Briggs waits as Curtis Cup team set to be revealed

KILMACOLM’S Eilidh Briggs is facing an anxious wait to learn if she will be named today in the Great Britain & Ireland team to defend the Curtis Cup in St Louis next month.

Eilidh Briggs finds out today if she has been selected for the Great Britain team. Picture: Getty

A weekend win in the Welsh Women’s Open Stroke-Play Championship at Prestatyn boosted Briggs’ prospects of making an eight-strong side to take on the Americans.

It is being selected through a new process introduced by the Ladies Golf Union for this year’s match, with four players coming off the world rankings, two off an Order of Merit and the remaining two wild-card selections.

Almost certainly, the four world ranking spots will go to Northern Ireland’s Stephanie Meadow, a member of the winning team at Nairn in 2012, plus English trio Georgia Hall, Annabel Dimmock and Bronte Law.

Another English player, Gabriella Cowley, looks set to secure one of the Order of Merit berths, with Briggs a contender for the other one after her timely triumph.

There was uncertainty about that, though, as the standings had not been updated on the LGU website yesterday, leaving Briggs facing a selection sweat.

Two players definitely not in contention are the Maguire twins – Lisa and Leona. They declared themselves unavailable due to school exams when the LGU emailed players earlier this year.

As for the wild cards, English duo Alexandra Peters and Meaghan MacLaren are believed to be ahead of Scot Gemma Dryburgh in the queue for those.

Dryburgh, lying just outside the top 50, is next of the GB&I players on the world rankings, but it seems Briggs is the best bet to have a Scot doing battle in Missouri next month.

Meanwhile, Blairgowrie’s Bradley Neil should be set to make another move up the men’s world rankings after his third-place finish in the Lytham Trophy on Sunday.

It was another eye-catching performance by the 18-year-old, who was runner-up in both the South African Stroke-Play and European Nations Cup earlier in the year.

Elsewhere, Colin Montgomerie has now chalked up six consecutive top-ten finishes on the Champions Tour this season. It follows the 50-year-old finishing third behind Bernhard Langer in the Insperity Invitational in Houston.

Montgomerie, who shot rounds of 71, 66 and 70, is sitting fourth in this season’s money-list on the US-based over-50s circuit.

Langer won the Insperity Invitational for the third time, closing with a one-under 71 on Sunday for a one-stroke victory over Fred Couples. In doing so, the German became the tenth 20-time winner on the Champions Tour.