Amateur News: The Leinster Branch of the Golfing Union of Ireland have announced the appointment of Teresa Thompson to the post of executive officer. She takes up this position next January, and will be based at the branch's new offices at Carton House, Maynooth, in the New Year.

Thompson's appointment follows the retirement at the year end of the current executive officer, Paul Smyth, with whom she started working in 1996.

Thompson was appointed secretary of the ILGU in 1999, but returned to the Leinster Branch in 2004 to take up her current position as tournament secretary.

Married to Powerscourt professional Paul Thompson, Theresa has a long association with golf, as she hails from the well-known Bradshaw family. She represented Ireland at junior level and continues to have a keen interest in the game, playing off a single figure handicap at Delgany Golf Club.

"I am absolutely delighted to have this opportunity to work with the officers and council of the Leinster Branch in assisting them to manage and develop golf in Leinster. I look forward to our move to Carton House, where I believe the facilities both from an administrative and training prospective for our elite players will be second to none.

"I have been fortunate to have worked both with women's and men's golf over the past 10 years, which I believe has given me a real insight into the future requirements of amateur golf," said Thompson.

Meanwhile, Martina Gillen, the winner of the Helen Holm Scottish Strokeplay Championship earlier in the year, will be Ireland's only representative in the Women's European Tour Qualifying School Stage One at La Cala Resort on the Costa Del Sol next month.

The Beaverstown international will be joined by five Scots - Clare Queen, Cara Gruber, Heather Stirling, Lesley Mackay and US-based tour professional Vikki Laing from Musselburgh - in the record field of 165 entries.

Gillen and the Scots must, however, play in a 36-hole pre-qualifying stage one event on November 16th and 17th at La Cala Resort, where a field of 119 will be competing for 44 places in the four-round Stage Two event from November 19th to 22th.

Tara Delaney recorded her second top-20 finish when she led Kent State University to eighth place at the Mercedes-Benz Women's Championship at the Cherokee Country Club. In a tournament featuring the third, seventh, eighth and ninth-ranked teams in the US, the Golden Flashes would have fared even better if not for a disappointing second round.

Delaney opened with a 71 and shot 72 in the final round, but a disappointing 81 in the second round left her back in a share of 11th place.

Sister Karen shot 85, 82 and 85 for 73rd place as Kent State carded a final round 299 to finish with a 914 total.

Georgia, the third ranked team on the US college scene, won the tournament by three shots from Purdue, Indiana, while Amanda McCurdy won the individual title at even-par 213.

Alison Walshe, who won the All-American and Conference US Player of the Year last season, led Tulane University to 10th place. Walshe finished in 17th place in the individual after rounds of 78, 72 and 75 for a 225 total.

Royal Dublin's Neil O'Briain fired two under-par rounds to finish tied for third place among the individuals as Wofford University finished in fifth place out of 16 schools at the Re/Max-UTC Fall Classic in Hixson, Tennessee, last week.

The Terriers shot rounds of 290, 281 and 295 for 866 to finish 14-over par at the event on the 6,704-yard, par-71 Valleybrook Golf and Country Club.

O'Briain turned in his third-straight top-five finish, all under par, with a three-under par 74, 66, 70 for 210 total. He finished four shots behind the individual winner Bryce Ledford of Chattanooga, who also captured the team crown as the only school under par with a team tally of 15 under par.

Niall Turner from Muskerry GC, who was named College Player of the Week after his victory in the September Gopher Invitational, finished 25th after rounds of 72, 72 and 74 for 218 in the Duke Classic in North Carolina. The University of Minnesota, where Turner is a student, finished fourth, six shots behind winners Duke.

Former Welsh Golfing Union president Andrew Morgan was recently elected president of the European Golf Association, the first Welshman to hold the position.

The 56-year-old Cardiff dentist has had a distinguished career in golf administration. A member of the Welsh Golfing Union's Council for over 20 years, he was the WGU's youngest president during its centenary year in 1995, and more recently he was a key member of the team which won the bid to stage the Ryder Cup in 2010.

Morgan's two-year term as president will culminate in Wales staging the general assembly of the European Golf Association in October 2007.