SALLY WATSON 7th ON HAWAII AFTER FIRST HOLE DOUBLE BOGEY

By COLIN FARQUHARSON
Colin@scottishgolfview.com
Sally Watson, pictured right, continued her bid to regain a place in the Great Britain and Ireland squad for next June's Curtis Cup match at Nairn by finishing seventh of 66 in the Rainbow Wahine Invitational women's college tournament at Kapolei Golf Club on Hawaii earlier this week.
It was her second top-10 finish of her four starts in the first half of the 2011-2012 US college golf season. Her next competition for Stanford University, California is not until February 5-7, the Arizona Wildcat Challenge.
Sally won her first event of the season, the Cougar Classic in September, and followed that with joint 61st and joint 39th finishes.
The Scot, originally from South Queensferry, Edinburgh, would have finished fifth if she had managed to par the first hole she played in her third round, the short fifth, instead of running up a double bogey 5 on her way to a one-over-par 73 and a total of level par 216 over the 6,110yd, par-72 course.
It is to Sally's credit that she recovered from the potentially demoralising effect of such a bad start to cover the next 17 holes in one-under-par. Her earlier rounds were 71 and 72.
Watson had 11 birdies over the 54 holes - the same number as the winner, Lee Lopez (UCLA) who scored 68, 71 and 70 to win by four shots with a total of seven-under-par 209.
Katie Mundy from Hampshire, a student at Florida International, finished T14 on 222 with scores of 73, 71 and 78.
UCLA (849) won the team title ahead of Washington (869) and Stanford (883) with Florida International fourth of 12 teams with a total of 892.

Greg Richards makes top 10 at Wildcat Invitational

Another Edinburgh player who achieved a top 10 finish this past week was Greg Richards, a senior year student at Savannah College, Georgia. Greg, pictured left, finished T10 in a field of 70 players at the Wildcat Invitational at Miami Shores Country Club, Florida.

He scored 74 and 69 for 143, finished six shots behind the joint winners by two shots, Jordan Carpenter (South Carolina-Beaufort) (68-69) and Jordan Meltzer (Johnson and Wales-Florida) (67-70), both on 137 over the par-70, 6,705yd course.

There were four other British-born players in the field.
Jack Bingham from Stockport, Cheshire, a student at South Carolina-Beaufort, finished T20 on 146 with scores of 71-75.
Tom Gamble from Walton-on-Thames and a student at Webber International, Florida, finished T28 with scores of 75 and 73 for 148.

Neal Barnes from Aberdeen, a team-mate of Greg Richards at Savannah College, shot 76 and 77 for 153 which earned him a share of 51st place. Barnes, pictured right, is a former pupil of Robert Gordon's College. And a third Savannah College student and also a third Scot, Jamie Alexander from Inverclyde, an FP of Greenock Academy, finished T55 on 154 with scores of 79 and 75.

Johnson and Wales-Florida (565) pipped South Carolina-Beaufort by a single shot for the team title. Savannah College (590) finished sixth and Webber International (593) seventh in a field of 12 teams.