LOCAL CONNIE JAFFREY JOINT SECOND IN HELEN HOLM TROPHY

ANNABEL DIMMOCK LEADS BY 

FIVE WITH NINE-UNDER-PAR 141

By COLIN FARQUHARSON
Colin@scottishgolfview.com
Pre-tournament favourite Annabel Dimmock is living up to that billing in the Helen Holm Scottish women's open amateur stroke-play championship at Troon.
After two rounds over the par-75 Troon Portland links, the 17-year-old rising star from Wentworth leads the strong field by five strokes with a tally of nine-under-par 141, made up of rounds of 70 and 71.
What a difference a year makes!
On her debut in the event 12 months ago, Annabel scored 77-75-82 for 234 - 14 shots behind winner Olivia Winning from Rotherham (now a student at Tulane University, New Orleans).
Dimmock heads this year's 67 qualifiers with totals of 159 and better for Sunday's final round over the Royal Troon championship links. If Annabel
can finish with a 70, she will equal the "Helen Holm" aggregate low record of 211, achieved by 
two other English players: Emma Duggleby in 2004 and Melissa Reid in 2007.
Winner of a match-play tournament on the Florida Orange Blossom Tour in January, Dimmock followed that up by reaching the final of the Spanish women's amateur championship in late February and then winning the Sunningdale Foursomes with another Wentworth member, former Walker Cup player and now pro Steven
Brown.
In my opinion, Annabel is a racing certainty for a place in the GB and I team to defend the Curtis Cup against the Americans at St Louis, Missouri in early June either through the World Amateur Rankings, the LGU Order of Merit or one of the two wild-card picks by the Selection Panel.
The team will be announced on May 6.

Very late in the day at Troon Portland, there came a glimmer of hope that teenager Connie Jaffrey (Troon Ladies), pictured right, playing over her home course, might yet become the first Scottish "Helen Holm" winner since Heather Stirling in 2002.
Connie, 17 when she won last year's Scottish schoolgirls title, Ayrshire women's county championship, the Scottish U18 girls championship and the SLGA Girls Order of Merit,  returned a second-round 72 to be sharing second place with 19-year-old French player, Anaelle Carnet (72-74) on 146 - five off the pace.
Jaffrey had an eagle 3 at the long ninth and birdies at the long sixth, long 15th and yet another long hole, the 18th, in halves of 35 and 37. Her mid-round bogeys came at the long 12th and short 14th. 
The young local will know the Royal Troon links better than any of the other leaders but expecting her to make up five shots on the in-form Dimmock over 18 holes is asking a bit much. 
Connie, who lives at Kilwinning, could be playing her last "Helen Holm" for at least four years. She is one of a cluster of Scottish girls who enrol at US colleges in August. Jaffrey is going to Kansas State University.
Carnet, incidentally, reached the final stage of the last LET Qualifying School in Morocco but did not finish high enough in the rankings to persuade her to relinquish her amateur status.
There have been two French winners of the "Helen Holm" in the last decade or so - Nathalie David in 2003 and Barbara Genuini in 2008.
The 2012 Scottish U18 girls champion Lauren Whyte (St Regulus) is one of five players sharing fourth  place on 147.
The others are former British and English stroke-play champion Sarah-Jane Boyd (Truro), Rosie Davies (Coombe Hill), who played on the US college circuit for four years, and two Irish players, Chloe Ryan and Sinead Sexton. 
Sarah-Jane Boyd (Truro) matched the best round of the tournament when she returned a second-round, five-under-par 70 - seven better than her Friday score -  for a 36-hole tally of 147.

Sarah-Jane had an eagle 3 at the ninth and birdies at the long second, long sixth and seventh in an outward 34. After the turn she birdied the long 12th, 13th and 15th, dropping shots at the fourth, 10th and 11th.
Like Connie Jaffrey, Lauren Whyte, is off to a US college in August - Baylor University, Texas is her destination. She  had birdies at the second, third, ninth and 18th in halves of 36-39 for a 75. 
Ryan and Sexton both had 73s. The latter was three under par for her bogey-free last seven holes. She birdied the 12th, 15th and 18th.
Speaking of Irish competitors, Irish champion Paula Grant, winner of the RandA Bursars' women's tournament a couple of weeks ago for the second year in a row,  had a chance of boosting her Curtis Cup prospects at Troon this weekend but it just has not happened for her on this trip to Scotland. She had a second-round 79 for 152 after a double bogey 7 at the 11th and seven bogeys which cancelled out her five birdies.
 Alyson McKechin, who will be defending the Scottish women's closed amateur title at Prestwick next month,was going well with birdies at the fourth, sixth and seventh ... but she was four over par for the remaining holes with bogeys a the eighth, 13th, 14th and 16th ... 40 shots to come home for a 77 and 149.
Jet lag must have caught up with Curtis Cup place chaser Meghan MacLaren (Wellingborough, Cambridge), the Florida International University student and daughter of a Scots-born European Tour executive.
She played in a US college tournament that did not finish in Alabama until Wednesday.
Taking three different plane flights to cover the thousands of miles to Ayrshire, she arrived Thursday night, too late, of course, for a practice round.
A two-under 73 in the first round was a pretty good performance bearing in mind how tiring just one plane journey can be. But the wheels came off today with a second-round 81 (42-39) with a double bogey 5 at the short eighth being the lowlight alongside six bogeys. 
Only two birdies, at the sixth and 17th but, on 154, Meghan, winner of the Irish women's open amateur stroke play last summer and three times as a freshman on the 2012-2013 US college circuit, is 13 shots adrift of Dimmock 

