ENGLISH PRO'S DAUGHTER OLIVIA COWAN


WINS PORTUGUESE TITLE
 
Scottish women's amateur golf champion Gabrielle Macdonald finished a disappointing joint 39th in the first big women's amateur tournament of the year in Europe - the 85th Portuguese international women's amateur championship at Montado Hotel and Golf Resort today (Saturday), writes Colin Farquharson .

The St Andrews University student, a member of Craigielaw Golf Club, had scores of 76, 79, 76, 80, admittedly in testing conditions for an aggregate of 311.
 Gabrielle finished 22 shots behind the German-born winner, 18-year-old Olivia Cowan, pictured, daughter of English parents. Her dad Andrew Cowan, originally from Liverpool, runs the golf academy at Barbarossa Golf Club, Kaiserslautern. Olivia's mother Claire is also English.
Olivia, who has attended German schools and speaks the language fluently, had the choice of playing for England or Germany. She opted for the country where she lives with her parents.
Whether Olivia will be living in another country come August, i.e. enrolling at an American university - what a recruit she would be! = we are trying to find out.
 Miss Cowan, who has a handicap of +3 and has won the German women's amateur championship, shot 74, 69, 73 and 73 for one-over 289.
No. 134 in the Women's World Amateur Golf Rankings - she will be nearer the 100 mark after next Wednesday's revision, Olivia won by one shot from Nuria Iturrios (Spain) and Amina Wolf (Germany).
Ireland's Chloe Ryan (Castleroy), the halfway leader, finished tied 19th on 297 with rounds of 74, 68, 76 and 79.
The leading English player was young Emily Slater (Woodhall Spa) who had been in with a chance of the title with one round to go but crashed to a closing 82, which included three double bogeys as she finished joint 19th. Her earlier rounds were 77, 68 and 72. Her time will come.
Scottish U21 girls champion India Clyburn, also a member at Woodhall Spa, eventually finished T27 after saddling herself with an opening round of 82. Her later scores were 73, 75 and 73, which would have put her in the top 10 if she had been nearer the par of 72 with her first-day effort.
Best score on the last day was a 71 and there were quite a few scores in the 80s, which suggests that the weather was not what you would expect in Portugal, even at the end of January.

LEADING FINAL TOTALS
Par 288 (4x72)
289 O Cowan (Ger) 74 69 73 73
290 N Iturrios (Spa) 77 69 72 72, A Wolf (Ger) 69 75 73 73
292 C Ricolfi (Ita) 72 71 73 76, L Rosso (Ita) 73 70 73 76.

SELECTED TOTALS
297 C Ryan (Ire) 74 68 76 73 (T15)
299 E Slater (Eng) 77 68 72 82 (T18)
301 E Allen (Eng) 79 74 72 76(T22)
302 B Popel (Eng) 78 74 76 74 (T25)
303 I Clyburn (Eng) 82 73 75 73 (T27)
304 I Mehmet (Eng) 74 72 78 80 (T29)
306 G Clews (Eng) 78 78 75 75 (T34)
311 G Macdonald (Sco) 76 79 76 80 (T39)
313 C Frankish (Eng) 80 75 76 82 (42nd)



TEAM EVENT (over first three rounds)
425 Italy A
430 Spain B, Germany B
Also:
447 England A (7th)
461 England B (last of 11)


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