SCOTTISH GIRLS U21 - DUNFERMLINE DAY ONE

KELSEY IN FRONT AND SHE INTENDS TO STAY THERE
IN TITLE HAT-TRICK BID

By COLIN FARQUHARSON  ( Thanks Colin - Please follow http://www.kirkwoodgolf.co.uk/ for more news on this and on Mackie  Bowl at Gullane this Sunday where many of girls will be playing - I won't be blogging it all )

Nobody has won the Scottish Under-21 girls’ open amateur stroke-play golf championship three times in a row since Kathryn Imrie (Monifieth) between 1985 and 1987.

But Nairn Dunbar’s Kelsey MacDonald, winner of the title for the past two years, must have an outstanding chance of completing the hat-trick at Dunfermline Golf Club this week.

The 19-year-old Stirling University student is probably playing the golf of her young life at the moment.

Winner of the Scottish women’s championship at Craigielaw in May, Kelsey was then beaten finalist in the British women’s open amateur championship at Ganton. Now she has opened her bid for a three-timer in the Under-21s’ championship with a par-matching round of 72 over a Pitfirrane course so sodden by heavy rain that there was an hour’s delay at one point to allow the excess water to subside.

MacDonald, pictured above, started like a house on fire with a birdies at the long third and the par-4 third and a bogeyat the short fifth did not douse the glame. She birdied the long seventh to be out in two-under-par 33.

Then, perhaps the very wet conditions got to her. She couldn’t coax out another birdie on the inward half, having eight pars and a double-bogey 6 at the 14th in two-over 39 for the second half.

Craigielaw’s Jane Turner, who caddied for MacDonald in her closing matches of the “British” at Ganton, is her nearest challenge going into the second of three rounds. Jane could have ended the first day on level terms but bogey two of the last three holes, the short 16th and the 18th. Mind you she birdied the ones in between, the long 15th and 17th for level par 37 home.

On the outward journey, she got another birdie at a long hole, the third but the short holes, the fifth and ninth, tripped her up with bogeys and she turned in one-over 36.

Two lasses from Lancashire, Emma Clegg (Clitheroe) and Ormskirk’s Lucie Walker are filling third and fourth positions on 74 and 75 respectively.

Among those in joint fifth place on 76 are Lesley Atkins (Gullane), winner of the Scottish girls’ match-play title at Eyemouth on Saturday, and Ailsa Bain (Peebles), winner of that same Under-18 championship last year.

FIRST ROUND SCORES

Par 72

72 Kelsey MacDonald (Nairn Dunbar).

73 Jane Turner (Craigielaw).

74 Emma Clegg (Clitheroe).

75 Lucie Walker (Ormskirk).

76 Jacqueline Sneddon (Alyth), Ailsa Bain (Peebles), Lesley Atkins (Gullane), Eilidh Briggs (Kilmacolm), Jill Meldrum (Dullatur), Rebecca Wilson (Grange).

77 Megan Briggs (Kilmacolm), Gillian Scanlan (Hamilton).

78 Hannah McCook (Abernethy), Sophie Alexander (Deeside), Nicola Rawlinson (Royal Birkdale), Samantha Munro (Aberdour), Natasha Qayum (Ranfurly Castle), Samantha Leslie (Westhill), Gillian Monteith (Portpatrick Dunskey), Kate McIntosh (Broomieknowe).

79 Lauren Whyte (St Regulus), Charlotte Austwick (Pike Hills), Nicola Ferguson (Clober), Gabrielle MacDonald (Craigielaw), Louise MacGregor (Falkirk), Clara Young (North Berwick), Alice Boothroyd (Rudding Park), Rachael Goodall (Heswall), Rachael Taylor (Hartl Golf Resort),

80 Jordana Graham (Southerness), Alyson McKechin (Elderslie), Amelia Taylor (St Annes Old Links), Tegan Seivwright (Deeside), Tara MacTaggart (Minto).

81 Rachel Hanlon (St Regulus), Hannah Scott (Broomieknowe).

82 Keren Ward (Glen), Ashley Smith (Monifieth), Rachael Watton (Mortonhall), Rachel Polson (Peterculter), Eilidh Mackay (Nairn Dunbar). Emily Aird (Blairgowrie), Connie Jaffrey (Troon Ladies), Shannon McGuire (Canmore).

83 Linzi Allan (West Kilbride), Katie Reid (Monifieth).

84 Heather Munro (Monifieth), Sammy Vass (Tain), Eve Muirhead (Pitlochry).

85 Gillian Arnott (Kilbirnie Place), Rachael McQueen (Troon La\dies), Jenna Birch (Royal Lytham), Linsey Stevenson (Elie and Earlsferry).

86 Rachel Walker (Dumfries and Co), Megan Clyne (Deeside), Nicola Taylor (Walton Heath), Nicola Taylor (Dunnikier Park), Alison Goodwin (Glenbervie).

87 Eilidh Watson (Muckhart), Ashley Ann Alston (Royal Montrose), Hannah Robb (Strathmore), Gail Wilson (Grange).

88 Kimberley Beveridge (Aboyne), Mhairi McKay (West Kilbride), Louise McGillivray (Banchory), Eleanor Tunn (Reay).

89 Jorden Ferrie (Kirkintilloch), Alexis Hutton (Falkirk Tryst), Klly McNulty (Whitley Bay).

92 Annabel Niven (Crieff), Gillian Simpson (Murrayfield), Julie Vass (Tain).

93 Nicola Robertgson (Dunblane New).

94 Jemma Chalmers (Monifieth), Kirstin Scott (Milngavie), Megan Brown (Dunfermline).

98 Catherine Small (Craigielaw).

100 Alexandra Qayum (Ranfurly Castle).

Disqualified: Rebecca McGeehan (West Rhine).

No Return: Lesley Cosh (Cowglen).