KRYSTLE MAKES BRITISH INTERNATIONAL DEBUT IN COMMONWEALTH TOURNEY

The Great Britain team of Krystle Caithness (St Regulus), Breanne Loucks (Wrexham), Melissa Reid (Chevin), Kerry Smith (Waterlooville) and Naomi Edwards (Ganton) have flown to South Africa for the Commonwealth tournament at Royal Johannesburg and Kensington Golf Club.
It is a first GB cap for Krystle, the Scottish Under-21 and Under-18 stroke-play champion and winner of the St Rule Trophy at St Andrews last year.
Krystle, pictured right, finished the weekend’s Helen Holm Scottish women’s open amateur stroke-play championship with a very good round of two-under-par 73 over the Royal Troon championship links in a cold, easterly cross-wind which boosted the CSS to 77 (two over the par). No one did better than 73. In fact, only the French girl, who finished third, Audrey Decharne, equalled it.

And Scotland finished runners-up to England in the international team event, thanks to the combined scores of Krystle and Jenna Wilson (Strathaven).
The Commonwealth tournament is a five-a-side round-robin team match-play event, staged every four years, It will start next Monday and finish on the Friday.
Each match consists of two foursomes in the morning and five singles in the afternoon.
As there are five competing countries – Great Britain, South Africa, Australia, Canada and New Zealand – each team will have one rest day.
The team with the most points at the end of the week win the trophy.
South Africa, inspired by young Ashleigh Simon, winner of the South African Women’s Open (for a second time) against a field of professionals earlier this year, will be very hard to beat.
Earlier this year, Ashleigh starred in the South African team that won the women’s world amateur team championship for the Espirito Santo Trophy at Stellenbosch Golf Club.
Only Naomi Edwards of the British team did not play in that tournament so four of the other five have recent experience of playing conditions in South Africa.
Sue Turner is the Great Britain team captain and she is convinced that she has a potential team of trophy-winners under her charge.
Australia have won the last three Commonwealth tournaments – in 2003, 1999 and 1995.
The last Great Britain team to take the title – in 1991 - included two Scots in the five-strong line-up – Curtis Cup players Elaine Farquharson and Catriona Matthew - and their team-mates, also Curtis Cup players, were England’s Linzi Fletcher and Julie Hall, and Wales’ Vicki Thomas.
Elaine and Catriona, were and still are great friends who never lost a foursomes match as partners throughout their amateur career. In the Commonwealth tournament of 1991, the Scots pair won all their alternate-shot ties that week in 1991 at the Northumberland Golf Club course in the middle of the Newcastle racecourse.

Liz Boatman, the winning GB captain, said at the time: "With only 7pt at stake in each match, it was a very big advantage to have one point of a start every day, as it were, so well did Catriona and Elaine dovetail in all four foursomes matches. We knew that as a team we would either be 1-1 or 2-0 ahead at lunchtime every day and that was a great pyschological boost."