AUBURN – Auburn women's golf's Marta Sanz will be traveling to Turkey this week to compete in the 2012 Women's World Amateur Team Championship, Sept. 27-30. The junior from Madrid, Spain will be representing her home country in the international championship.
The tournament features three-player teams with the two low scores from each round counting toward a country's score. Sanz is joined by Camilla Hedberg, a sophomore at Florida, and Marta Silva Zamora, a recent graduate of Georgia.
Held at the Gloria Golf Club's Old and New Courses in Antalya, Turkey, the 72-hole tournament features teams from 122 countries.
Spain enters play as one of the favorites, following its win at the World University Golf Championship this summer. In the tournament, Sanz finished 11-under-par tied for third.
"I think we have a great, great team. The other two players are really good, and we're going to win it," said Sanz. "We have high expectations."
Spain's biggest competition during the tournament is Korea, who took the title in 2010, and the United States, whose team is composed of USC's Lisa McCloskey, UCLA's Erynne Lee and Austin Ernst, who played at LSU before turning pro.
Leading up to play, Sanz is looking forward to the experience she will have at the tournament.
"I've heard it's a great experience. It's like another level tournament," said Sanz. "It's televised, and the entire world is watching you because it's a really good tournament. It's a little bit of pressure probably."
Spain has won the championship twice in 1986 and 1992 and is looking to bring home its third medal, an experience that would be indescribable for Sanz.
"I really, really love Spain and representing Spain," said Sanz. "At the World University Championship when we stepped on that podium and the flag was going up, it was crazy. I felt so proud. It was unbelievable."
Sanz is the fifth Tiger all-time and the third in recent years to compete in the championship. Celeste Troche (Paraguay) played in 2000 while Maria Martinez represented Venezuela in 2004. Cydney Clanton (United States) and Diana Fernandez (Paraguay) both played in 2010.
Practice for the tournament began last Saturday with the first round set to begin Thursday morning. Spain will play with Germany and New Zealand in the first round, teeing off from 8:30 – 8:50 a.m.
Live stats can be found at www.GolfStat.com and more information for the tournament can be found at www.worldamateur2012.org.
INFORMATION SOURCE: Auburn Athletics Dept.
Marta Sanz (Courtesy: Auburn Athletics)
