Luck did not have anything to do with it but it was success at the third attempt for Laura Murray (Alford) and Craigielaw's Jane Turner as the top two seeds from the two qualifying rounds earlier in the week swept through Friday's quarter-finals and semi-finals to take pride of place for the first time in Saturday's 18-hole final at the 98th Scottish women's amateur golf championship at Tain Golf Club, Ross-shire.
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Both had failed at the semi-final stage twice before - Laura in 2008 and 2010, Jane in 2009 and 2011 - but if they had suffered from brink-of-final nerves in the past, they certainly did not third time round.
Both were impressive winners morning and afternoon over a course which soaked up a fair bit of rain overnight and again until the skies cleared at lunchtime.
Turner, the 22-year-old No 1 seed from Penicuik and a graphic design student at Robert Gordon University (she graduates this summer), had to play only 26 holes as she beat Susan Wood (Drumpellier) 5 and 4 before chalking up a 7 and 6 semi-final win over Eilidh Watson (Muckhart), the 17-year-old who pulled off one of the shocks of the championship week when she knocked out the No 3 seed, Megan Briggs (Kilmacolm) at the 19th in the morning after Briggs, four up at one stage, had three-putted the sodden 18th green to be pulled back to all square.
Similarly, Laura Murray, 23, who works part-time as a swimming pool lifeguard at the Kippie Lodge Sports Club at Milltimber to help fund her golfing travels, had to play only 28 holes to clear the quarter and semi-final hurdles.
Laura beat the home hope, Sammy Vass (Tain) by 5 and 4 in the morning and then had a surprisingly easy win by 6 and 4 over last year's beaten finalist and reigning Scottish girls match-play champion, Eilidh Briggs (Kilmacolm).
Eilidh reached the final at Machrihanish last year but she was forced to play catch-up golf after Laura won the first two holes with par figures.
"Winning the early holes certainly settled me," said Laura later "But strangely enough I was far more nervous in the earlier rounds when I was twice taken to the 18th green.
"My coach, Keil Beveridge, - brother of up and coming Aboyne girl Kimberley Beveridge - told me over the phone last night to relax and just let it happen - and that's what I did. Keil has worked a lot with me over the winter and played with me in the North-east Alliance men's tournaments, all of which has put my swing together again after I finished last year not knowing where I was going in a golfing sense.
"Keil does not believe in filling up your head with theory. He has a simplistic approach to coaching and and it has worked very well for me."
Murray went three up at the eighth and then used her strength of the tee to wrap up victory. She birdied three long holes on the home straight - the par-5 11th, 13th and 14th, to win by 6 and 4 with two-under-par figures.
Jane Turner was roughly one over par in beating Eilidh Watson by 7 and 6. To be fair to Jane, also a big-hitter, her match was over before she got to the par-5 13th and 14th at which she would almost certainly have got home in two for two-putt birdies.
Turner, despite being the leading qualifier, and making steady headway through to the last eight, had still to master the early holes going into her semi-final tie.
So when Jane went three up after her four "bogey" holes, the writing was very much on the wall for young Eilidh Watson. Turner kept up her charge, winning the sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth for a seven-hole lead.
There was no way back from that for Watson and three halved holes finished the one-sided contest on the 12th green. But the Muckhart teenager has had a very good championship, capped by that winning comeback from four down to KO Megan Briggs, and the SLGA selectors will have noted the name.
The Turner v Murray 18-hole final will tee off at 9am. I hope they get the gallery they deserve.
HANNAH SCOTT IN ACTION IN THE CLARK ROSEBOWL FINAL
Image by Cal Carson Golf Agency
HANNAH SCOTT (Broomieknowe) WINS CLARK ROSEBOWL ON 18th GREEN
The Clark Rosebowl subsidiary match-play competition was won by Hannah Scott (Broomieknowe) who beat Heather Munro (Monifieth) by one hole in the final. Munro was two up after 10 holes but Scott turned it around by winning the 11th, 13th, 14th
(with a birdie) and the 18th.
NEXT YEAR AT LONGNIDDRY .... PRESTWICK FOR THE CENTENARY IN 2014
Incidentally, next year's Scottish women's championship goes to an East Lothan venue - Longniddry Golf club.
The Centenary staging of the championship in the year 2014 goes, rather fittingly, to the Prestwick Golf Club in Ayrshire. Fittingly because when the Scottish womens championship was started in 1903 (the event was not played during World War 1 or II which explains why the 100th championship was not played in 2003), Prestwick was or had been an Open championship venue, steeped in the history of the early years of organised, competitive golf in Scotland, or should I say the world ...
SCROLL DOWN FOR A RECAP OF ALL THE DAY'S RESULTS AT TAIN
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LAURA MURRAY (above) and JANE TURNER (below) pictured by Cal Carson Golf Agency in early action in the semi-finals at Tain.
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