CHARLOTTE AUSTWICK has been selected as part of the Great Britain team competing in the World University Games Golf Championship in July.
The golfing star will be one of seven golfers representing Britain at Liberec, in the far north of the Czech Republic, between the 2nd and 7th July.
Austwick qualified for the event thanks to her stunning performance in the BUCS Strokeplay Finals at West Lancashire Golf Club last month.
Finishing fourth with a score of 306 after the four rounds, she confirmed her position as the best female player from an English university. Austwick said: “It’s the first time I’ve been selected for a national team and I’m very excited to be given the opportunity to play.”
“It’s going to be only the second time I will have played golf abroad so I’m really looking forward to it and will be working hard to be at my best for the tournament.”
Three female and four male players will be participating, five of whom are from Stirling University, one from Plymouth University and Austwick from York.
The news caps a marvellous season for Austwick. In March, she won the BUCS South Easter Qualifier in Kent by a comfortable two shots, followed by a runner-up position at the BUCS Northern Qualifier at St Anne Old Links in Lancashire.
These successes meant that Austwick qualified in joint first place on the Women’s England Universities Order of Merit to get through to compete in the prestigious BUCS Strokeplay Individual Finals.
She continued her remarkable vein of form by finishing fourth at the difficult Formby Leveret National Ladies’ championship, carding a remarkable hole-in-one in the process.
This was followed by a fifth-placed finish in the R&A Scholars Tournament in April, confirming her status as the best English university player. The result was all the more impressive given the treacherous conditions.
In the meantime, however, Charlotte says her golf will have to be put to one side for her degree, a familiar story for many this term: “For now my focus is on my studies until the end of May when I will be able to play full-time golf through the summer months.”