SECOND ROUND TOTALS
Troon Portland par 150 (2x75) CSS 77 77 
141 Annabel Dimmock (Wentworth) 70 71
146 Anaelle Carnet (Fra) 72 74, Connie Jaffrey (Troon Ladies) 74 72.
147 Sarah-Jane Boyd (Truro) 77 70, Chloe Ryan (Ire) 74 73, Lauren Whyte (St Reglus) 72 75, Sinead Sexton (Ire) 74 73, Rosie Davies (Coombe Hill) 72 75.
148 Gemma Clews (Delamere Forest) 71 77
149 Bethan Poppel (Long Ashton) 75 74, Hannah McCook (Grantown on Spey) 75 74, Alyson McKechin (Elderslie) 72 77.
150 Alex Peters (Notts Ladies) 78 72, Sophie Madden (West Essex) 77 73, India Clyburn (Woodhall Spa) 76 74.
151 Becky Harries (Haverfordwest) 74 77, Emma Broze (Fra) 76 75
152 Sammy Fuller (Roehampton) 77 75, Paula Grant (Ire) 73 79, Ellie Goodall (Selby) 73 70, Maria Dunn (Ire) 73 79, Olivia Mehaffey (NIre) 73 79, Sophie Lamb (Clitheroe) 76 76, Marion Veysseyre (Fra) 74 78, Gabriella Cowley (Hanbury Manor) 76 76.
153 Amy Farrell (Ire) 79 74, Lou Vrain (Fra) 74 79, Eilidh Briggs (Kilmacolm) 75 78, Noni Stephen (Wentworth) 80 73
154 Hollie Vizard (Pleasington) 79 75, Victoria Bradshaw (NIre) 78 76, Meghan MacLaren (Wellingborough) 73 81.
155 Poppy Finlay (Vicars Cross) 80 75, Emmja O'Dristoll (Ire) 76 79, Kate McIntosh (Broomieknowe) 78 77, Emily Slater (Woodhall Spa) 76 79, Hollie Muse (West Lancs) 78 77
156 Lucy Goddard (Hanbury Manor) 83 73, Carla Reynolds (Ire) 77 79, Olivia Jackson (Pannal) 78 78, Inci Mehmet (Wentworth) 78 78, Jordana Graham (Southerness) 81 75, Shelby Smart (Knowle) 80 76, Charlotte Austwick (Fulford) 78 78, Megan Lockett (Huddersfield) 79 77, Sophie Powell (Manchester) 79 77, Chloe Caron (Fra) 77 79, Clara Young (North Berwick) 80 76, Lianna Bailey (Notts Ladies) 76 80, Lauen Horsford (Wimbledon Park) 83 73.
157 Gabrielle MacDonald (Craigielaw) 78 79, Chloe Williams (Wrexham) 84 73, Kerry Smith (Waterlooville) 81 76.
158 Chloe Rogers (Braintree 84 74, Annabel Bailey (Notts Ladies) 82 76, Jessica Ross (NIre) 82 76, Albane Valenzuela (Swi) 77 81, Anais Meyssonnier (Fra) 75 83, Rochelle Morris (Woodsome Hall) 79 79, Emma Harris (Peel) 78 80, Gee-won Park (Hampton Court Palace) 77 81. Michaela Gasplmayr (Aut) 76 82,  Ailsa Summers (Carnoustie Ladies) 79 79.

159 Tara Mactaggart (Minto) 81 78, Hannah Scott (Broomieknowe) 82 77, Hana-Rae Siefert (NZ) 80 79, Mary Doyle (Ire) 80 79.
MISSED THE CUT
160 Eloise Healey (West Lancs) 85 75, Emily-Mae Hall (Notts Ladies) 79 81, Megan Briggs (Kilmacolm) 78 82, Emma Hale (Troon Ladies) 78 82.
161 Gemma Batty (Fairhaven) 80 81, Lisa Ferrie (Matfen Hall) 78 83, Elise Genoux (Fra) 80 81, Kimberley Beveridge (Aboyne) 82 79, Jenna Maihaniemi (Finland) 78 83.
162 Billie-Jo Smith (Woodhall Spa) 78 84. Jessica Schiele (Lincoln Park) 83 79, Bethany Garton (Royal Lytham) 79 83, Julie McCarthy (Ire) 80 82, Heather Munro (Monifieth) 80 82, Charlotte de Corte (Bel) 84 78
163 Lara Plachetka-Pohl (Fra) 81 82, Elisabeth Codet (Fra) 83 80, Ivane Hellas (Fra) 81 82.
164 Emily Coleman (Trentham) 80 84, Louise Macgregor (Glenbervie) 85 79.
166 Gillian O'Leary (Ireland) 83 83 
167 Nichola Ferguson (Milngavie) 80 87
168 Luan Skeates (Bucks) 84 84, Cloe Frankish (Chart Hills) 83 85, Nastja Banovec (Slovenia) 86 82
173 Anne Laing (Vale of Leven) 92 81, Emily Dalgetty (Glencorse) 82 91.
174 Gemma Bradbury (Cottrell Park) 88 86

Retired - Melissa Nicol (Moor Hall) 89 ret.

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