St Andrews play-off gives Alford player her biggest victory yet

LAURA MURRAY HOLES BIRDIE PUTT TO WIN ST RULE TROPHY By COLIN FARQUHARSON (Colin@scottishgolfview.com) Alford's Laura Murray this evening holed a much longer putt than Doug Sanders famously missed on the same green to lose the 1970 Open championship to Jack Nicklaus - an uphill 15ft birdie putt on the Old Course's 18th green to win a sudden-death play-off climax in the post 8pm sunlight to win the prestigious St Rule Trophy women's amateur golf tournament at St Andrews. The 21-year-old newest member of the Paul Lawrie Foundation team punched the air in delight as her ball disappeared in the hole to beat 16-year-old Welsh international Amy Boulden from Llandudno. It had started as a three-way play-off. Australian Stacey Keating was eliminated with a three-putt bogey 5 at the first hole where both Murray and Boulden had two-putt 4s. At the second play-off hole, the 18th, the long-hitting Laura smashed her drive long and straight, leaving her with only a nine-iron approach shot. Her Welsh opponent left her second farther away from the hole and could not sink her birdie attempt. Murray, Boulden and Keating had topped the international field of 60 players on six-under-par 221. The Scot had so-steady rounds of 73, over the New Course on Saturday, followed by a pair of 74s in Sunday's conditions which, until the sun came out in the evening, were cold, wet and windy. As the weather improved, so did the standard of scoring generally later in the day.Boulden had rounds of 75, 77 and 69, her brilliant last round clinching the Lawson Trophy for the best aggregate by an Under-18 years player. It was the nearest anyone has come for some time to challenging Mhairi McKay's Old Course women's record of 67, set in 1993 when she was runner-up to Catriona (Lambert) Matthew. Amy's scorecard for her seven-under-par 69 readL OUT: 4 3 3 5 4 3 5 3 3 - 33, IN: 4 3 3 4 5 4 4 5 4 - 36 Amy, pictured above, was a member of the Welsh team who won the women's home internationals title at Leven last September. She hasn't made the Curtis Cup team for next month but you could put money on her being in the GB&I team for the Nairn match in 2012. Curtis Cup-bound next month Pamela Pretswell (Bothwell Castle), the first-round leader with a five-under- 70 over the New Course was a little bit upset after she had finished with a 75 for 222. But she needn't have been. Considering how little competitive golf she has played since last September's women's home internationals at Irvine, it was a good performance to finish just one shot away from being involved in the play-off. If this had been a European Tour event with state-of-play scoreboards everywhere, the Glasgow University student would have known that after birdies at the 13th and 14th, she needed to cover the last four holes in par to hit the Magic Number of six-under-par 221. Anything better and she would have won. A bogey at the 15th raised the bar too high for the Hamilton-based player who parred the last three holes Keating looked favourite to win the title when she was two shots clear of the field with nine holes to play buttook 40 shots for the inward half. The 23-year-old Victoria's outward 34 included four birdies in a row frm the second and another at the ninth. But the shine came off her game on the road home. The Aussie bogeyed the 11th, 12th, 14th and 15th. Birdies at the 13th and 17th were not enough to repair the damage in time for her to finish alone in the pole position. Laura Murray's own chance looked like evaporatingwhen she bogeyed the 14th, 15th and 16th in her final round, after birdies at the third, fourth, fifth and 13th.Then Laura, who is aiming to turn pro at the end of the season, trned things around with an eagle 3 at the treacherous par-5 (off the women's tee) 426yd 17th Road Hole."This is easily the biggest win of my career,"said Laura who feels that playing alongside men every Wednesday during the winter North-east Alliance competitions has made her hit the ball a lot harder than she used to do. "It feels phenomenal. Makes all the hard work with coach Kevin Craggs so worthwhile. I hit the ball well over the three rounds but I didn't think I putted particularly well … until that last birdie putt went in to win the play-off!" Laura's mum Mary caddied for her and dad Brian walked the fairways too. They also serve who only stand and wait. Also on one-too-many mark of 222 were Welsh champion for a second year in a row, Tara Davies (Holyhead) and Australian Justine Lee who drove out of bounds at the 16th when she looked like at least making it a four-way play-off.But the Australians – Lee, Keating and Ashley Ona (pictured left) - won the international team award with a total of 437 – four ahead of Wales (Boulden, Davies and Gemma Bradbury) with Scotland (Pretswell, Louise Kenney and Kelsey MacDonald) third on 446. And what about Julie Yang, the 14-year-old South Korean-born pupil at Loretto School, Musselburgh for whom such a bright future is predicted? Recent winner of the Welsh women's open amateur stroke-play, second in the German equivalent and 30th in the Ladies European Tour's German Open, Jule finished 14th equal overall and second to Amy Boulden in the Under-18s Lawton Trophy with scores of 74, 79 and 75 for 228. Julie's last round did not have any bogeys b ut she did have a triple bogey 7 at the seventh. Give her a par 4 at that hole and she would have finished on 225, only four shots behind the play-off trio. Yang's 79 was returned when the weather was at its coldest, wettest and windiest on Sunday morning. If, as seems to be the case, she has been sent from Phoenix, Arizona by her parents to learn how to play Scottish links in Scottish weather, the experience will not have been wasted. +++All images by Cal Carson Golf Agency. Click on them to enlarge. "