TEENAGERS Steffen Foley and Fay Carpenter will fly the flag for Dorset in the prestigious Andalucia Junior European Open in Spain, which starts on Sunday

Parkstone and Bulbury Woods member Foley and Carpenter, who plays out of Ferndown, will compete in what is widely regarded as the toughest test in the junior game.

The event, organised in association with the Daily Express, is played off scratch over four rounds at the Alcaidesa resort with qualifiers going forward to an 18-hole final at Finca Cortesin, venue for the Volvo World Matchplay.

Foley, 15, who attends Lytchett Minster School, and 16-year-old Carpenter, a sixth former at Queen Elizabeth’s in Wimborne, qualified recently at Lingfield Park in Surrey – one of the eight regional finals venues across the UK.

Five-handicapper Foley told the Daily Echo: “I have been mainly working on my posture to get a bit more upright and fine tuning my swing ready for the tournament in Spain.

“I know it is going to be hard. We play two rounds on the links and two rounds on the heathland courses which are completely different.

“What I want to achieve is a top-10 finish. There are a lot of good golfers going and, if I could do that, I would be happy with my achievement.”

Carpenter is no stranger to international competition having played in the 2002 Young Masters final in Spain where she won her age category.

She also qualified to play in the United States when she won the HSBC Wee Wonders grand final in Scotland and is the current Dorset girls’ champion.

Three-handicapper Carpenter, who is hoping to get a golf scholarship in America in 2015, also won this year’s West of England under-16s competition and is a member of the Dorset ladies’ first-team squad.

Foley is also hoping to win a place at one of the top golf colleges in America and said: “I want to go to America if I can and get a full scholarship over there.

"To get a basic scholarship, I would need to get down to a handicap of two or below by the time I am 17. But, by then, I would like to be off scratch.

“Hopefully, if I could get to America, it would improve my golf hugely and then I could try to turn professional and get on to one of the tours out there.”

  • Dorset’s Georgia Hall, who this week announced she would be turning professional in April, is looking for sponsors to help during her debut season.

She can be contacted by sending an email to: georgiahallgolf@yahoo.com