The Netherlands’ Christel Boeljon tees up in this week’s European Nations Cup alongside Dewi Claire Schreefel with a place in The Solheim Cup in her sights.
This year’s biennial clash between Europe and the United States takes place at Killeen Castle in Ireland in September. The European Nations Cup will provide a valuable warm-up, played in a combination of four-ball, better ball and Valencian Cup, which is a variation on the Greensomes format.
Boeljon won the European Nations Cup as a rookie in 2009, representing the Netherlands with Marjet van der Graaff.
Now in her third year as a professional, she is currently eighth on The Solheim Cup European points’ list from which the top four players will receive automatic qualification for the team on 28th August. The next four highest European players will qualify from the Rolex World Rankings, followed by four wild card picks.
Boeljon knows that she must continue her fine run of form in Europe if she is to make Alison Nicholas’s 12 woman line-up, but strong performances in the United States will also help.
A run of seven top-10 finishes on the Ladies European Tour in 2010 – including joint runner-up three times – was backed up by a tie for 15th at the Kraft Nabisco Championship in the United States a fortnight ago, which was the first Major championship of the season and it has pushed the 23-year-old closer to her Cup debut.
“I’m going to focus on Europe still, because it’s a Solheim Cup year and I’m going to try to see if I can get on the team so we’ll see what happens,” she said. “I’ll try to fit some LPGA tournaments on my schedule to try to keep my card because that would be a very big bonus and very nice.”
She is full of confidence after her recent showing at the Kraft Nabisco Championship and hopes that she can impress Alison Nicholas.
“I’ve had a couple of good weeks in America so that has given me a lot of confidence. You’re always working on your game and trying to get better every day,” she said.
Schreefel is making her European Nations Cup debut and Boeljon added: “It’s going to be fun because we know each other well and we’ve played a lot of amateur golf together. We were both in the States at college so we know each other’s games pretty well.
“We are both pretty much the same: consistent all the way through. We hit it pretty straight. Dewi and I are going to play as if we’re going to win the tournament. We both believe in ourselves and as a team so we’ll see what happens.”
Schreefel, 25, is also in her third year as a professional and was equally confident. She said: “Christel knows the format, but we are both good players. In this format if you have two players that play to their potential you can take it very low.”
