Kelsey, Eve looking good ... but
Carly under pressure in 91st place

By COLIN FARQUHARSON
Scottish Under-21 champion Kelsey MacDonald (Nairn Dunbar) and Olympic curler Eve Muirhead from Pitlochry are sitting pretty at the end of the first qualifying round of the British girls' open amateur golf championship at Monifieth Links.
But Comrie's 16-year-old Curtis Cup player Carly Booth is lying joint 91st and under pressure to improve in the second round at the end of which only the leading 64 will go forward to the match-play stages.
Curling is the sport that will take Pitlochry’s Eve Muirhead to the next Winter Olympics but she has a talent for golf too.
Of all the Scottish international players in the field for the British girls’ golf championship at Monifieth Links this week, only the in-form Kelsey MacDonald (Nairn Dunbar) outscored Eve on an overcast day and a gusting wind.
Although her handicap of 4.3 only just got her into the championship, Eve certainly did not look out of place.
In the first of two qualifying rounds to decide the 64 qualifiers for the match-play stages, Eve played under her handicap with a gross, two-under-par 74, which compared very favourably with most of the rounds of the Scotland’s Under-18 team that finished third in last week’s home internationals at Panmure Golf Club..
Eve, who broke her home course record in winning the Women’s Highland Open at Pitlochry this summer, had a birdie at the first and then rationed her mistakes to bogeys at the fifth, 15th and 16th in halves of 37 (level par) and 37 (two over par). She is sharing 27th place overnight.
Scottish Under-21 and schoolgirls champion Kelsey MacDonald was the No 2 qualifier in this championship 12 months ago and there is a confidence about her game that augurs well for the remainder of the tournament.
Confidence that enabled her to shrug off a double bogey 7 at the long ninth and still return a one-over-par 73, thanks to birdies at the first, fourth, 10th and 18th in halves of 38 and 35. Kelsey is joint 15th going into the second round.
It looks as if nine or 10 over par – the equivalent of two 77s, give or take a shot – will be needed to qualify at the end of Tuesday’s second stroke-play test.
Carly Booth, whose +3.1 rating makes her the player with the lowest handicap in the field, will need to step up a gear on her second circuit. All things considered, Carly did well to salvage a 79 after a four-over-par outward half that included a triple bogey 7 at the first and a double bogey 6 at the sixth. Her only birdie came at the long fourth.
Rachael Watton (Mortonhall) had a creditable 77. On 78 and sharing 71st place are home-course champion Rebecca Wilson, Gillian Monteith (Portpatrick Dunskey) and Sammy Vass (Tain) with Sammy at last recapturing her form to come home in 36.
Lesley Atkins (Minto) had an 80 with double bogeys at the fifth and 18th and Annabel Niven (Crieff) scored an 82, two better than Mhairi Johnstone (Northern)
Jill Meldrum (Dullatur) had an 85, Gillian Scanlan (Hamilton) and 86 and Rachael McQueen (Troon Bentinck) an 89.
Leading the field with a four-under-par 68 is 16-year-old Laetitia Beck, the women’s champion of Israel. There is a Scottish connection here. Barbara Vazzana, who emigrated from Angus to Israel a few years back, offered to take Laetitia over the Scotland for the championship as it was being played so close to what used to be home for former Letham Grange member Barbara
Former world tennis ace Ivan Lend's 16-year-old daughter, Daniela, who plays off +2.1, was going like a potential leader when she turned in one-under-par 34 but she finished on six-over 78 after a double bogey at the 12th and a triple bogey at the 13th.
"I've never played golf outside America before and I think the weather is what I will remember most about my first competitive round in Scotland, " said Daniela who is staying with Curtis Cup player Sally Watson's family at Elie.
"Dad didn't make the trip. He stayed at home to look after my sisters."
Ivan Lendl Has five daughters.