Teenage three chasing Higher scores at Lossie
kelsey flying high as exam trio put down their cards and turn over their papers
Published:
NAIRN Dunbar’s Kelsey MacDonald is one of three teenagers who will take a break from the intensity of the 93rd Scottish women’s amateur championship tomorrow to sit exams.
MacDonald, Samantha Leslie (Murcar Links) and Tain’s Sammy Vass will sit Higher exams at the Moray GC clubhouse at Lossiemouth.
Yesterday, 17-year-old MacDonald passed a golfing test of character and skill with flying colours to end the first qualifying round in joint third place with a one-under-par 75.
Her patience and long driving were rewarded with an eagle-3 at the 416yd seventh hole but a triple-bogey 7 at the par-4 ninth would have undermined the confidence of many a player.
“I lost a ball of my first hooked drive and then hooked my next tee shot almost into the same place,” she said. “I had to take a drop under penalty but finished up getting up and down with a pitch and a putt for a 7. I thought I did well to escape with a triple bogey – it could have been a couple of shots more. I was only one over par at the turn, so it wasn’t as though I was playing badly.”
MacDonald then showed her class with birdies at the long 11th, long 14th and par-4 16th before, like so many others, she bogeyed the 18th.
Mortonhall’s Claire Hargan and Kylie Walker (Buchanan Castle), playing partners on the day, ignored the Tornado jets taking off from adjacent RAF Lossiemouth to share the lead on three-under-par 73. A wind-assisted first half followed by most of the inward half into a cool breeze from the east was reflected in most of the returns.
Samantha Leslie, Murcar Links, shared the best outward half honours with Claire Hargan, but took 44 blows to come home. She is in the top 10 overnight alongside fellow Aberdonian Sheena Wood, from Aberdeen Ladies.
Michele Thomson (McDonald Ellon), who is on Curtis Cup duty at the end of the month, lost a ball off her first tee shot and was in two bunkers at the second for a bogey, double-bogey start.
Out in 42, she finished with a three-over 79 but said: “After that bad start I covered the rest of the holes in level par with an eagle-3 at the 11th and only a couple of bogeys, at the eighth and 18th. It’s all about making the top 32 to qualify for the match-play.”
The leading 32 players at the end of today’s second qualifying round will advance to the match-play stages.
