Born in England, but top prospect Nicola Callander wants to play for Scotland

 A happy bunch of prizewinners at last week's Scottish Under-16 girls' open stroke-play championship at Strathmore Golf Centre. That's Nicola Callander second from the left in the front row.

Nicola Callander, the Anglo-Scot who carded a four-under-par final round of 68 to finish third at last week’s Scottish Under-16 girls’ open stroke-play championship at the Strathmore Golf Centre, near Alyth in Perthshire, is to play in at least two further Scottish events this summer.
Callander, who turned 16 in February, and plays off a handicap of three at both the Mill Green and Welwyn Garden City Golf Clubs in Hertfordshire, has entered both the Paul Lawrie Foundation Scottish girls’ (close) amateur championship at Crail from July 17-21 and the Scottish Under-21 girls' open amateur stroke-play championship at Blairgowrie from July 25-27.
Born in England, Nicola is eligible for the Scottish Under-18s' championship because both her parents are Scottish.
As soon as she tees it up in that closed championship she will have nailed her colours to the mast, so to speak, as a player who wants to play for Scotland rather than England, her country of birth.
Nicola, also pictured below, first created golfing headlines at the age of 12 when she became the youngest winner of the De Paula Cup, a Hertfordshire women's county event open to players with handicaps between 10 and 20.

She successfully defended the title the following year before her handicap became too low for her to play in the event. Subsequently, young Nicola has gone on to be a regular in both the Hertfordshire girls’ and women's county teams, in the latter playing alongside the likes of 2009 English amateur champion Charlie Douglass, 2010 Irish women's open amateur stroke-play champion Hannah Burke and 2011 English amateur champion Lucy Williams, all of whom are now professionals. #
Next weekend (April 27-29) Nicola plays in the Hertfordshire women's county championship at Berkhamsted before starting her GCSEs.
Nicola is coached by Ian Parker, the head professional at Mill Green Golf Club. She is also a member of the Hertfordshire Talented Athlete Programme, based at the University of Hertfordshire, which offers advice and support to promising local youngsters from a variety of different sports.
In September Nicola is taking up a golf scholarship at Millfield School, Somerset,  where she will spend two years doing A-levels and improving her golf.
Millfield, where Brian Barnes and Malcolm Gregson were once pupils, has two PGA professionals on its staff. Current British boys’ champion, Harrison Greenberry, is also a former pupil.
+Nicola Callander's father Colin is a former editor of the Golf Monthly Magazine and, apart from freelance golf writing, he acts as Press Officer at the Ricoh Women's British Open and will share with Colin Farquharson these duties in the Media Centre at the Curtis Cup match at The Nairn Golf Club from June 8 to 10.
Incidentally, the Media Centre will be open from the Tuesday of Curtis Cup week if any Kirkwoodgolf.co.uk readers want to pop in past to say "Hello."