Evans - Women can make their mark against men

Kent Assistant Sian Evans believes the gap between male and female golfers is slowly being reduced.

Evans, of Kings Hill Golf Club, is taking part in the £32,000 Galvin Green PGA Assistant’s Final which takes place at Coxmoor Golf club in Nottinghamshire between August 2-4.

And at a time when Lydia Hall has won the Welsh National PGA Championship and Ireland’s Hazel Kavanagh became the first woman to qualify for the PGA Professional Championship in Ireland this year, Evans will head to the event in optimistic mood.

Evans is combing her challenge with regional events playing alongside male golfers as well as here involvement in the WPGA Order of Merit.

“I’m trying to play a bit of everything at the moment,” said Evans, who is preparing for her second Assistants’ Final after missing the cut at Coventry Golf Club two years ago.

“I think we are catching up to the men a little bit, maybe in a small way. It’s just nice to be able to play in these event and do okay.

“I played in an event in a men’s Order of Merit event and tied seventh overall, but I actually thought I should've done a lot better than that if a few more putts had gone in. But that’s golf isn’t it!”

Evans, who now completed her final PGA training exams, is now hoping that she has some momentum going into the Coxmoor final: “In 2015 I was coming back from injury but I played well last year. My form has been okay this year too,” said the West Malling based player.

“I haven't played at Coxmoor before but I’ve had a look online and it seems quite a nice venue.”

Evans was formerly at East Tennessee State University in the USA and now intends to take her game to the next level using her PGA qualification.

“I plan to go to European Tour School in Morocco at the end of the year,” she explained. “I’ll go from there and I’d also like to do a director of golf qualification at some point and be a manager somewhere. The PGA allows you to look for opportunities all over the world.”

Other Assistants taking part at Coxmoor include: James Johnson (Bramley Golf Club); Colton Davis (Cooden Beach Golf Club); Jack Ryan (Birchwood Park Golf & Country); Jonathan Ingram (Royal Ashdown Forest Golf Club);  Luke Sullivan (Surrey Downs Golf Club);  Joseph Queen (West Sussex Golf Club) and Kevin O’Connell (Purley Downs Golf Club).