Stirling University student Kelsey MacDonald finished top of the class for the third year in a row in the Scottish under-21 girls’ open amateur stroke-play golf championship at Dunfermline Golf Club yesterday.
The 19-year-old Scottish women’s champion from the Nairn Dunbar club signed off in champion style with a two-under-par 70, the joint lowest round of the tournament, for a one-over-par total of 217.
That gave her a four-stroke winning margin from last year’s Scottish women’s champion, Megan Briggs (Kilmacolm).
MacDonald is the first player since Kathryn Imrie in 1985, 1986 and 1987 to complete a hat-trick of wins in this event and she is still young enough to have a tilt at Suzanne Cadden’s four-timer record, set between 1974 and 1977.
Meanwhile, Hannah McCook (Abernethy), Ailsa Summers (Carnoustie Ladies) and Craigielaw’s Gabrielle MacDonald are the three new faces in the Scotland team for the under-18 girls’ home golf international matches at Bangor Golf Club, Northern Ireland, from August 4 to 6.
McCook was runner-up in the Paul Lawrie Foundation Scottish schoolgirls’ championship at Murrayhall in May and beaten finalist in the North of Scotland women’s championship at Forfar earlier this month.
The rest of the eight-strong team played in last year’s girls’ home international matches at Fairhaven GC, Lancashire, where they finished runners-up to England.
SCOTLAND TEAM — Lesley Atkins (Gullane Ladies), Eilidh Briggs (Kilmacolm), Gabrielle MacDonald (Craigielaw), Hannah McCook (Abernethy), Alyson McKechin (Elderslie), Ailsa Summers (Carnoustie Ladies), Rachael Taylor (Hartl Golf Resort, Germany), Rachael Watton (Mortonhall). Reserves: 1 Gemma Dryburgh (IMG Academies), 2 Rachael Polson (Peterculter), 3 Alison Goodwin (Glenbervie).
