A delighted Carly Booth holds aloft the trophy at Peterhead earlier today.

CARLY'S CHANCE TO REWRITE THE SCOTTISH
UNDER-18 GIRLS' RECORD BOOKS

Carly Booth, the 15-year-old Comrie golfing whizzkid, could rewrite the Scottish girls’ golf record books over the next three or four year.
When she beat 17-year-old Megan Briggs (Kilmacolm) by 2 and 1 in a high quality Scottish Under-18 girls’ championship final over Peterhead Golf Club’s Craigewan links today, Carly became the first player since Vikki Laing of Musselburgh in 1998 to win both the Scottish Under-18 and Under-21 girls’ titles in the same year.
Miss Booth won the Under-21 stroke-play championship by the runaway margin of nine strokes at Auchterarder two weeks ago.
Carly is a couple of years younger than Vikki was when she did the double nine years ago and there seems little to stop Miss Booth from winning both titles over and over again before she is too old for girls golf.
Vikki Laing was the last player to dominate Scottish girls golf in the manner Carly is on the verge of doing. Vikki won the Under-18 match-play title four years in a row from 1996 to 1999.
The big decision for Carly’s parents, Wally and Pauline, to make will be whether to send her to a United States college when she is 18. Vikki Laing went to the University of California Berkeley for four years and gained invaluable experience on the American women’s college circuit. Already the college golf coaches are knocking on their door.
Beaten finalist Megan Briggs has already made up her mind where her future lies. She is starting a law degree course at Strathclyde University in October.
Give Megan her due. Easy to see why she has been Renfrewshire women’s county champion for the past two years. Not only is she a very good player, she is also a very good match-player, two attributes that do not always go together.
In the semi-final, she produced a late hole in one when her lead was being threatened and against Carly, a +3 player compared with her own scratch rating, Megan was never overawed and always competitive.
In fact, Miss Briggs went one up with a birdie at the eighth, her second of the outward half, which she reached in two-under-par 35.
Carly Booth was still one down after 11 holes but the next three holes swung her way as Megan bogeyed the 12th and 13th and Carly birdied the long 14th with a two-putt 4.
And so Carly went from one down to two up over the span of three holes. Halves at the next three holes made Carly the winner by 2 and 1 with three under par figures. Megan was one under par.
“I enjoyed the week (she began it was a nine-under-par 64 in the first qualifying round) and the final,” said Carly. “We both played well.”
Megan said: “I’m a little bit disappointed that I didn’t win because I will be too old to play in the girls’ championship next year but, as Carly says, both of us played well and it was an enjoyable match.”
Incidentally, the big gallery had a job to keep up with the girls’ cracking pace between shots. The 17-hole final was all over in well under three hours.

Result:
Final (18 holes) – Carly Booth (Comrie) bt Megan Briggs (Kilmacolm) 2 and 1.

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