ABBEY GITTINGS SCORES FIRST US COLLEGE WIN IN CALIFORNIA

Abbey Gittings, a winner in California.

By COLIN FARQUHARSON
Colin@scottishgolfview.com
Abbey Gittings from Tamworth, Staffordshire and a second-year student at Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, scored her first tournament win on the US women's college circuit on Tuesday.
Abbey, three times county champion, went right across to the other side of America - Monterey, California - to achieve the breakthrough which follows on a string of promising results since she enrolled at Nova SE in the autumn of 2009. She was joint runner-up in her last event, the "Peggy Kirk Bell" in Florida earlier this month.
The Nova SE camp had plenty to celebrate on the long haul back to Florida from the Lady Otter Spring Invitational tournament. Not only did Abbey win the individual title but team-mate Sandra Changkija was runner-up and Nova SE won their third consecutive team title.
Miss Gittings had a pair of 73s for a winning total of level par 146 over a tough, ladies par-73 course of 5,810yd at the Black Horse Golf Club. The course is testing enough to be used regularly for US PGA Tour Qualifying School eliminators.
She won by one shot from team-mate Sandra who had scores of 73 and 74.
A third Nova SE student, Nicole Whitmore from Milton Keynes finished a credit joint 24th in a huge field of 117 players. Nicole had rounds of 81 and 76 for 157.
There other British students were in the field, all of them students at Newman University, Wichita, Kansas.
Linzi Allan from Ayrshire finished joint 33rd on 159 with scores of 81 and 78; Megan Birdsey from Bedfordshire had scores of 81 and 80 for 161 and a share of 39th place; Alyssa Balding from Northumerland tied for 91st place on 173 with scores of 89 and 84.
Nova Southeastern (597) won the team title ahead of CSU-Monterey Bay (614) with Newman (648) 13th.