CATHY PANTON-LEWIS INDUCTED INTO VARSITY HALL OF FAME

FROM THE SPORT.SCOTSMAN.COM WEBSITE
http://sport.scotsman.com

By MARTIN DEMPSTER

IT'S been a week of visiting old haunts for Cathy Panton-Lewis. Yesterday she was back at Glenbervie, where her dad John, one of the true legends of Scottish golf, was the long-serving club professional.

Today it's Pitlochry, the family home to check up on her elderly uncle.

The 55-year-old has also been back at the University of Edinburgh, where she gained an MA in geography at the same time as she was showing golfing prowess in her early 20s, to be inducted into its Sports Hall of Fame along with Commonwealth shooting champion Shirley McIntosh and world champion orienteer Yvette Baker.

The trio - the first all-female list of inductees since the Hall of Fame was launched three years ago - join the likes of Sir Chris Hoy, Eric Liddell and Gregor Townsend in receiving the honour and, for Panton-Lewis, it was certainly a thrill to be back at her alma mater.

"I had a wonderful four years there and this is a great honour," she told The Scotsman. "It has changed a lot since I was there. They've golf scholarships now, for starters, and it was great to see round the facilities. The gym was the biggest one I had seen."

During her time there, Panton-Lewis was captain of the golf team and won the Scottish Universtities' Championship back in 1977. The year before, she claimed the best win of her amateur career, in the British Ladies' Championship, at Silloth-on-Solway and was voted as Scottish Sportswoman of the Year.

"It (the British title triumph] was just before my dissertation and I took a week's holiday to go to the seaside, so to win was certainly a nice surprise," she recalled. 

After graduating, Panton-Lewis turned professional and became a founding member of Ladies European Tour in 1978, won its first Order of Merit the following year and went on to claim 14 titles, including the Scottish Open in 1988. She's on the seniors' circuit these days and won the English Ladies' Open last year. 

More than 30 years after its launch, the LET is looking stronger than ever. "(South African] Lee-Anne Pace topped the Order of Merit last year with earnings of £300,000, which is fantastic," noted Panton-Lewis. "Hopefully it can continue to grow."

By the looks of things, girls' golf is definitely growing in Scotland, with teenagers Clara Young, Lauren Whyte and Jessica Meek all appearing to have bright futures ahead of them as the home of golf bids to produce someone who can follow in the footsteps of Panton-Lewis and, more recently, Catriona Matthew.

"There were a lot of good young ones in my day, too. The likes of Gillian Stewart, Muriel Thomson and Lorna Bennett, for example," Panton-Lewis said. "It comes and goes, but I think girl golfers in Scotland get a better chance than down south, for example."

TO READ MARTIN DEMPSTER'S ARTICLE IN FULL, BUY A COPY OF "THE SCOTSMAN" NEWSPAPER TODAY OR LOG ON TO ITS WEBSITE

CLICK HERE