KAREN BALLANTYNE                  MAY HUGHES        

      

Karen Ballantyne wins Scottish Vets' title at Blairgowrie 

Craigmillar Park's Karen Ballantyne, the East champion, today won the Scottish Veteran Ladies Golf Association championship over the Lansdowne course at Blairgowrie.
Seven years after she won the Scottish seniors' stroke-play title at Ballater, Karen added another trophy to her collection by beating West vets' champion May Hughes (Lanark) by 2 and 1 in the final, which was refereed by Pamela Williamson (Baberton).
Karen took a grip on the outcome by birdieing the first, third and ninth in establishing a three-hole lead at the turn. They exchanged the 11th and 12th holes before May cut her deficit to two holes with two to play by winning the 16th.
A half at the next ended a match in which both players demonstrated their short-game expertise.
In the morning's semi-finals, May Hughes had scored a surprisingly big 6 and 5 win over Fiona De Vries (St Rule), the Midlands champion and winner of the Scottish senior women's match-play title earlier this season.
Karen Ballantyne won her semi-final by two holes against senior international and Highland vets' champion Anne Ryan (Tain), like Fiona de Vries, a member of the gold medal-winning Scotland team at the European senior women's team championship at Sporting Club Berlin a few weeks ago.
The SVLA championship is contested every year at Blairgowrie by the eight winners of the veterans' divisional championships.

SEMI-FINALS
Karen Ballantyne (East) bt Anne Ryan (Highland) 2 holes.
May Hughes (West) bt Fiona De Vries (Midland) 6 and 5.
FINAL
Ballantyne bt Hughes 2 and 1.