Lifeguard Laura is

ready to take the

plunge at Q School

By COLIN FARQUHARSON

Lifeguard Laura Murray works at the members’ swimming pool at Kippie Lodge near Aberdeen. But the only saving the 21-year-old Scotland international golfer from Alford has been doing over the past year or so has been setting money aside to fund a crack at the Ladies European Tour Qualifying School in December,

“Working 24 to 30 hours a week as a swimming pool lifeguard is just something to get me by at the moment so that I can finance my trip to the La Manga from December 12 to 22,” said Laura who has also been a student at Robert Gordon University (pictured above at Kippie Lodge this week by Cal Carson Golf Agency).
Being given only one game over three days by Scotland skipper Lesley Nicholson in last week's home internationals at Irvine has not dampened Laura’s enthusiasm to make the grade as a tournament professional.
“I definitely think I am ready at the age of 21 to have a go at making it through to the Ladies European Tour,” she said.
“I’ve drawn up a winter programme, preparing for it. The Tour School is only three months away and I’m working closely with my coach Kevin Craggs to be in tip top condition for the biggest golfing test of my life so far.
“Kevin’s steered several lady professionals through the Q School, including Lynn Kenny, so he’s got a fair idea of what to prepare me for, what he can tell me to expect.
Laura is confident enough to be looking beyond La Manga to playing on the Ladies European Tour next season. And she knows that until she finds her feet on a play-for-pay regime, obviously something completely new to her, Laura will need some outside help in meeting the bills.
“I am looking for potential sponsors, because I will need them to help me meet the costs of playing in tournaments. Working here at Kippie Lodge is hopefully going to give me some good connections.
“I’ve got my funds ready for going to Tour School just through saving and, of course, my parents help me an awful lot. So it’s not a question of not being able to go unless I raise X number of £s.
“I have to think positively and believe that next spring I will be preparing to play on the Ladies European Tour. That’s when I will need sponsorship to help with the costs of getting to Continental venues and living at each one for the best part of a week.
“I know it’s not easy to get sponsorship, especially in these hard times for so many businesses. I’m going to have meet most of my own costs for the Tour School but sponsorship would help in my first season on the LET.
Laura, still an amateur until after the Q School, is going out with the Scottish Ladies Golfing Association Elite Squad for their annual winter training trip to the Desert Springs resort in Spain on November 11.
“That will be really good for me to start warming up for the Tour School about a month before it starts. My plan is that instead of coming back to Scotland when that winter training trip is over, I will stay on in Spain, and play and practise at La Manga during the weeks leading up to the Q School.
“I have a friend who has a villa out in the La Manga area so that’s going to be perfect for me. My boy friend, Keil Beveridge, who is an assistant at Aboyne Golf Club, is going to fly out to Spain to caddie for me.”
Laura will not be the only Scot in the field for the Tour School programme of two 72-hole events one after another.
“Kylie Walker and Carly Booth, I believe, are also going to Desert Springs with the SLGA and also to La Manga for the Tour School .”
“It’s a big step but I really feel I am ready to go for it. Coach Kevin has taken my golf to complete new levels and he’s helped me so much this season. It’s been a pretty much up-and-down season. I started off strongly with a 10th place finish in the Helen Holm. I would have finished higher but for a poor last round.
“I won the Scottish universities title, then was a little bit unlucky to meet Megan Briggs in the quarter-finals of the Scottish at Southerness. She was in top form and, of course, went on to win the championship.
“I then went through a bit of a sticky patch, which is almost inevitable. As long as you can come out of it a better player than what you were before it. Then I finished seventh in the British stroke play at Balgownie, which included a couple of triple bogeys in my third round. Barring those holes, I could have won the British title.
“So it’s been good that my golf is coming back to form at just the right time for the Tour School . When I went to the pre-qualifying for the Ricoh Women’s British Open at The Berkshire at the start of August, I didn’t play well but I was surprised that I was hitting the ball farther than any of the LET professionals who had to pre-qualify. So I’ve definitely got the length to compete at professional level. You can never do too much short game practice and that’s what I need to work on, get some creativity into my game.
“I am going to work a lot on that aspect of my game with my coach in the lead-up to the Tour School .
“If I get through Tour School that would be great but it would not be the end of the world if I had to play another year as an amateur. It’s a Curtis Cup year and though I would be very surprised if I was named in the GB&I squad, I could still gain selection by playing well in the tournaments that matter.”