British Women’s Amateur and tied for second at the 2019 Quebec Women’s Amateur. In 2019 she tied for 27th at the 2019 Canadian Women’s Amateur Championship at Red Deer Golf & Country Club.
Emily Zhu (15)
Zhu is from Richmond Hill, Ontario and is a member of Golf Canada’s National Junior Girls Squad. Zhu finished third at the 2019 PGA of Canada Women’s Championship, placed 12th at the 2019 Women’s Porter Cup and was second at the 2019 Ontario Women’s Amateur. Zhu recently won the 2019 Canadian Junior Girls Championship at Lethbridge Country Club.
Brooke Rivers (14)
Rivers is from Brampton, Ontario and finished eighth at the 2019 Ontario Women’s Amateur Championship and was runner-up in the 2019 Ontario Women’s Match Play. At time of selection for Team Canada, Rivers was the sixth highest ranked Canadian female on the World Amateur Golf Rankings.
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