MICHELE KOS CARLY IN

BATTLE OF THE SCOTS

The "Battle of the Scots" - Comrie's Carly Booth versus Michele Thomson from Ellon - was won by 19-year-old Michele over her 15-year-old rival in the second round of the Jones/Doherty women's amateur match-play championship at Coral Ridge Country Club, near Fort Lauderdale, Florida today.

Thomson (pictured right) and Booth are both members of the Ladies Golf Union Elite Squad, the short leet for the Great Britain & Ireland team of eight to tackle the United States with the Curtis Cup at stake over the Old Course, St Andrews at the end of May.
The LGU have paid the expenses of available squad members to keep in good nick by playing on the Orange Blossom Tour. Michele, the Aberdeenshire champion, finished third behind another LGU squad player, Liz Bennett, in the South Atlantic Ladies amateur championship on Saturday.
Carly did not play in that one. She has been wintering in Arizona - attending Red Mountain High School, Mesa - so that she could enjoy better weather for golf than her native Perthshire in the winter.
Michele's qualifying round score in the "Jones/Doherty" - won by Catriona Matthew in 1992 when she was a Stirling student - was not as good as Carly's, a 79 compared with a 76, but she was the stronger player in their second-round duel, winning by 4 and 3.

The first two holes were exchanged, Michele winning the first and Carly squaring at the second.
Then Michele, driving well and playing well, took a grip on the proceedings by winning the third, fourth, seventh and eighth to be four up on the ninth tee.
Carly won only her second hole of the tie at the 11th to cut her deficit to three holes but Michele restored her four-hole advantage by winning the 12th.
The next three holes were halved, leaving Michele the winner by 4 and 3.
With so little - if any - competitive golf for the LGU squad to play before the selectors meet to pick the GB&I team in early March, it could be an important win for Thomson who reached the quarter-finals of the British women's open amateur championship at Alwoodley, Leeds last summer before losing on the 18th green to the eventual champion, Carlota Ciganda (Spain).
Other LGU squad players through to the last eight in Florida are Liz Bennett (Brokenhurst Manor), who beat fellow squad member Kerry Smith (Waterlooville) at the 20th, and teenager Rachel Jennings (Izaak Walton) who beat American Marie Piere Bernier by 7 and 6.
English women's amateur champion and LGU Squad membere Naomi Edwards (Ganton) lost by 2 and 1 to defending champion Marika Lendl, one of former world tennis ace Ivan Lendl's three daughters who are playing in this tournament.
Michele Thomson now plays Isabelle Lendl, who beat sister Daniela by 4 and 2.
Rachel Jennings and Liz Bennett meet in the fourth of the quarter-final ties.
The others feature 13-year-old Florida rising star Alexis Thompson against Meghan Bolger, named this week in the US Curtis Cup team for St Andrews, and Marika Lendal against fellow American Lisa Schlesinger.

Alford's Laura Murray (Robert Gordon University), one of a number of Scottish students who have been sent under the auspices of Stirling University to the Orange Blossom Tour, won her first flight tie by 3 and 2 over American Jaye Marie Green.
CHAMPIONSHIP RESULTS

SECOND ROUND

Players from US unless stated

Top half of draw

Marika Lendl bt Naomi Edwards (Ganton) 2 and 1.

Lisa Schlesinger bt Diane Lang 4 and 2.

Michele Thomson (McDonald Ellon) bt Carly Booth (Comrie) 4 and 3.

Isabelle Lendl bt Daniela Lendl 4 and 2.

Lower half of draw

Alexis Thompson bt Bu Grotvedt 2 and 1.

Meghan Bolger bt Kristy McLaughlin 6 and 5.

Rachel Jennings (Izaak Walton) bt Marie Piere Bernie 7 and 6.

Liz Bennett (Brokenhurst Manor) bv Kerry Smith (Waterlooville) at 20th.

FIRST FLIGHT

Taylor Collins bt Stephanie Farrer (Stirling Univ) 6 and 5.

Rachel Connor (Manchester) bt Maggie Weder 5 and 3.

Laura Murray (Robert Gordon Univ) bt Jaye Marie Green 3 and 2.

Kyle Roig bt Holly Calvert (Stirling Univ) 6 and 5.

Sahra Hassan (Vale of Glamorgan) bt Sarah Carty (The Island, Dublin) 6 and 5.