Jess Meek, the Scottish under-21 champion from Carnoustie, scored the biggest win of her fledgling career yesterday when she beat France's Aaelle Carnet at the third hole of a sudden-death play-off in the St Rule Trophy tournament at St Andrews.
The pair, both 20, had tied after 54 holes - 36 over the New Course on Saturday and 18 over the Old Course yesterday - on 13-under-par 213s.
Meek, who has just completed her first year at the University of Missouri, started the final round two shots behind overnight leader Carnet but found herself "flying" over the first nine holes of the Old Course.
She was six under par for the first seven with an eagle three at the fifth and birdies at the second, third, fourth and seventh in six-under 32 to the turn. Carnet, out in one-over 39, was swamped by the tide in Meek's favour and her two-shot initial lead became a five-shot deficit with nine holes to play.
The French player turned the tables on the inward route which she covered in 34 to Meek's 39 and capped her comeback by holing a 10ft putt on the 18th green to go round in 73 to Meek's 71 and force a sudden-death play-off over the first and 18th holes.
The first two holes were halved but disaster struck the French player at the third hole (the second replayed) when she put her second into the Swilken Burn after Meek hit the green with a solid iron shot to win the hole and the tournament with a par four. "It's my best yet. No doubt about that," she said.
"Playing on the US college circuit for a year has certainly made me a better player, more able to cope with the pressure of a play-off like this."
Meghan MacLaren (Wellingborough), a Curtis Cup team candidate until late in the race, finished third on 217. Alice Hewson's final round of nine-under-par 67 was the lowest of the day, only one shot outside the women's amateur course record.
Hewson (Berkhamsted), a Junior Vagliano Trophy player for GB & I, won the Lawson Trophy for the lowest total by an under-18 player.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article