June 8, 2009

HARLECH, Wales -- Just a few weeks after completing the 2008-09 season at the NCAA Championships in Owings Mills, Md., Lady Vol golfers are back in action this week.

Rising senior Diana Cantú, rising junior Rebecca Watson and rising sophomore Nathalie Mansson will compete at the 2009 Ladies British Open Amateur Championship from June 9-13 at the Royal St. David's Golf Club.

The 141-player field will compete in the 36-hole stroke-play portion of the championship on Tuesday and Wednesday to decide the 64 players who will compete in the match play portion of the tournament from Thursday to Saturday.

Cantú, a Monterrey, Mexico, native, was Tennessee's top putter statistically and fourth on the Lady Vols with a 76.47 stroke average this past season. She joined Mansson on the Lady Vols squad that finished fourth at the SEC Championship, third at the NCAA East Regional and 17th at the NCAA Championships.

Mansson, a Stockholm, Sweden, native, earned All-SEC Second Team and All-Region honors while leading UT and setting the Lady Vol freshman scoring record with a 73.79 average during her inaugural collegiate campaign.

Watson, of Edinburgh, Scotland, competed in seven tournaments in 2008-09, including the Mercedes-Benz Women's Collegiate Championships in October where she led the Big Orange by tying for 15th.

All three women have international championship experience.

Cantú has competed on various Mexican junior and national teams, including at the 2008 World Amateur Championships in Australia last October.

Mansson tied for 40th at the Scandinavian TPC, a European Tour event in August of 2008, and was a member of various Swedish junior national teams in addition to Europe's Junior Solheim Cup team that defeated the U.S. in 2007.

Last year's Ladies British Open Amateur Championship winner was former Arizona State star Anna Nordqvist, of Sweden, who has since turned professional. However, current Sun Devil and 2007 British Amateur champion, Carlota Ciganda, of Spain, is in the field.

In addition to the three Lady Vols competing in Wales, rising senior Ginny Brown as well as former Lady Vols Nicole Smith, Marci Turner and Jessica Shepley all advanced from local qualifying to the 250-person sectional qualifying field for the 2009 U.S. Women's Open. Brown and Smith, who just wrapped up her Lady Vol career in May, will both compete in the one-day 36-hole Sectional Qualifier at Carolina Trace Country Club in Sanford, N.C., on June 11, for a spot in the U.S. Open field.

The 2009 U.S. Women's Open will be held from July 6-12, at Saucon Valley Country Club in Bethlehem, Pa.