New seniors champion Heather in

field for 'North of Scotland'

It’s a pity that a clash with the European women’s and girls’ team championships deprives this week’s North of Scotland women’s championship at Newmachar of players of the quality of Carly Booth (Comrie), Kelsey MacDonald (Nairn Dunbar), Samantha Leslie (Westhill) and Ailsa Summers (Carnoustie Ladies) who would have qualified to play as members of clubs within Aberdeenshire, Angus, Northern Counties and Perth & Kinross.
But the “North of Scotland” still has a strong field, headed by two members of last year’s women’s home international line-up, Laura Murray (Alford), pictured by Cal Carson Golf Agency, the Scottish women's universities champion, and Emily Ogilvy, both +1 players.
Players coming into the three-day event in good form include Heather Anderson (Alyth), winner of the Scottish senior women’s match-play championship at Kinross on Friday, and Ann Ramsay (Kirriemuir), winner of the Munross Trophy 36-hole Order of Merit event at Montrose.
Add in names like former Scottish girls champion Laura Walker (Muckhart), who beat Emily Ogilvy at the 20th in the final of this tournament at Lossiemouth two years ago, US college circuit players Katy McNicoll (Carnoustie Ladies) and Jacqueline Sneddon (Alyth), and also promising Aberdeenshire girl prospects, Lauren Duncan (Aboyne) and Louise McGillivray (Banchory), who have won their clubs' women's championships this season, and it promises to be an excellent tournament over the Dave Thomas-designed Hawkshill course.
There is a qualifying round today at the end of which the leading 16 go forward to the championship match-play and the players with the best net returns go on to a highly-competitive handicap match-play competition.