Overall handicap winner Fiona Fullerton (Huntly), Ness Open champion Laura Murray (Alford) and the Inverness GC ladies' captain (image by courtesy of Isobel McIntosh).

Laura Murray swoops with a 69
to win Ness Open again

Robert Gordon University student Laura Murray from Alford produced an excellent second-round 69 to win the Ness Open 36-hole SLGA Order of Merit women’s golf tournament at Inverness Golf Club today.
Scotland cap & R&A Bursar Laura, 19, trailed first-round leader Lesley Hendry (Routenburn) by four shots after an opening 76 but she swept to the front with her three-under-par figures in the second round.
Laura. a former Scottish schoolgirls champion, would have won even more convincingly but for a double bogey 6 at the 16th where she drove into trees and found a bunker with her recovery.
Earlier in the round she had birdied the first, fourth, sixth, 10th, 13th and 14th with a solitary bogey at the seventh in halves of 34 (two under par) and 35 (one under par).
Laura’s 145 total saw her home with two shots to spare from Megan Briggs (Kilmacolm), Kylie Walker (Buchanan Castle) and Lesley Hendry (Routenburn), all on 147. Megan was officially placed second and Kylie third by virtue of their second rounds, 72 and 73, to Lesley’s 75.
Miss Murray was winning the Ness Open for the second time in three years, having first won it in 2006.

FINAL TOTALS
Par 144 (2 x 72) CSS 73 73
145 Laura Murray (Alford) 76 69.
147 Megan Briggs (Kilmacolm) 75 72, Kylie Walker (Buchanan Castle) 74 73, Lesley Hendry (Routenburn) 72 75.
148 Kelsey MacDonald (Nairn Dunbar) 76 72, Michele Thomson (McDonald Ellon) 73 75.
149 Cara Gruber (Royal Dornoch) 74 75.
154 Ann Ramsay (Kirriemuir) 77 77.
155 Eilidh Briggs (Kilmacolm) 82 73.
156 Claire Macdonald (Gullane) 80 76.
157 Sammy Vass (Tain) 78 79.
160 Susan Jackson (Ladybank) 79 81, Fiona Fullerton (Huntly) 79 81.
162 Anne Ryan (Tain) 78 84.
164 Christine MacAndrew (Nairn Dunbar) 86 78, Mary Smith (Tain) 82 82, Ashleigh Wilton (Ladybank) 80 84.
165 Samantha Leslie (Murcar Links) 78 87.
166 Pam Mackay (Royal Dornoch) 83 83.
168 Julie Vass (Tain) 85 83.
169 Ashley Alston (Royal Montrose) 83 86.
171 Gillian Dowling (Inverness) 87 84.
174 Marian Howieson (Inverness) 86 88.
180 Kirsten MacCallum (McDonald Ellon) 91 89.
183 Donna MacKinnon (Durness) 90 93.
188 Rachael Bannerman (Strathpeffer) 95 93.
197 Megan Aird (Strathmore) 94 103.
199 Pat Ashe (Brora 102 97.
HANDICAP PRIZEWINNERS
Class 1 (0 to 7)
143 Lesley Hendry (Routenburn) 70 73.
147 Eilidh Briggs (Kilmacolm) (4) 78 69.
149 Cara Gruber (Royal Dornoch) 74 75.
Class 2 (8 to 20)
138 Fiona Fullerton (Huntly) (11) 68 70.
143 Ashley Alston (Royal Montrose) (13) 70 73.