MEGAN BRIGGS SET PACE IN SCOTTISH WOMEN'S QUALIFYING

By COLIN FARQUHARSON
Colin@scottishgolfview.com

At the end of the first of two stroke-play rounds to produce 32 qualifiers for the match-play stages of the 97th Scottish women’s amateur championship, it was Megan, pictured right by Cal Carson Golf Agency, the title-winner at Southerness two years ago, who was heading the field of 87 players with a round of one-under-par 71.

Although the Kintyre links had no defence on a calm day, Megan’s was the only sub-par round.
Even the great links courses need bad weather to bear their teeth.
“This is only my second stroke-play round of the year. The first one was in the Renfrewshire county championship (won by younger sister Eilidh),” said Megan.
“I’ve been so busy with my fourth year studies and exams I’ve just not had the time to play golf or practise. So here I am, not really thinking too much about winning the title again but I hole a few putts it’s a sub-par 71.
“Yes, sister Eilidh’s been playing well. She won the county title and the West of Scotland championship and her handicap’s down to +1.”
Megan admitted that it was a perfect day to be playing Machrihanish with its defences down but straight hitting was still called for.

She holed putts of 10ft and two of 25ft for birdies at the second, third and 10th and her outward alf of two-under-par 35 included a penalty drop out of a plugged lie in the rough at the seventh.

Sister Eilidh, by the way, had a 77 with halves of 36 (one under par) and 41 (six over.

Joint second overnight on par 72 are defending champion Kelsey MacDonald (Stirling University and Nairn Dunbar) and 15-year-old Fife girls champion Lauren Whyte (St Regulus), making her debut in the championship to gain some experience for years to come.
The player she beat in the 2009 final, Louise Kenney (Pitreavie), was well satisfied with an opening 74, and so she should because she had a quadruple bogey 8 at the third hole. Birdies at the 16th and 17th capped her comeback with an inward 34, one under par and the best back nine of the day.
Kenney has been beaten in the past two finals.
Joint fourth on 74 alongside Louise Kenney were 1998 champion Elaine Moffat (St Regulus) and Rachael Watton (Mortonhall), pictured right by Cal Carson Golf Agency.
+Can a player be penalised FIVE strokes at one hole? Yes, she can - and it happened to Dawn Young (North Berwick) who finished with a 92. Her troubles started at the seventh with a lost ball off her tee shot, playing a provisional, finding a ball and playing it, thinking it was her original ball - only to find out it was NOT ... by which time she had mistakenly picked up her provisional ball, which was, in fact the ball in play. Confused? Well, Dawn broke so many rules in one hole that she incurred five penalty strokes! All things considered, she did well to "escape" with a 10 at that hole!
+On the same would-you-believe-it? tack, Kate McIntosh (Broomieknowe) hit two drives out of bounds at the par-4 17th. So she is playing 5 off the tee with her third ball. But she gets on in 2 with that one and holes the putt for a birdie 3 that adds up to a 7 for the hole.

WHAT A GREAT DEBUT BY LAUREN WHYTE!

Fife girls champion Lauren Whyte, pictured right by Cal Carson Golf Agency, a four-handicapper from Strathkinness, near St Andrews is up there with the international stars after the first qualifying round of the 97th Scottish women’s amateur golf championship at Machranish on the Kintyre peninsula.

