PAMELA PRETSWELL FIRST OF CURTIS CUP TEAM TO TURN PRO

By COLIN FARQUHARSON Colin@scottishgolfview.com  Hamilton's Pamela Pretswell is the first of the eight-strong Curtis Cup-winning Great Britain and Ireland team at Nairn last month to turn professional. The 23-year-old, who had a handicap of +3, has decided leave the amateur ranks this week instead of waiting for events such as the British women's stroke-play championship, which she won two years ago at Tenby, and certain Scotland team appearances in the women's home internationals at Cork and the women's world amateur team championship in Turkey, both these events in September. Since the spring, she has been gaining experience of life as a tour pro by playing on LETAS, the Ladies European Tour's developmental circuit and will continue that bid to finish in its 2012 Order of Merit top three, which would automatically gain her playing rights on next year's Ladies European Tour instead of going back to the LET Q School. She is currently placed second. "I was disappointed to miss Carnoustie and the British women's amateur championship last week as it would have been my last amateur event, but I needed the time to recover from the illness I had during Curtis Cup week. Thankfully, I am back to full health now," said Pamela who as a youngster was one of Britain's top tennis prospects and was in the same junior Wimbledon squad as Andy Murray. She did not turn to golf instead of tennis as her main sport until she was 15 years of age. "I will be making my pro debut in Norway next week and I am very excited about starting this new chapter." Pamela, a member of Bothwell Castle Golf Club, graduated from Glasgow University last year. She has been one of Scotland's most successful female amateurs in recent times. Apart from the Curtis Cup success this year and the British stroke-play victory in 2010, Pamela helped Scotland win the women's home internationals title, also in 2010, for the first time since 1991. She also won the Swiss women's open amateur championship. In May she became the first amateur to win a LETAS event when she won the Ljunbyhed Park PGA Ladies Open in Sweden by two shots. In making her pro golf announcement, Pamela paid tribute to the support and encouragement that she has received from the Scottish Ladies Golf Association (SLGA), Ladies Golf Union (LGU), Lanarkshire Ladies County Golf Association, Bothwell Castle Golf Club, Ladies Golf Club Troon, Aberdeen Asset Management, and coach Alan Murdoch and his team at Kings Acre Golf Centre, near Edinburgh.