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Leading prizewinners on the balcony of the Hunstanton GC clubhouse at the conclusion of the Senior British women's open amateur championship at the Norfolk venue.
FROM THE LGU WEBSITE
report by Colin Farquharson
Colin@scottishgolfview.com
Katherine Russell (Royal Ashdown Forest), making her debut in the championship at the age of 51, won the Senior British women's open amateur championship after a play-off against Ireland's Pat Doran (Donabate).
They tied on nine over par 234 at the end of a misty, miserable final day of wind and rain over the exposed Hunstanton Links on the Norfolk coastline of The Wash.
Russell closed with a one-under-par 74 and Doran with the same score which included only 33 shots for the second nine, the best inward half of the week.
A round of 74, incidentally matched the lowest score by anybody over the three days and Pat's inward 33 earned her the prize for the best score of the week, by virtue of her great inward half.
The first hole in the sudden-death play-off, the par-4 first, was halved in 5s. The second play-off hole, the par-4 18th, saw Russell hit her second shot to within 5 or 6ft of the flagstick while Doran had a nasty lie in the long grass below the level of the green, having missed the target wide right with a nine-iron in her hand after the better of the two drives.
The Donabate player, a member of the bronze-medal-winning Ireland team in Lugano, Switzerland the week before last, took four shots to get on the green and lost out to Russell's par 4. It was the second year in a row that Doran had had to settle for second place.
Last year only Felicity Christine beat her but the defending champion did not survive the two-round cut this time round.
Earlier, as the wind veered behind the players on the inward nine for almost the first time all week, Doran had birdied five of the last 10 holes to jump from sixth to joint first.
She got a great up and down to save par at the 10th and then birdied the long 11th, the par 4 12th, and holed a 10yd putt for the first of two 2s.
The second 2 came at the 16th (where there were two holes in one over the three days).
Helen Jones (Royal Portrush) had started the day one behind Spanish leader Rocio Ruiz de Velasco but slipped back to the pack after a disappointing 81.
"I missed three or four putts in a row of about 3ft and that just finished me," said Helen who is ladies captain at Royal Portrush Golf Club - where next year's championship is to be held.
Finland's Minna Kaarnalahti came with a brilliant run over the last round but the winner of last week's Irish senior ladies' open amateur stroke play championship came up one stroke short of making it a three-way play-off. She had a 74 for 235.
Out in 35 shots (four birdies in a row from the fourth) in the last round, Minna led the field by one shot but despite an eagle 3 at the long 11th, had too many bogeys over the closing holes.
Minna is a story in herself. Football was her sport in Finland until she received serious leg injuries and turned to golf at the age of 30. Twenty-three years later, Minna has had eight holes in one and won 23 Finnish titles as well as international titles such as the Irish last week and before that victories in Spain and Portugal.
Sheena McElroy (Grange) fired a second successive level par 75 to finish joint fourth alongside Christine Quinn (Hockley) and Jane Rees (Hendon). Quinn made ground with a last-round 74, Rees lost it with a 77
So who is Miss Katherine Russell who was not mentioned by any pundit as a possible winner in the pre-tournament discussions.
A former student at Dundee University, she is the Sussex senior and women's champion and also Sussex foursomes title-holder.
A bit like Minna Kaarnalahti, Katherine played a different sport - in her case she was rather good at squash
until she broke a toe more than once around 1998 and turned to golf.
Her home club, Royal Ashdown Forest, has NO bunkers - and Katherine was in quite a few, including the first hole of the play-off.
"I found Hunstanton's bunkers quite initimidating - but maybe because I am not used to them," she said with a laugh.
"Of course, I never expected to win. Last year the British women's stroke-play was played at Royal Ashdown Forest and I put myself under such pressure, thinking I just had to do well because I was a local player - and I just played terribly.
"So I came to Hunstanton with no expectations, no experience of playing in the event. I was staying with a bunch of girls and we had a good time ... I treated it as a fun week, no pressure because nobody considered me a championship contender."
Katherine was a full-time physiotherapist but she says she does not do so much of it nowadays.
"We have a big garden so I spend a lot of time in it," she said.
Katherine has a handicap of 2.5 - well, had a handicap of 2.5 at the start of the week - and her victory came too late to get into the England team for the Senior Home Internationals at the beginning of October at Elie and Earlsferry Golf Club, Fife. Winners of the age-group prizes were:
50 to 54 years
JANE REES (Hendon)
55 to 59 years
CHRISTINE QUINN (Hockley)
60 to 64 years
CHRISTINE WATSON (Beaconsfield)
65 years and over
MIMMI GUGLIELMONE (Switzerland)
Low Round of the week (several players with 74s)
PAT DORAN (Donabate) (best inward half of 33, in last round)
Next year's championship will be played at Royal Portrush GC, Northern Ireland.
FINAL TOTALS
Par 225 (3x75) CSS 79 78 76 Yardage: 6,021
234 Katherine Russell (Royal Ashdown Forest) 79 81 74, Pat Doran (Donabate) 81 79 74 (Russell bt Doran at second hole of sudden-death play-off).
235 Minna Kaarnalahti (Fin) 78 83 74
236 Sheena McElroy (Grange) 86 75 75, Christine Quinn (Hockley) 79 80 77, Jane Rees (Hendon) 80 79 77
237 Maria De Orueta (Spa) 79 79 79
238 Lindsey Shaw (Chevin) 78 82 78, Helen Jones (Royal Portrush) 79 78 81
239 Rocio Ruiz de Velasco (Spa) 76 80 83
240 Christine Watson (Beaconsfield) 77 84 79
242 Carol Wild (Notts) 83 80 79, Janet Melville (Sherwood Forest) 89 74 79, Rozalyn Adams (Addington Court Ladies) 75 86 81
243 Fiona De Vries (St Regulus) 86 78 79, Marion Kaufman (Ger) 82 81 80, Isabelle Dumont (Bel) 82 81 80, Pat West (Spalding) 80 82 81, Vicki Thomas (Carmarthen) 82 79 82
244 Jo Ashmore (Barnham Broom) 80 86 78, Marie Christine De Werra (Swi) 84 81 79, Christina Birke (Swe) 89 76 79, Cornelia Schmidt-Stuetzle (Ger) 83 81 80
246 Annie Gowing (Frilford Heath) 86 82 78
247 Susan Dye (Delamere Forest) 86 77 84
248 Amanda Mayne (Saltford) 82 88 78, Kathleen Sutherland (Royal Montrose) 84 80 84
249 Hilary Smyth (Pannal) 81 85 83
250 Mimmi Guglielmone (Swi) 87 79 84
251 Karin Gumpert (Ger) 84 81 86
252 Julie Wheeldon (Wakefield) 87 84 81, Geraldine Bray (Littlestone) 87 83 82, Sue Meadows (Hunstanton) 83 84 85
254 Barbara Woodham (Cobtree Manor Park) 82 86 86, Caron Harrison (Sherwood Forest) 84 84 86, Alison Murdoch (Can) 87 79 88
255 Elisabeth Wilander (Swe) 93 78 84, Debbie Richards (Burhill)
87 83 85
256 Gillian Curley (Northamptonshire Co) 86 83 87, Jo Rumsey (Rochford Hundred) 84 83 89259 Julie Ballard (Littlestone) 86 85 88
260 Inger Sund (Swe) 84 87 89
263 Mary MacLaren (Wellingborough) 86 85 92 |
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