Four Scots but no Carly among
British girls' match-play qualifiers

FROM COLIN FARQUHARSON
Only four Scots - Kelsey MacDonald ON(Nairn Dunbar), Rachael Watton (Mortonhall), Eve Muirhead (Pitlochry) and Sammy Vass (Tain) - have made it through to the match-play stages of the British girls' open amateur golf championship over the Monifieth Links.
Comrie's 16-year-old Curtis Cup player Carly Booth, on paper the best player in the field with +3.1 of a handicap, failed to make the leading 64 after the two stroke-play qualifying rounds.
Carly Booth had one triple bogey and three double bogeys over rounds of 79 and 78 for a 13-over-par total of 157.
The irony of it all is that Carly beats the cut no problem at all in the Ladies European Tour events she plays in.
There was an eight-way play-off for those who totalled 155. They were playing for the last three-places in the match-play draw.
In contrast, the player Carly Booth beat in the recent Scottish Under-18 girls championship final at Alyth, Kelsey MacDonald, again raised her game as she did last year for the British girls.
Twelve months ago, Kelsey was the No 2 qualifier, losing eventually to beaten finalist Kelly Tidy (Manchester).
This time round, Scottish Under-21 champion and also holder of the Scottish schoolgirls title, Kelsey shot 73 and 71 to be joint third qualifier on level par 144, only one shot behind the leaders, Ana Fernandez de Mesa from Spain and Laura Gonzalez-Escallon, from the Royal Waterloo club in Belgium.
MacDonald's one-under-par 71 was the best by anyone in the second round and she confesses she has no idea why she has gained 30 or 40 yards on her tee shots this year.
"I have not changed my swing or anything like that but I've always been a straight drive so the fact that we were playing in an east wind today instead of the west for the first round did not affect me as it did some of the others. The wind made some of the par-4s very long on the outward half," said Kelsey.
"I'm playing well, I'm in a confident frame of mind and I just hope I can keep it going in the match-play stages."
Rachael Watton (Mortonhall) was the unexpected Scottish qualifier with rounds of 77 and 74 for 151 - a great effort for a player who was not in the Scotland team for last week's Under-18 home internationals at Panmure.
Olympic curler-to-be Eve Muirhead, who has slashed her handicap from 4 to 2 since she entered the championship, made it through safely with 74 and 78 for 152.
Then there was Sammy Vass from Tain. Sammy has been struggling to find her touch over the last few weeks but an inward half of 36 in the first round was a sign that she was running into form at just the right time. She scored 78 and 75 for 153 to qualify with a couple of shots to spare.
And it was an eagle 3 at the par-5 18th hole that clinched it for Sammy who came home in 35.
Annabel Niven (Crieff) missed out alongwith Carly Booth on 157. Annabel must be rueing the quadruple bogey 7 she took at the par 3 11th in the first round. She would have qualified with ease had she managed even a bogey at that hole.