EGU send Ford, Keenan on five

-tournament trip to Australia

PRESS RELEASE ISSUED BY ENGLISH GOLF UNION
Charlie Ford and Farren Keenan, both internationals and members of the England Squad for 2009, will represent the English Golf Union (EGU) in five successive Australian tournaments over the coming weeks.
The pair will contest the Avondale Medal at Avondale Golf Club on 16th - 17th January, the Australian Cup on 18th January, followed by the Lake Macquarie International on 22nd - 24th January.
They will then move on to the New South Wales Amateur Championship incorporating the 72-hole NSW Medal at Twin Creeks and Bonnie Doon Golf Clubs on 31st January - 2nd February, with the leading 32 players qualifying for the match play at The Australian on 4th - 8th February.
Keenan (pictured above by courtesy of Tom Ward Photograph), 24, is a former Under 16 and Boy International who made his full England debut in last autumn’s Home Internationals in Scotland. He has also represented GB&I against Europe in the Jacques Leglise Trophy.
He is a previous winner of the Sir Henry Cooper Junior Masters, the Mauritius Amateur (twice) and the Surrey Championship, while in 2008 he claimed the Berkshire Trophy. Ford, 23, from Leicestershire, became a full England cap in the 2007 Home Internationals in Ireland and has since represented England in last year’s European Men’s Team Championships and Home Internationals.
He gained considerable success while at the University of Texas and finished runner-up in the World University Games in Bangkok in 2007. The duo will be seeking a third successive English victory in the 54-hole Avondale Medal, Steve Lewton and Matthew Cryer having triumphed in the past two years.
The 18-hole Australian Cup at The Australian Golf Club is a new event with a field of 72 international players, while the long established 72-hole Lake Macquarie International at Belmont Golf Club has been won by England’s Roger Chapman, Russell Claydon, Ricky Willison, Nick Dougherty and Adam Gee, while Gary Wolstenholme lost a play-off in 1998.
The field in the New South Wales Medal will play one round over the Twin Creeks and Bonnie Doon courses after which there will be a cut with the leading 60 players plus ties playing 36 holes at Bonnie Doon on 2nd February.
The leading 32 players from that will enter the match play knockout competition at The Australian, each match being contested over 36 holes. In 2007, Wolstenholme won the match play, having been beaten in the final the previous year.
SCOTS IN CHINA ... AND AUSTRALIA
Ross Kellett (Colville Park), Gordon Yates (Hilton Park) and Fraser Fotheringham (Nairn) are in the field of 88 players for the Mission Hills Asia Pacific Open amateur championship which starts in China tomorrow. It's a four-round stroke-play event ending on Friday.
Kellett and Yates are then heading to Australia to play in the Lake Macquarie event at Belmont Golf Club (January 22-24) and the New South Wales Amateur championship from January 31 to February 2.