KirkwoodGolf

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

MICHELE THOMSON IN DANGER OF MISSING
MATCH-PLAY CUT AT NORTH BERWICK

The pressure is on Curtis Cup player and Scottish champion Michele Thomson to show her international class on Thursday if she is to figure among the 64 qualifiers for the match-play stages of the British women’s open amateur golf championship.
The 20-year-old from McDonald Golf Club, Ellon, winner of the Munross Trophy at Montrose only on Sunday, suffered a sudden and potentially costly loss of form in the first qualifying round over the North Berwick links today.
Her nine-over-par round of 81 – admittedly on a windswept and eventually rainy day when scores in general soared – included a nightmare 8 at the 12th, a par-4 hole of only 390 yards, and a double bogey 6 at the seventh.
Out in two-over 39 with her only birdie of the day at the long eighth, Michele was still on course for a reasonable round until she scattered shots like confetti over the last six holes – seven to be precise with bogeys at the 13th, 15th and 17th following her 8 at the 12th.
Twelve months ago in this same championship at Leeds, Thomson took the champion-to-be Carlota Ciganda to the 18th green before admitting defeat in the quarter-finals. It was the toughest match the Spaniard had, and that included the final.
Nairn Dunbar teenager Kelsey MacDonald also had only one birdie, at the long third, but she escaped major disasters and finished on 78.
Curtis Cupper Carly Booth had two shots in a bunker to run up a double bogey 6 at the fifth and she also had 6s at the eighth and ninth. But the 15-year-old from Comrie, who turned in five-over-par 42, got herself going again with birdies at the 11th and 12th , and came home in 34 for a 76.
The third Curtis Cup Scot in the field, Krystle Caithness (St Regulus) was far from happy with a 77 – “I couldn’t hit the fairways with my driver” – a score matched by St Rule Trophy winner Kylie Walker (Buchanan Castle) and Pamela Pretswell (Bothwell Castle).
Roseanne Niven (Crieff) had a 78, one ahead of Emily Ogilvy (Auchterarder) and Lesley Nicholson (Haddington).

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