PRETSWELL, CLYBURN AND FEGGANS TURN UP THE HEAT AT CARNOUSTIE BURNSIDE

By Colin Farquharson
Colin@scottishgolfview.com
The feeling that this week's two Paul Lawrie Golf Centre Scottish Ladies Open Tour events had attracted by far the strongest fields so far
was confirmed by six players - two of them amateurs - shooting sub-par rounds in the afternoon sunshine at Carnoustie Burnside today.

The very wet conditions at Downfield put a damper on the scoring on Tuesday but at Carnoustie the players revelled with the summer sun on their backs at last!
Pamela Pretswell (The Nairn) and England's Holly Clyburn, from Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire - team-mates in the glorious Great Britain and Ireland Curtis Cup win at The Nairn in June last year - figured in a triple tie for first place with Ayrshire's Pamela Feggans (Doon Valley) on the four-under-par 68 mark.
Scotland amateur interntional Rachael Watton (Mortonhall), home for the summer holidays from Denver University, and India Clyburn (Woodhall Spa), Holly's 17-year-old sister, shared fifth place on 71, maintaining the excellent performances by amateur players in the first six events of the fledgling circuit for lady professionals and amateur girls or ladies with single-figure handicaps.
Note to the SLGA selectors: Rachael Watton says she would be delighted to travel back to Denver to play for Scotland in the Womne's Home Internationals at Scotscraig GC, Fife from September 11 to 13. 
Pretswell, Clyburn and Feggans each earned £580 from the £3,000 prizefund of an event named THE SPECSAVERS SPECTACULAR after the generosity of the company directors, Jamie Buchan and Tony Caffrey (pictured above) in boosting the basic £1,000 prize money put up by the Paul Lawrie Golf Centre for each event.
Messrs Buchan and Caffrey felt they got their money's worth with the publicity and the odds are they will want a bigger and better SPECSAVERS SPECTACULAR on next year's Tour - and several of the girl competitors said it would be nice if the 2014 event could be held over the Carnoustie Championship Course. 
Now that's called putting the pressure on the organisers!
Back to the present and the splendid scoring at the sharp end of a field of 29 - Gale Macpherson (Loudon Gowf) injured her back at Downfield and was unable to play two days running.
Pretswell and Clyburn are both rookies on the Ladies European Tour and Holly has already won an event in "The Big League."
Both felt they will gain more from the Burnside experience than just the prize money.

"I felt I was due a good round like this," said Pamela (pictured right), "And I will go back on to the LET feeling that I have got a bit of consistent form going."
As for Holly Clyburn, she said: "I missed the last LET event with a hip injury and hadn't played for about four weeks so that was one of the reasons I came up to Scotland for the two Paul Lawrie Tour events.
" I wanted to see if I was back to full fitness and I wanted to get back into the swing of things after the lay-off. The trip has worked out very well and I am sure my sister India and I will be back up in Scotland later in the season."
In the first group off the tee, Pamela Pretswell set the clubhouse target of 68 (34-34) with a round which included eagles at the fourth and 17th, birdies at the first, eighth and 18th as well as a double-bohey 5 at the short fifth where she found the Barry Burn with her tee shot and the short 14th where she three-putted for a bogey.

It was the proverbial game of two halves for Holly Clyburn (pictured left) - a sparkling outward nine holes which she covered in five-under-par 31 and a one-over-par 37 for the inward half in which she three-putted the 10th and 14th greens - "both from a long way" - and only put the smile back on her face by holing a 10ft putt for a birdie 3 at the last.
Pamela Feggans took off like one of the trains that run alongside part of the Burnside course. She was five under par after only six holes, with birdies at the first, second, fourth, fifth and sixth.
A bogey at the short ninth where she missed the green saw her turn in four-under-par 32.
She got it back to five under with a birdie at the 10th but, like most of the players, she found the inward half that little bit more difficult than the outward nine.
Feggans three-putted the 12th for a bogey and could "only" par the last six holes.
"I scrambled a bit to save par at the 14th and 15th but I did have birdie chances at the last three holes, although I was not able to convert any of them," said Pamela (pictured right).

