New British girls' open champion Alexandra Bonetti from France with the trophy and the French national coach Edouard Brechignac with the international team trophy which France also won ... but all their players except Alexandra had taken an early plane home and were not there to collect the award (image by Cal Carson Golf Agency)

Lisa Maguire's conqueror goes on to easy win in British girls' championship final

FROM COLIN FARQUHARSON AT ROYAL BELFAST GCAlexandra Bonetti, the 18-year-old holder of the French women's championship, is a very talented golfer - but she is also a very lucky girl!
On the closing day of the British open amateur championship at a very sunny Royal Belfast Golf Club, she met and beat two players who played nowhere near their potential - first 15-year-old Lisa Maguire (Slieve Russell) in the semi-finals and then, in the final, 17-year-old Laura Seddar, the Irish girls champion who a year or two won the Scottish Under-16s' title.
Lisa, for whatever reason, was not as sharp as she had been in getting to the last four. She lost the first three holes and as her coach and local club pro, Andrew Ferguson, said later: "Lisa was chasing the game after that. The key hole was the 13th where Lisa holed a 25ft birdie putt which could well have been the start of a comeback  .... until Bonetti followed her in from 15ft for a half in 3s.
Twice four down, Lisa eventually lost by 3 and 2 to Bonetti.
In the final, Alexandra beat Laura Sedda from Vicenza by 7and 6 in a surprisingly one-sided final that last only 2 ½ hours.
It is, of course, unfair to Miss Bonetti to say she was "lucky." You can only beat the players who tee it up against you, whether they turn up with their "A" game or not.
Sedda had looked to be going off her game towards the end of her morning semi-final which she won by one hole over Andrea Vilarasau (Spain), despite bogeying two of the last four holes and three-putting the last.
The Italian teenager never looked like getting back on the rails in the final despite being the player who knocked out title-holder Delacour in the second round and No 1 seed Julie Yang in the third.
Bonetti seized the initiative by holing a 40ft putt for a birdie 3 at the second and when Sedda bogeyed the third and fourth, the French girl was suddenly three up.
Sedda three-pujtted the seventh and eighth to go five down and when she was bunkered at the ninth, the Italian girl went six down, having reached the turn in an approximate 40 (five over par) to Bonetti’s one-under 34.
Sedda’s woes continued. She drove into bushes to lose her fourth hole in a row and go seven down at the 10th.
Sedda ended her bad run of bogeys by halving the short 11th in 3s but she was now seven down with seven to play.
A half in 4s at the 12th ended the final with Bonetti, one under par, the winner by 7 and 6.
Later, Bonetti said she had started the tournament well (she was the first qualifying round leader with a two-under-par 68) and she had finished it well (one under par in the final).
“My putting was my strongest point. The greens were very good but the slopes were tricky to read.,” said Alexandra who had signed a Letter of Intent to join Texas Christian University not this autumn, but next.
“I want to take a year out to improve my English,” she said … in quite fluent English!
She had accepted a golf scholarship offer earlier in the week - before she reached the final - from the TCU coach here at Royal Belfast GC where maybe as many as 10 US colleges were buzzing around the first tee during the first three or four days of the championship, busy recruiting new talent to take across the Atlantic.
Laura Sedda felt that she was completely exhausted, having played practice rounds, then two qualifying rounds and six rounds of match-play.
“I am disappointed I did not play as well as I can in the final but I was too tired to do my best. But I am still happy that I have come here and finished as the runner-up to a very good player, Alexandra.
"I am sorry I will not be able to go to Scotland to play in the British girls championship at Gullane next year. I will be too old. No, I am not going to go to an American university. I am going to go to an Italian university in another year or so. I had the chance but America is not for me."

Result of final (18 holes)
Alexandra Bonetti (France) bt Laura Sedda (Italy) 7 and 6