Golf is not Carly Booth's only talent

as she studies at Glenalmond

FROM THE DAILY TELEGRAPH SPORT WEBSITE

By LEWINE MAIR
Carly Booth, the defending champion in the girls' section of this weekend's Daily Telegraph Junior Championship in Abu Dhabi, could scarcely have made more telling use of her golfing talents.
The 16-year-old Scot has any number of great results on her golfing CV, starting with a rich assortment of Scottish age-group titles and the 2007 European Junior championship.
On the team front, she has represented GB and Ireland in the latest Curtis Cup – and Europe in the Junior Ryder Cup. Though the latter, which was played in association with the Ryder Cup itself, resulted in an overwhelming victory for the Americans, Booth saved Europe from a whitewash in the 12 singles when she gleaned a half point.
Most recently, Booth has captured the Scottish 'Champion of Champions' and won a golf scholarship to Glenalmond, the Scottish public school which has been featuring on BBC 2's Pride and Privilege.
It all started 10 or so years ago when Booth was a tot who would copy her oldest brother, Wallace, in everything he did. When Wallace started golf, so did she and, before too long, their father, Wally, was building his offspring a course in the fields behind their Comrie home.
Booth Snr, who won a silver medal for wrestling at the 1966 Commonwealth Games, did not play golf but his sporting know-how was such that he could see the virtue in designing greens of no more than 10 feet across. That way, Wallace and Carly would develop sharp iron-play without having to think about it.
He was not wrong and when Sandy Lyle, who won a pro-am with Carly when she was no more than 11, first cast his eye over Booth Snr's creation, he said he could finally understand how Carly's short game was so strong.
It is not just in having a course outside the back door that Carly is thrice blessed. In Wallace, she has a regular playing companion good enough to have featured in Scotland's winning trio at this year's Eisenhower Trophy. Wallace is aiming his game at the 2009 Walker Cup prior to turning professional.
Carly's other brother, Paul, is one more successful competitor. A teenager with Down's syndrome, Paul will be representing Tayside in next year's powerlifting championships at the Special Olympics in Leicester.
At Glenalmond, Carly's mission is to balance the ledger by setting some 'A' levels alongside her golfing credentials. She has opted for Business Studies, English, PE and Art.
She struggles a little with her Business Studies and, when it comes to English, it has been suggested that she would benefit from reading rather more than merely the latest set of greens. However, as befits one who was pictured standing on one hand on St Andrews' 18th green during the Curtis Cup, she excels at gymnastics.
She is also a whiz at art and is currently designing a hat as part of an A level project. She loves fashion and where, on the golf course, she comes across as a thoroughly modern Miss, she slips no less enthusiastically into a school uniform which consists of a timeless ankle-length blue skirt topped by a tweed jacket with velvet collar.
Back in the 1800s, she could have taken to the fairways in such an outfit with no questions asked. Mind you, she would very quickly have been in trouble for her brand of long-hitting golf in that the women of those days were expected to limit their drives to between 70 and 80 yards.
"It is not because we doubt a lady's power to make a longer drive," advised Lord Moncrieff, "but because that cannot be done without raising the club above the shoulder."