Leona, Olivia and Annabel set for Espirito Santo

World No 1 Leona Maguire will represent Ireland in next month's World Amateur Team Championships for the Espirito Santo Trophy in Mexico.

Leona Maguire, Olivia Mehaffey and Annabel Wilson will represent Ireland in next month's World Amateur Team Championships for the Espirito Santo Trophy in Mexico.

Slieve Russell's Maguire, three time Curtis Cup player and the current world No 1, has represented Ireland on two previous occasions at the WATC; 2010 in Argentina alongside Danielle McVeigh and twin sister Lisa Maguire and 2012 in Turkey with teammates Stephanie Meadow and Paula Grant.

She is due to compete at the Olympic Games in Rio, Brazil next week representing Team Ireland, alongside Meadow.

Royal County Down's Mehaffey will be making her way to Mexico in September from her new home in Arizona as she travels to Arizona State University (ASU) this week to embark on a golf scholarship. 

A World Amateur Team Championship debutante, world No 5 Mehaffey was a member of the victorious 2016 Curtis Cup team alongside Maguire and has this year won the Welsh Ladies, Irish Ladies and Irish Close Championships. She was also third at the European Individual Championship in Sweden.

Up and coming Lurgan star, Wilson, will travel to Mexico with Maguire and Mehaffey with the hopes of securing a top place finish. A two time Irish Girls’ Close champion, she represented Great Britain and Ireland at the 2015 Junior Vagliano Trophy Matches at Malone and more recently was a member of the victorious Girls’ Home International Team, where she claimed five points out of six to help Ireland lift the trophy for the first time. 

Ireland’s other Curtis Cup star, Maria Dunne (Skerries) was unavailable for selection.

The biennial WATC, organised by the International Golf Federation, was first held in 1964 and recent tournaments have featured teams from upwards of forty countries.

It is a stroke play event, in which the best two individual scores from three count on each of the four days. 2010 marked Ireland’s best finish in the tournament where the Maguire twins and Danielle McVeigh secured 11th place. Australia are the current holders of the Espirito Santo Trophy.