LOTHIANS PLAYER FINISHES WITH BIRDIE HAT-TRICK

JANE TURNER and LAURA MURRAY 

AMONG LEADERS IN FINLAND

Jane Turner finished with a hat-trick of birdies for a one-under-par round of 70 and third place - five behind Swedish leader Emma Westin - on the opening day of the HLR Golf Academy Open at Hillside Golf Club, Vihti in Finland today (Friday).

Laura Murray was not far behind with a par 71 for a share of fourth place with one birdie, one bogey and 16 pars.

Aother North-east player, and also a past Scottish amateur champion, Michele Thomson from Ellon could have done with some of Laura's steadiness. Thomson ran up a 10-over-par 81 for a share of 95th place in a field of 117. In contrast to Turner, Michele bogeyed the last three holes and had a triple bogey 6 at the 10th.

Gemma Webster had a 77 for joint 59th place overnight.

HLR GOLF ACADEMY OPEN

Hillside GC, Vihti, Finland

LEADING FIRST-ROUND SCORES

Par 71

65 E Westin (Swe)

68 D Nielsen (Den)

70 J Turner (Sco)

SELECTED SCORES

71 L Murray (Sco), K Matharu (Eng) (T4)

73 C Ellis (Eng), K Larratt (Eng) (T21)

74 E Tayler (Eng) (T30)

75 C Wild (Eng), A Ratcliffe (Eng) (T41)

76 R Goodall (Eng), T Boyes (Eng) (T41)

77 G Webster (Sco), G Hall (Eng), A Scott (Eng), D Dyer-Brierley (Eng), C Rogef=rs (Eng) (T59)

78 A Gittens (Eng), R Drummond (Eng)  (T70)

80 J Wilcox (Eng) (T84)

81 M Thomson (Sco), L Blease (Eng) (T95)