Close up third on 69 was LET player Kylie Walker who retired during her round at Downfield on Tuesday because she did not feel well. But a good night's sleep did the trick and The Carrick at Loch Lomond player shot her lowest round for some time. She was out in 32 with birdies at the second, fourth, seventh and ninth.
Then Walker too found the going that bit harder after the turn.
She had eighth pars and a bogey at the short 14th for one-over 37 home.
"I did lip out with putts for birdies at the 17th and 18th," said Kylie.
If one of them had dropped, she would have tied for the lead with a 68. If both of them had gone in, she would have won the competition with a 67. As it was she pocketed £320.  A nice change of luck.
Carnoustie's Katy McNicoll and amateur Jess Meek also had a change of luck ... for the worse.
Winner of three Paul Lawrie events in a row - at Trump International, Deeside and Downfield - Katy went off the boil with a 75 (36-39) at Burnside. A double bogey 7 at the 17th just about summed up her disappointing afternoon which saw her finish joint 17th.
 Jess Meek, who had finished second three times, third once with a sixth place at Deeside being her poorest placing in five appearances on the Paul Lawrie Tour, did not make the top 20 in her home town. She had a 76 which included an inward half of 41.
Jess is bound for the University of Missouri next month.
Another local amateur who felt she should have done a lot better was Ailsa Summers, who won the prestigious St Rule Trophy women's open 54-hole tournament at St Andrews several weeks ago, was right in the mix when she covered Burnside's outward half in two-under-par 34 but the inward nine cost her 40 blows for a two-over 74.
And completing the might-have-been amateur stories. Grantown-on-Spey's Hannah McCook, a student at Stirling, was out in 32, the same as joint winner Pamela Feggans, but came back in 41 for a 73

SCOREBOARD
Par 72 (36-36)

68 Pamela Pretswell (The Nairn) 34-34, Holly Clyburn (England) 31-37, Pamela Feggans (Doon Valley) 32-36 (£580 each) .
69 Kylie Walker (Carrick on Loch Lomond) 32-37 (£320)
71 Rachael Watton (Mortonhall) (am) 35-36, India Clyburn (Woodhall Spa) (am) 34-37 (£220 vouchers)
72 Heather MacRae (Gleneagles) 35-37 (£95), Rachel Polson (Peterculter) (am) 36-36 (£95 voucher), Heather Stirling (Stirling) 34-38 (£95).
73 Hannah McCook (Grantown on Spey) (am) 32-41 (£70 voucher), Kelsey MacDonald (Robert Rock Academy) 35-38 (£70).
74 Lisa Shervill (England) 36-38, Ailsa Summers (Carnoustie) (am) 34-40, Chrisje De Vries (Netherlands) 37-37, Jane Turner (Craigielaw) 37-37, Kiran Matharu (Leeds) 37-37.
75 Lauren Blease (Engand) 37-38, Daisy Dyer (England) 38-37, Katy McNicoll (Carnoustie) 36-36, Gabrielle MacDonald (Craigielaw) (am) 37-38
76 Martine Pow (Selkirk) 39-37, Jess Meek (Carnoustie) (am) 35-41
77 Laura Murray (Paul Lawrie Golf Centre) 38-39.
79 Jess Wilcox (Blankney) (am) 38-41.  
80 Clare Queen (Vena Solutions) 38-42, Sheena Wood (Aberdeen Ladies) (am) 42-38.
81 Nichola Ferguson (Milngavie) (am) 40-41
83 Katie Reid (Monifieth) (am) 46-37
87 Jemma Chalmers (Monifieth) (am) 40-47

+The next events on the Paul Lawrie Tour are the ATR Group Classic over the Blairgowrie Rosemount Course on Thursday, July 11, followed by the Scotts Atlantic Classic at Alyth on Friday, July 12.
+Alan Bannerman, owner of the Red House Hotel, Coupar Angus, and the Dalmore Inn, Blairgowrie, is putting up £100 as a nearest the pin prize at the 17th hole on both the Rosemount and Alyth courses.
+Melville Properties are offering a free two-night weekend stay at self-catering accommodation in Gleneagles Village for the lowest aggregate score achieved when adding together a player's Blairgowrie and Alyth rounds.