British Amateur rules: The winners of the Irish Close Championship and the Irish Strokeplay Championship will have an added incentive this year with the prize of automatic qualification into the British Amateur Championship.

These are among significant changes to the exemption categories for players entering the British Amateur Championship at Royal St George's and Prince's this year. The date of the championship has also been moved to June 19th-24th, two weeks later than normal.

After careful examination of amateur golf calendars throughout the world, these dates have been chosen to permit more college players, particularly those playing in the NCAA Division One finals in the US, to compete.

Exemptions have been extended to the winners of 55 amateur tournaments, including the two Irish events, that have been listed after an 18-month study to identify the top amateur tournaments based on strength of field. Two other exemptions are for the winners of the Boys British Amateur Championship and the US Junior Amateur Championship.

An entrant satisfying any of the exemption categories will be allocated a place in the starting field, irrespective of handicap whereas all non-exempt players must have an exact handicap that does not exceed 0.0.

Irish trio shine

The Irish trio of Claire Coughlan, Martina Gillen and Tricia Mangan all won their singles as the Britain and Ireland squad gained an 8-8 draw with Lancashire men's team at Hillside GC on Sunday in the third of three warm-up matches in preparation for this year's Curtis Cup at Bandon Dunes, Oregon, on July 29th-30th. On Saturday, the squad lost 15½-8½ to the Cheshire County team at Caldy GC after beating the Senior professionals 13½-10½ on Friday at Southport and Ainsdale.

Welsh left-hander Stephanie Evans (Vale of Llangollen) was the most successful squad player winning three of her four ties, while Coughlan and Gillen each recorded three wins from their five starts.

Team captain Ada O'Sullivan from Monkstown GC said: "It is essential that we build team spirit and give the squad players matchplay experience against top-class opposition. The three teams we played included most of the top amateurs in the northwest of England. I knew it would be difficult to win all three, but I fully expected our players to more than hold their own."

Munster junior plans

A series of information meetings on junior golf in Munster will be held at: Macroom GC on Monday, February 20th, 7.30pm, Cahir Park GC Friday, February 24th, 7.30pm, and Castletroy GC on Friday, March 3rd, 7.30pm.

Fred Twomey, Munster provincial coach, will make a presentation on the structure and coaching programme currently in operation.

The Munster Golf Development Model, the result of a long consultative process between PGA Irish Region members in the province, the National Coaching & Training Centre at University of Limerick and Munster Branch officials, will be the main topic for discussion.

Tasty play from Cooke

It was a good week for Liz Cooke in Ashbourne recently. Playing in two singles events, she claimed a second and first in the space of only three days. First in the midweek competition she was two points shy of Brenda Barry's winning score of 21 points in the nine hole event, but at the weekend in the 13 hole event, the 19 handicapper fired an impressive 29 points to win by one from Pauline Dooley (25).

Ace does it

A hole in one is always a helpful way of picking up a few extra bonus points. And that is exactly what Annette McInerney did at Malahide last Saturday. Playing in the 12 hole foursomes event on the yellow/red course, she aced the 6th hole. It helped her and partner Phil Sheehan to 28 points to secure a comfortable win over Louise Kelly and Ann O'Neill.

Oysters at Strandhill

The Christy O'Connor Junior Oyster Golfing Society are back in action this Thursday, February 16th, at Strandhill Golf Club. Anyone who wishes to put their name on the timesheet can do so by phoning David on 091- 529609.

The closing date for the position of Junior Development Officer is Monday, February 20th. Write to: The chairman, Junior Golf Ireland, 1 Clonskeagh Square, Clonskeagh Rd, Dublin 14, or e-mail info@ilgu.ie