US OPERATION BLOW FOR KATY
McNICOLL FROM CARNOUSTIE

Carnoustie’s Katy McNicoll, one of Scotland’s best teenage golf prospects, is out of the game for at least the next six months.
Katy, whose 19th birthday it is on Tuesday (February 20), had a right knee operation today at Boca Raton, Florida where she is a second-year golf scholarship student at Lynn University.
Before the operation, Miss McNicoll, whose father owns a golf shop in Carnoustie and whose older brother Keir played for Scotland in last year’s home internationals, said: “I have torn my anterior cruciate ligament and damnaged the menicus on the inside of my right knee. How I managed to do this, I don’t actually know!
“The knee gave out when I was playing golf about two weeks ago and the trainer at the university referred me to a specialist who then referred me for an MRI.
OPERATION ONLY OPTION
“When the results came through, I was told that the only option if I wanted to continue playing competitive golf was to have an operation. They will repair both at the same time.
“As for recovering, it will take around six months before I can think about golfing again but I will be doing intense rehab basically from day one after surgery.
“Maybe around May I might be allowed to start putting or working on my short game but sometimes the anterior cruciate ligament takes fully a year for a 100% recovery. Fingers crossed.”
Katy, pictured above, has been a winner on the American women’s college circuit and was rated a key player in Lynn University’s bid for a national title in the spring.
Last year she was runner-up to Krystle Caithness with a nine-under-par, three-round total in the Scottish Under-21 girls’ stroke-play championship.
In the Scottish Under-18 girls’ match-play championship, Katy lost to the eventual champion, Roseanne Niven (Crieff) in the semi-finals at Peebles and she also lost in the semi-finals of the North of Scotland women’s championship at Montrose to Michele Thomson (McDonald Ellon) who went on to retain that title.