Kylie outshines Curtis Cup

team possibles to be top Brit

after first round in Spain

This week's Spanish women's open amateur golf championship at La Reserva, Cadiz is the last chance for the Ladies Golf Union's Elite Squad to impress the GB&I selectors before the Curtis Cup team of eight is chosen next week for the match against the Americans over the Old Course, St Andrews at the end of May.
But all the Curtis Cup aspirants trailed behind 21-year-old former Scottish schoolgirls champion Kylie Walker, pictured right, from Buchanan Castle - not a member of the Elite Squad - in today's first round. Kylie shot a two-over-par 74 to be sharing fifth place behind the Spanish wonder girl, Carlota Ciganda.
It would be wrong to class this as a flash in the pan performance by Miss Walker because she played very well in the Portuguese women's open amateur championship two or three weeks ago when she finished joint seventh.
Ciganda, one of the world's top-rated female amateurs with a handicap of +5.4, won the British women's open amateur championship at Alwoodley, Leeds last June and she was a runaway winner of the recent Portuguese women's open amateur title.
Today the slim 17-year-old, who will have her pick of the top American colleges for a golf scholarship in the autumn, set a cracking pace over a course only she seemed to find comparatively easy.
Carlota, from the bull-run Spanish city of Pamplona, had a four-under-par round of 69 to open up a four-stroke lead from one Spanish and two French competitors on 73.
England's Kerry Smith, who is one of the LGU Elite Squad, led the rest of the Brits in the field of 99, all of whom had to have at least a handicap of scratch before they could get into the championship. She had a 75.
Michele Thomson from McDonald Ellon, who gave Carlota Ciganda her toughest tie in last summer's "British" - she lost on the 18th green, had a 77. Michele finished third behind Ciganda and Florentyna Parker in the "Portuguese" and has had some intensive one-on-one coaching from Neil Marr since then.
Other Scots' scores were an 81 by Rachael Livingstone (Musselburgh Old) and an 86 by Jane Turner (Mortonhall).

FIRST ROUND SCORES
Par 72
69 C Ciganda (Spa).
73 A Vilatte (Fra), A Goumard (Fra), L Gonzalez-Escallon (Spa).
74 J Jansson (Swe), J Hedwall (Swe), A Urchegui (Spa), I Boineau (Fra), L Andre (Fra), K Walker (Sco).
75 L Mar Ruiperez (Spa), K Smith (Eng), S Popov (Ger), C Masson (Ger), M Goyos Ball (Spa), P Sanz Barrio (Spa), C Patussi (Ita), N Jimenez Martin (Spa).
76 S James (Eng), M Engzelius (Nor), L Larsson (Swe), S Hassan (Wal), H Aitchison (Eng), A Zwanck (Spa), N Mansson (Swe), A Bonetti (Fra).
77 M Thomson (Sco), A Provot (Fra), E Alonso (Fra), B Buendia Gomez (Spa), E Gassiot (Fra), R Connor (Eng), B Genuini (Fra), B Loucks (Wal), S Cologan (Spa), T Caballe Hernani (Spa).
78 C Hedwall (Swe), T Urquizu (Spa), L Henriksson (Fin), N Edwards (Eng), R Jennings (Eng).
79 E Bennett (Eng), H Barwood (Eng), M Ricordeau (Fra), A Dahlberg-Soderstrom (Swe) M Kaarnalahti (Fin), M Prat Caballeria (Spa), E Nummenpaa (Fin).
80 S Hoglund (Fin), F Parker (Eng), A Korkeila (Fin), E Folch Sola (Spa), M Tschida (Ger), C Douglass (Eng), D Holmquist (Swe), C Hedberg (Spa), K Hillas (Nor), A Roscio (Ita), J Silva Pinto (Por), L Charpier (Fra), L Stempfle (Ger), E Lundstrom (Swe), R Sanchez Lobato (Spa).
Other scores included:
81 R Livingstone (Sco), L Whittaker (Ger) (jt 64th).
83 T Davies (Wal) (jt 85th).
86 J Turner (Sco) (94th).
90 S Evans (Wal) (99th).