ENGLISH TEENAGER SURGES

CLEAR AT HALFWAY IN

SOUTH ATLANTIC LADIES

AMATEUR IN FLORIDA

Staffordshire teenager Rachel Jennings (Izaak Walton Golf Club) leads the South Atlantic Ladies Amateur Championship by three shots after rounds of 71 and 70 for a three-under-par halfway total of 141 at Oceanside Country Club, Ormond Beach in Florida.
Jennings, picture right by courtesy of Tom Ward Photography), is one of the Ladies Golf Union Elite Squad – the short leet for the Curtis Cup match against the United States over the Old Course, St Andrews at the end of May – playing in the Orange Blossom Tour event.
Stoke-born Rachel, 19, won the 2006 English girls championship and finished fifth in last year’s British women’s stroke-play championship.
She had an up-and-down start to her second round in Florida with a birdie at the sixth but bogeys at the first and second and a double-bogey at the seventh. But, having got that out of her system, she covered the last 11 holes in five under par with birdies at the eighth, 10th and 13th and an eagle 3 at the long 12th.
Other members of the squad, Liz Bennett (Brokenhurst Manor) 145, Naomi Edwards (Ganton) 149 and Aberdeenshire champion Michele Thomson from Ellon) 149 plus Rachel Connor, daughter of the Scots-born Manchester club professional, also on 149, are within eight shots of the pacemaker with two rounds to play.
Liz Bennett could not get a single birdie putt to drop over her last nine holes. She parred every one of the inward holes for a 72 to add to her opening 73.
Michele Thomson could not get a birdie at all in returning a 76, three shots more than she took on the first day. The 19-year-old Scot bogeyed the second, seventh, ninth and 10th but steadied up to par the last eight holes.

Leading second-round totals
Par 144 (2 x 72)
Players from US unless stated.
141 R Jennings (Izaak Walton) 71 70.
144 V Grimes 71 73, A Bodemann 71 73.
145 M Bolger 76 69, L Bennett (Brokenhurst Manor) 73 72, J Yadloczky 69 76, T Chudy 71 74, K Hartwiger 73 72.
146 K Wong 72 74, R Carpenter 72 74.
147 L Duncan 71 76, N Sheary 73 74.
148 K Trotter 78 70.
149 R Connor (Manchester) 73 76, N Edwards (Ganton) 76 73, M Thomson (McDonald Ellon) 73 76.
Other scores:
151 S Hassan (Vale of Glamorgan) 73 78.
156 C Semple Thompson 80 76.
158 K Smith (Waterlooville) 77 81, R Cassidy (Stirling Unv) 82 76.
159 S Farrar (Stirling Univ) 77 82.
161 S Carty (The Island, Dublin) 83 78.
162 H Calvert (Stirling Univ) 82 80.
163 L Murray (Robert Gordon Univ) 84 79.
191 S Crolla (Heriot-Watt Univ) 97 94.

SCROLL DOWN TO READ ALL THE SCORES IN THE SOUTH ATLANTIC LADIES AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP.