The French International Ladies Amateur Championship, known since 1998 also as the Cécile de Rothschild Trophy, is an annual amateur

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

tournament in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

for women. This stroke play championship, contested over 54 holes, was first held in 1962, making it the oldest such international ladies amateur championship in Europe. The British equivalent, the

British Ladies Amateur Stroke Play Championship Ladies' British Open Amateur Stroke Play Championship was founded in 1969 by the Ladies' Golf Union (now merged into The R&A) of Great Britain. A stroke play tournament over 72 holes, it was discontinued by the R&A after the 2017 tournament won b ...

, was created several years later. Initially it attracted little international interest and the title was contested mainly between French players.

Brigitte Varangot Brigitte Varangot (1 May 1940 – 12 October 2007) was a French amateur golfer. Early life Varangot was born in Biarritz in the French Basque Country and was a self-taught golfer, who did not take many lessons and did not practice a lot. Lally ...

Catherine Lacoste Catherine Lacoste (born 27 June 1945) is a French amateur golfer and the only player who has won the U.S. Women's Open as an amateur. Early life She was born and grew up in Paris, France, with her parents, René Lacoste and Simone de la Chaume a ...

and Odile Garaïalde dominated the event in the early years. By the 1990s the championship was attracting an international field and in 1992 the Spaniard

Estefania Knuth Estefania Knuth (born 4 May 1973) is a Spanish professional golfer and former member of the Ladies European Tour. She won the 1992 Espirito Santo Trophy and the 1995 Singapore Ladies Open. Career Knuth was born in Barcelona and had a successful ...

won the title, followed in second place by her compatriot Laura Navarro. Between 1994 and 2002 the tournament was contested every other year, alternating with the International de France Match Play, which was discontinued in 2001. Since 1998, due to a donation from Nathaniel de Rothschild, the winner is presented with the Cécile de Rothschild Trophy in her memory. The trophy is always kept at Morfontaine Golf Club.

Winners

Source:

References

{{Reflist

External links

Fédération française de golf
Amateur golf tournaments Golf tournaments in France