FIONA LOCKHART IS NEW SCOTTISH CHAMPION

First-time finalist Fiona Lockhart, from the St Regulus club, St Andrews, beat the hot favourite and defending champion Anne Laing (Vale of Leven) by 3 and 2 in the 18-hole final of the 91st Scottish women's amateur golf championship at bright but breezy Cruden Bay today (Saturday).
So 30-year-old Anne's bid to become only the fourth player in the 102-year history of the tournament to win the title three years in a row was thwarted by a one-handicap player who recently won the Fife county championship but has never been selected to play for Scotland.
Miss Laing, a lecturer at Elmwood College, Cupar, was expected to win easily in what was her sixth appearance in the final. A +3 rated player, she had been champion in 1996, 2003 and 2004.
But it was not to be. Fiona, the 28-year-old underdog who has made a career in golfing administration - first with the Ladies Golf Union, then the Scottish Ladies Golfing Association and now with the Scottish Golf Union - made the kind of start that filled her with the confidence she needed to tackle such a redouble opponent.
Miss Lockhart birdied the first from 10ft, holed a 20ft putt after driving into a bunker to halve the second and then, after Anne Laing had square the match by driving the green for a two-putt birdie at the third, the Fifer hit back right away by holding a 10ft putt for a birdie 2 at the fourth.
Fiona went two up with a par at the sixth, where the defending champion three-putted, and three ahead at the seventh as Anne Laing struggled to get her game into synch.
Miss Lockhart, indeed, should have gone four up when Anne pulled her drive into the rough at the eighth but Fiona missed from 3ft to let her opponent off with a half in bogey 5s.
Miss Laing at last got a revival going by birdieing the 10th, 11th and 12th to square the match.
But Miss Lockhart was not shaken. In fact she was stirred into taking the lead again with a par at the 13th. That became two up when Fiona birdied the 15th by getting down in two putts from 40ft.
Anne Laing finally capitulated at the short 16th where Miss Lockhart's two-putt three was enough to win the hole, the match by 3 and 2 and the coveted title.
Fiona was level par for the 16 holes while Anne was one over.
"I just played my own game. I had nothing to lose. All the pressure was on Anne. Even when she came back from three down to square the tie, I didn't feel as though the final was slipping away from me," said Fiona whose caddied was St Regulus clubmate, Elaine Moffat, who was Scottish champion in 1998.
Anne Laing said she was at a loss for words after her surprise defeat.
"I just can't explain it. My driving was OK except for that one bad one at the seventh but the rest of my game, particularly the putting, just wasn't there when I needed it. I played well all week to get to the final but never really got going at all against Fiona," said Anne.


SCOTTISH WOMEN'S AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP
Cruden Bay Golf Club
FINAL (18 holes)
Fiona Lockhart (St Regulus) bt Anne Laing (Vale of Leven) 3 and 2.