Ladies Golf Union Chairman Gillian Kirkwood, Kelsey Macdonald, Kelly Tidy and LGU President Maureen Lockett at the conclusion of the 2010 British women's open amateur championship at Ganton Golf Club, Yorkshire. Image by Cal Carson Golf Agency. Double click to enlarge.

A SCOTTISH AND PERSONAL  VIEWPOINT BY COLIN FARQUHARSON

DEFEAT COULD BE SPRINGBOARD FOR EVEN

 GREATER SUCCESS BY KELSEY MACDONALD

Perhaps Scottish amateur golf is not at such a low ebb as the critics would have us believe! James Byrne from Banchory reached the final of the British men’s amateur championship at Muirfield the week before last, and on Saturday, Scottish title-holder Kelsey MacDonald featured in the final of the British women’s amateur championship at Ganton Golf Club, Yorkshire.
It would have been nice to record victories for one or both Scots but even to get to the final of either of the British championships is a great tribute to Byrne and MacDonald for being able to play winning golf in the most taxing of mental and physical tests on the amateur golf calendar.
To get to Saturday afternoon’s final, 19-year-old Kelsey produced a stirring comeback to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat in the morning semi-finals. She lost the first four holes against the experienced former US Curtis Cup player Meghan (Bolger) Stasi but hung on in there and, one down playing the 18th, produced a marvellous “career shot” to get down in two from 60 yards right of the green, in front of the clubhouse, to square the match before winning at the 19th – the first time the Stirling University student and Nairn Dunbar member had led!
That gruelling encounter on the hottest, windiest day of a very warm week took its toll on MacDonald who, in the final, slumped from a potetentially winning position - two up with seven to play – to lose by 2 and 1 against 18-year-old Kelly Tidy (Royal Birkdale).
Kelsey lost the 12th, the 13th, the 15th and the 17th, playing, in the words of one neutral observer, “the golf of a very tired player who had nothing left in her tank.”
MacDonald, herself, said it was simply a case of Tidy playing better over the last few holes but the figures don’t support that. Kelsey conceded two of the holes (the 12th and 16th) where she didn’t hole out … bogeyed the long 13th and double-bogeyed the 15th. That was not the quality of golf that qualified her in 13th place out of 64, nor achieved her tremendous second-round victory over the Spanish ace and 2007 champion, Carlota Ciganda.
But MacDonald can hold her head high. As her native champion, she played her heart out and spearheaded the Scottish challenge in the best of Braveheart traditions through two stroke-play rounds and six match-play ties in a manner of which she can be very proud.
Certainly, if the Curtis Cup match had been held later this season, rather than three weeks ago, then Kelsey MacDonald AND Kelly Tidy would have both been in the team. No doubt about that.
In a perfect world, the GB and I team for a Curtis Cup match would be picked the week AFTER what is the Ladies Golf Union's flagship amateur event and the selection based on the performances of the players during the past week when they have to perform under pressure against top-class opposition or fall by the wayside.
Of course, the biennial Curtis Cup match dates would have to be moved nearer the end of the season than its present late May-middle of June dates.
If it’s any consolation and source of encouragement for MacDonald, she just has to think back to Deeside’s Elaine Farquharson, now a successful Aberdeen planning solicitor, who also lost in the final of the British women’s championship – at Hoylake in 1989 to England’s Helen Dobson – and went on from there to play in two Curtis Cup and two Vagliano Trophy matches and win the women’s world better-ball amateur championship with Dobson in Brazil.
Kelsey has achieved much already. But this Ganton defeat, as in Elaine’s case, could be the springboard for even greater success.

TALKING POINTS
+The 2010 British women's amateur championship made a little bit of golfing history in that it was first event in which the Ladies Golf Union has ever imposed a one-stroke penalty on a player for slow play. The LGU has been trying to speed up play in tournaments under its auspices over the past few years but Ireland international Aiden Murphy (Carlow) was the first to be penalised, her first-round 78 having a shot added to make it a 79.
+There was no chance of a slow penalty being imposed on the finalists - Kelsey MacDonald and Kelly Tidy are two of the fastest players in the women's amateur game. The 17 holes of the final took only THREE hours, an unbelievable pace for such an important match.
+In fact, one might criticise both teenagers for playing just a shade too quickly. There are times, particularly in match-play ties, when a player needs to consider his or her options for the next shot, where to take a lift and drop under penalty and things like that, particularly at a fiercesome course like Ganton with its cavernous bunkers, narrowish fairways lined with trees and impenetrable gorse bushes .
+Will the LGU ever bring back the traditional, big rectangular scoreboards for which spectators would make a beeline as they came off the course or even when they arrived at the course? The decision to replace the scoring service with much smaller TV sets displaying the information - in the pro's shop and the clubhouse in Ganton's case - was taken a couple of years ago ... but this writer is by no means the only observer pining for the old scoreboards. OK, they did tie up a person or persons all day, putting the figures up on the board as they changed but there is no comparison between the way things were and the way they are now.
BRING BACK THE OLD SCOREBOARDS, PLEASE! 
LEADING QUALIFIERS
Par 146 (2x73)
143 Caroline Hedwall (Sweden) 73 70.
145 Sara Juneau (Canada) 75 70, Giulia Molinaro (Italy) 70 75.
146 Camilla Hedberg (Spain) 73 73, Taylore Karle (United States|) 72 74.
147 Anna Aresse (Spain) 75 72, Sue Kim (Canada) 72 75.
148 Amy Boulden (Maesdu) 79 69, Mireia Prat (Spain) 74 74, Sally Watson (Elie and Earlsferry) 72 76.
149 Sophia Popov (Germany) 76 73, Kelsea MacDonald (Nairn Dunbar) 76 73 (No 13 qualifier).
Selected qualifier:
153 Kelly Tidy (Royal Birkdale) 78 75 (No 26).

Later match-play results:
Quarter-finals - Meghan Stasi (US) bt Jennifer Kirby (Canada) 3 and 2, Kelsey MacDonald (Nairn Dunbar) bt Olivia Lansing (US) 2 and 1, Rebecca Lee-Bentham (Canada) bvt Stacy Keating (Australia) 2 holes, Kelly Tidy (Royal Birkdale) bt Sara Juneau (Canada) 3 and 2.
Semi-finals – MacDonald bt Stasi at 19th, Tidy bt Lee-Bentham 5 and 3.
Final (18 holes) – Tidy bt MacDonald 2 and 1.

REFERENCE JAMES BYRNE AND KELSEY MACDONALD REACHING THE BRITISH MEN'S AND WOMEN'S CHAMPIONSHIP FINALS ....

In 2006, two young Scottish golfers were both presented with medals at the National Playing Fields Association Awards Night at the City Chambers in Edinburgh.
Their names? James Byrne and Kelsey MacDonald!