The 15-year-old St Regulus club junior member, making her debut in the national championship, shot a level par 72 on an overcast but almost windless day when the links, once described by six-times champion Belle Robertson as “a monster,” were little more than a toothless tiger.
Lauren is rubbing shoulders on the 72 mark with defending champion Kelsey MacDonald, the Stirling University student from the Nairn Dunbar club.
They have only one player ahead of them on the overnight leaderboard, Strathclyde law student Megan Briggs (Kilmacolm) whose 71 was the only sub-par return by a field of 87.
That said, far more players broke 80 than in the qualifying rounds of the last two Scottish championships, in 2000 and 1990, at Machrihanish. Given that the equipment has improved over the last two decades and the general standard of competitor in the championship has risen, one is still left with the feeling that the Machrihanish links’ reputation of being so fiercesome really only applies when high winds and rain are whipping over the Mull of Kintyre.
At the end of Wednesday’s second qualifying round, the players with the 32 lowest aggregates will go forward to the match-play stages. Unless the weather turns violent, the “cut” figure will be much lower than when Elaine Farquharson and then Lynn Kenny won the titles in 1990 and 2000 respectively.
Lauren Whyte, with her dad caddieing for her, admitted that they had travelled the many miles to Machrihanish to gain some championship experience for next year and beyond.
“Qualifying for the second match-play flight (Clark Rosebowl) was really our target but I like the course and we enjoyed ourselves out there, especially an eagle 2 at the 13th,” said Lauren who holed a three-wood second sot fromn all of 200yd.
“We searched for the ball in the rough beside the green for a few minutes and it was really as an afterthought that Lauren looked in the hole and found her ball in there,” said her dad.
Earlier Lauren had birdied the second, long seventh and eighth in reducing the outward nine holes to a confidence-boosting 36 strokes, one under par, despite three-putting both the fourth and fifth greens for bogeys.
Fellow-Fifer Louise Kenney, beaten in the championship’s last two finals, was well satisfied with an opening 74, and so she should because she had a quadruple bogey 8 at the third hole. Birdies at the 16th and 17th capped her comeback with an inward 34, one under par and the best back nine of the day.
And a third player from the Kingdom of Fife, former champion Elaine Moffat (St Regulus), is also on 74. Edinburgh-based Elaine, out in 35, birdied the 10th to be three under par but dropped five shots over the last six holes.
Susan Jackson (Ladybank), the Scottish universities women’s champion, had halves of 39 and 37 for a 76.


KELSEY HEADS NORTH DIVISION CHALLENGERS

It was a good day for the North Division challengers in the Scottish women’s amateur golf championship at Machrihanish links near the Mull of Kintyre today (Tuesday) with title-holder Kelsey MacDonald (Nairn Dunbar), Sheena Wood (Aberdeen Ladies), Laura Murray (Alford) and Hannah McCook (Grantown on Spey) all in the top 10 at the end of the first qualifying round.
On an almost flat calm day, it was a perfect day to attack the “toothless tiger” that was Machrihanish, a course once described by the six times champion “local girl” Belle Robertson as “a monster.”
Having said that, it was still a good test of golf at 5.962yd with shots that missed the fairway liable to be lost in the rough.
Strathclyde University law student and champion in 2009, Megan Briggs (Kilmacolm) leads with the only sub-par round in a field of 87 – a one-under 71, despite the fact that, due to studies and exams, it was only her second stroke-play round of the year.
Joint second on par 72 are Kelsey MacDonald and championship debutante, 15-year-old Lauren Whyte, a four-handicap member of the St Regulus club in St Andrews.
“I don’t feel under any pressure at all in defending the title,” said Kelsey who seems to have grown an inch or two since she was named recently for her first Great Britain and Ireland cap in the Astor Trophy team for Fairhaven next month.
“I hit most of the greens in regulations and but for a double bogey 5 at the short 15th, where I was down the gully and my first attempt to get out rolled back to my feet, I would be leading the field,” said the 20-year-old Stirling University student, who had never seen the course until she arrived at the weekend.
“It reminds me a lot on West Lancs where I won the British universities stroke-play title by a lot of shots last month.”
Kelsey, hitting the ball long and straight for the most part, birdied the long first, the sixth, the long seventh and the long 10th in halves of 35 (two under par) and 37 (two over).
Evidence of her long hitting? A drive and a nine iron to get home at the 422yd first hole .
Laura Murray is another brimming with confidence, mainly because she has a very good record in the Scottish championship.
“I’ve reached the quarter or semi-finals in each of the last three years and the players who beat me all went on to win the title. This time I’m determined it’s going to be me that comes out on top,” said Laura after a round of 75
She was heading for a par round of 72, having birdied the short fourth, the long seventh and the long 12th until disaster struck at the 17th.
“I hit my driver left out of bounds and finished up going over the green with my next ball. The hole cost me a triple bogey 7,” said Laura who works part-time as a lifeguard at the Kippie Lodge sports club’s swimming pool.
Sheena Wood and young Hannah McCook also ihit the 75 mark.
Sheena had a 7 at the long seventh on her way to an outward half of 40 but she got down to business on an inward half that most competitors found more difficult.
She birdied the short 11th and the 14th in coming home in 35.
Hannah’s only birdie came at the long first hole, famous for its intimidating drive over the beach or the sea if the tide is in. But she bogeyed only three holes in very steady halves of 37 and 38.