Classy Carly looks Scotland's best bet

for the 'British' but it's a long shot

By COLIN FARQUHARSON
Colin@Scottishgolfview.com
Scottish winners of the British girls’ open amateur golf championship come along at only irregular intervals.
The last one was Clare Queen in 2001 and before that Mhairi McKay in 1991 and 1992.
So that’s an indication of the odds against any of the six Scots in the field striking gold in this week’s five-day championship at West Lancashire Golf Club.
It might have been seven Scots but it was not until Sunday morning that Annabel Niven (Crieff) was offered the chance to come off the reserve list and plug a gap. It was never really on. By the time Annabel made it from Perthshire to Lancashire there would have been no time to squeeze in a practice round before the course was closed, not to mention the last-minute fixing up of accommodation.
Carly Booth (Comrie), pictured by Cal Carson Golf Agency, who did not play in last week’s girls’ home internationals at Fairhaven, looks to be the best bet of a Scottish winner. Mind you, at Monifieth 12 months go, Carly was not among the 64 qualifiers who advanced to the match-play stages from the 36-hole stroke-play eliminator.
But, on her game, Carly, now 17, and with a +2.8 handicap which makes her, on paper at least, one of the best players in the field of 144. has all the shots in her golfing armoury. She needs a big win to come out of comparative doldrums and her form in winning last week's St Andrews Links Trust Junior Ladies tournament suggests that the good times are on their way back.
The fact that the maximum handicap this year for having an entry accepted was a record low of 3.5 in part explains why so few Scots have made the trip over the Border.
Even Ailsa Bain from Peebles, the new Scottish Under-18 girls champion, did not make it.
The Scots who will be in action, with their handicaps at time of entry in brackets, are:
Carly Booth (Comrie) (+2.8), Rachael Watton (Mortonhall) (2.6), Lesley Atkins (Minto) (3.1), Eilidh Briggs (Kilmacolm) (3.1), Jill Meldrum (Dullatur) (3.5), Alyson McKechin (Elderslie) (3.5).
+The Ladies European Tour and America’s LPGA did not do the Ladies Golf Union, organisers of the British girls championship, any favours by arranging the Junior Solheim Cup match to start in Illinois next Tuesday (August 18).
Six of the 12 European girls selected decided it would be too much hassle to play in Lancashire this week and hotfoot it to the States as soon as they were knocked out of the British girls’ match-play stages. They included Manchester’s Kelly Tidy who had lost in the past two “British” finals.
But good for the other six to recognise that the British girls’ open championship is one of the most prestigious tournaments for Under-18s’in the world. They include the Spanish pair of Anna Arrese from the Costa Brava and Ana Fernandez de Mesa from Vista Hermosa. Arrese was up with the leaders for a long way in the recent Ladies European Tour event in Spain.
Carnoustie-based Susan Simpson, the LGU’s Head of Golf Operations, commented: “We still have a very good field but it is very disappointing to lose six of the best young European girl golfers because of the scheduling of the Junior Solheim Cup so close to our girls’ championship. The LGU were never consulted.”
Bethan Cutler, the Ladies European Tour Press Officer, told me: "The Ping Junior Solheim Cup match is always played the same week as the Ping Solheim Cup ... and the 2009 dates were announced on September 18, 2006."

A SIGN OF THE TEXTING TIMES
Competitors in the British girls open amateur championship don't have to worry about having to return to the clubhouse and the LGU caravan to find out their tee times for the qualifying rounds on Monday and Tuesday.
Susan Simpson and her staff could not begin to make the draws until 2pm had come and gone - the last time for a player to register their arrival at the venue.
The LGU text the tee times to each girl as long as they supply their numbers in advance.

WHAT THE LGU STAFF ARE THERE FOR!
One of the competitor's mother was hit full on the forehead by a golf ball as she walked the course on Saturday. The force of the ball caused a big cut which later required several stitches.
Susan Simpson, Head of the LGU's Golf Operations, set off with her injured passenger on Saturday evening to find a hospitcal with an accident and emergency unit open to deal with the situation.
Having found out there was one at Aintree, Susan, with the help of SAT NAV, was able to complete her mission of mercy.
During Susan's absence, a Finnish competitor hobbled into the LGU portakbin and asked if anyone knew where she could get anti-biotics because she felt a bad blister on her right heel had turned poisonous.
In Susan's absence, Edinburgh University student, Colin Anderson, who works for the LGU tournament staff during his holidays, made a series of phone calls - Saturday evening in an unfamiliar neighbourhood is not the best of times to track down doctors/chemists/hospitals.
But Colin was able to send the Finnish girl and her father on their way to find the solution to their problem.