Rachael Livingstone following Heather

MacRae route into PGA training

FROM THE EDINBURGH EVENING NEWS WEBSITE

By MARTIN DEMPSTER
First it was Heather MacRae. Now Rachael Livingstone, one of the leading amateurs in the Lothians in recent years, has opted to go down the route of training to become a PGA professional.
The 21-year-old has already started to work in Fraser Mann's shop at Musselburgh, her home town, and she will officially start her three-year training at the beginning of October."It was last year, when I wasn't playing as well as I had hoped, that I decided I needed to go down a different route as far as a career in golf was concerned," said Livingstone (pictured), who reached the final of the Scottish Girls' Championship at Peebles in 2006.

"I needed a bit of a change to get things moving because I definitely feel as though I'm not ready to go to the Tour School, even though I'd like to give that a shot one day."

Having just finished a sports coaching course at Telford College, Livingstone jumped at the chance of a trainee post at the Monktonhall club, where she's not only known Mann for a number of years but also Norman Huguet.

"Fraser and Norman have both given me coaching over the years and I had spoken to them about my options, one of which was to follow in the footsteps of Heather MacRae and enter the PGA training programme," she said.

"As everyone probably knows, Heather has done really well so far, both in the shop at Gullane and also out on the golf course, having qualified for the Scottish PGA Championship at Gleneagles earlier in the year.

"I'm hoping that I will also be able to keep playing myself but, equally, I really enjoy the coaching side of the game and that's something I'll be able to learn more about as part of my training."

Livingstone, who cut her golfing teeth at Musselburgh Old, lost to Roseanne Niven in that Scottish Girls' final at Peebles but helped Scotland win the Girls' Home Internationals in 2006 before earning a full cap in the Women's European Team Championship the following year. She won the Midlothian Women's Championship in 2008, having also been a member of the Scottish title-winning Midlothian team in 2007.

"I really enjoyed my amateur career and there's no doubt that Scottish ladies' golf is strong at the moment, spearheaded, of course, by Catriona Matthew," remarked Livingston.

Meanwhile, Craigielaw's Jane Turner has been rewarded for an excellent season with a place in the team for next month's Women's Home Internationals at Irvine.

Lesley Nicholson will captain the side for the second year running and has high hopes for Turner and her team-mates.