CURTIS Cup ace Emma Duggleby was today celebrating the ideal finale to a superb 2004.

North Yorkshire's leading women's amateur golfer for nigh on a decade has been named The Daily Telegraph Woman Golfer of the Year - one of the game's most prestigious prizes.

It was an award which thrilled the 33-year-old Duggleby, who plays out of Malton and Norton GC.

She told the Evening Press: "It tops my year off so well.

"While I have had a good season I am surprised to have won such a prized award. It's one of those things you wish you might be in the running for, so to have won it is special."

Duggleby enjoyed another fine season in which she captured the Scottish Open stroke-play title besides reaching the semi-finals of the English women's championship and finishing fourth in the British strokeplay championship.

But it was her performance in the Curtis Cup at Formby last summer which she attributed to her Daily Telegraph prize.

One of the few successes in a Great Britain and Ireland team again bested by their American rivals, Duggleby recalled: "I had quite a successful Curtis Cup from a personal point of view."

Updated: 10:35 Wednesday, December 08, 2004