SIXTEEN-YEAR-OLD LAUREN IS YOUNGEST-EVER BRITISH CHAMPION

Proud dad Martin Taylor, who caddied for Lauren all week, and played a very important role in keeping a lid on the 16-year-old's excitement and nerves without attempting to play the game for her (Image by Cal Carson Golf Agency).

By COLIN FARQUHARSON
Colin@scottishgolfview.com
Britain’s youngest-ever women’s open amateur golf champion, 16-year-old Lauren Taylor from Rugby, will be at Gullane near Edinburgh in early August, bidding to win the British girls’ open amateur title and become only the third player to pull off the double in the same year.
England’s Mickey Walker was the first in 1972 and the only other to achieve the feat since then was Spain’s Belen Mozo in 2006.
The British women’s open amateur championship was started in 1893 but it was only in 1950 that the British open amateur championship for Under-18 girls was introduced.
Taylor, a member of the successful England girls' international squad, has yet to play for the England women’s team, and her shock triumph came too late for her to be selected for the Great Britain and Ireland side who play the Astor Trophy international match-play team tournament at Fairhaven GC, Lancashire next week and the Vagliano Trophy match the following week at Royal Porthcawl.
But the England selectors will surely be delighted to give Lauren her first full cap in the Women's Home Internationals at Hillside GC, Southport in September.
Lauren's fairytale week at Royal Portrush links in Northern Ireland last week saw Lauren qualify 42nd of 64 for the match-play and then beat Irish champion and Curtis Cup player Danielle McVeigh, New Zealand’s Cecilia Cho (ranked No 2 in the world), experienced German Thea Hoffmeister, France’s Perrine Delacour (winner of the British girls title two years ago), defending champion Kelly Tidy in the semi-finals and finally Alexandra Bonetti, the 17-year-old French player who won the British girls’ title last August.
Looking at the quality of the opponents that young Taylor beat, one has to be amazed by the fact that she kept pulling out one quality performance after another.
Taylor was many shots under par for her momentous week, capping it all with a four-birdie performance to beat Tidy at the 20th on Saturday morning and a six-birdie display to beat Bonetti by 6 and 5 in the final in which Lauren was five up after only six holes.
Lauren had been two up with two to play against Tidy but lost them both before winning with a birdie at the second extra hole
"The match against Kelly was the toughest of the week for me," said Lauren later. "I was two up three times in the match but I knew that she would come back at me - and she did!
“I play my best golf when I am stress free. I think that normally I try too hard and don’t play as well as I can. So at Royal Portrush my dad (Martin) who is my caddie (in non-girls’ events) and decided that the both of us would relax and take it as it comes.
"I’ve never seen my dad so relaxed on a golf course and that rubbed off on me. We went out to enjoy ourselves, win or lose, every day – and we did!” said Lauren who is a member at Woburn Golf Club and has been lined up to join Baylor University, Texas in the August of 2012.
Lauren’s 17th birthday is in late August.
The previous youngest winner, Ireland’s May Hezlet was 17 years and 13 days old when she won the British title at Royal Co Down on May 12, 1899. That record stood 112 years until Lauren Taylor surpassed even her wildest dreams by winning the championship for all ages.
Hezlet went on to win the title three times and, at this moment, I would not bet against Lauren doing at least the same! If she can reproduce her Royal Portrush form, the sky will be the limit for a level-headed lass who won't let success go to her.
Lauren will be up in Scotland before the British girls championship at Gullane and the girls’ home internationals at the same venue. As the new British women’s championship she is exempt from pre-qualifying for the Ricoh Women’s British Open at Carnoustie in late July.
Coincidentally, Carnoustie will be the venue for Taylor’s defence of her British title in late June next year.
And Lauren Taylor will be back in Northern Ireland next August only a few miles westwards along the coast from the venue for her  Royal Portrush triumph because the British girls open amateur championship is to be played at Portstewart GC in 2012