BRITISH WOMEN'S OPEN AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

CLARE BIDS FOR BRITISH TITLE DOUBLE

This could be Clare Queen’s last British women’s open amateur golf championship at Littlestone, Kent this week.
The 22-year-old from Drumpellier, a full-time amateur since she graduated from Strathclyde University a year ago, will go for a Ladies European Tour card at the end of this season.
Already holder of the British women’s open amateur stroke-play championship, Clare is playing well enough to brighten up Scots’ dismal record in this major tournament on the Ladies Golf Union card.
Belle Robertson (1981), Catriona Lambert (1993) and Alison Rose (1997) are the only Scots to have won the title in the past 25 years during which time compatriots Wilma Aitken (1981), Gillian Stewart (1982), Elaine Farquharson (1989) and Mhairi McKay (1997) were beaten finalists.
Last year, when the weather-hit championship was played at Gullane, there was not one Scottish player in the last 16.
Twelve Scots will tee up at Littlestone on Tuesday in the first qualifying round. After the second round, the 64 players with the lowest aggregates will go forward to the match-play stages.
Backing up Clare Queen from north of the Border are:
Louise Kenney (Pitreavie), Gemma Webster (Hilton Park), Anne Laing (Vale of Leven), Heather MacRae (Dunblane New), Dawn Dewar (Stirling Univ), Kylie Walker (Stirling Univ), Sally Watson (Elie & Earlsferry), Cara Gruber (Royal Dornoch), Jenna Wilson (Strathaven), Krystle Caithness (St Regulus) and Clare-Marie Carlton (Stirling Univ).
Gordon Sherry, who has a coaching attachment to Stirling University, is at the Littlestone venue to assist the three Stirling students in the field.
Sweden’s Louise Stahle, who has spent the past 10 months playing for Arizona State University on the American women’s college circuit, will defend the title she won at Gullane. She is turning pro after playing for Sweden in next month’s European team championship in her native land.