Gabrielle MacDonald's wrist injury may 

handicap her title defence at Monifieth

FROM ELSPETH BURNSIDE

Gabrielle MacDonald will be in carefree mood when she defends the Scottish Ladies’ Championship at Monifieth Links, starting tomorrow (Tuesday) with the first of two stroke-play qualifying rounds.

The 22-year-old from Craigielaw - pictured 12 months ago with the championship trophy at Prestwick - sat the last of her finals for her Geography degree at St Andrews University last week, and she is now looking forward to trying to retain the trophy she won in a dramatic 19th hole shoot out against Connie Jaffrey at Prestwick 12 months ago.

It’s not been an easy start of season for MacDonald, who was the 100th Scottish Ladies’ Champion.  “I’ve been injured and missed a few events,” she explained.

“It’s a wrist problem and I’ve had to have a couple of cortisone injections. Surgery was an option but, thankfully, it has been decided it is not necessary. I’ve had a lot of treatement for the injury from physiotherapists through the Scottish Institute of Sport.”

With her University commitments – she has just completed her final dissertation entitled “People’s Perceptions of Climate Change” – MacDonald has not had much chance to inspect the Monifieth course.    

“But I did go there earlier this month. It was windy but I really enjoyed it,” she said. “It should be a good week and I’m really looking forward to defending the title.”

After completing her studies, MacDonald is going to turn her full attention to golf. “I’m going to have a full year as an amateur golf and then, hopefully, go to Tour School at the end of 2016,” she revealed.

Troon’s Jaffrey misses the Championship as she is a student at Kansas State University, but there are a number of youngsters who have returned from the States to take part including Jessica Meek (Carnoustie), the 2013 Scottish Junior Open Strokeplay Champion, and Clara Young (North Berwick), who was runner-up in this Championship at Longniddry two years ago.

The field also includes the season’s in-form 15-year-old Shannon McWilliam. Runner-up in both the SLGA Scottish Open Under-16 Championship and the Helen Holm Scottish Open Strokeplay Championship last month, the Aboyne schoolgirl is definitely one to watch.

Following two rounds of stroke-play, the top 32 players qualify for the match-play knock-out stages. The 18-hole final takes place on Saturday morning. The players ranked 33-48 frm the 36-hole qualifying will conest the Clark Rosebowl. 

Spectators very welcome. 

+Jess Meek withdrew with a wrist injury from the championship after Elspeth wrote the above article.