A marvellous three-under-par 69, the best score in either qualifying round, earned Scotland's Sally Watson the honour of being leading qualifier for the British Women's Open Amateur Championship matchplay stages at Carnoustie, writes Colin Farquharson.
Watson, originally from South Queensferry but whose family home is now Elie, Fife, tied with the French 18-year-old Celine Boutier on three-under-par 141, but the Scot's better second round – 69 to 71 – earned her the No.1 seeding.
Having "scrambled" well for her opening round, the Scot, a student at Stanford University, California, was on top of her game. "I hit more fairways; more greens; I played solidly, as I have for most of the year," she said. "Nine of my last 15 rounds have been under par. When I lost in the US Public Links championship last week, the girl who beat me finished with five successive birdies."
Did she feel she had been "wronged" by appparently not being considered for a third Curtis Cup selection in a row? "Not at all. If the people that pick GB&I teams don't think I am good enough, that's up to them," said the former British girls finalist and past winner of the Scottish girls matchplay. "I don't feel I have a point to prove at all to anyone here."
The three who finished next to Watson and Boutier were Wales' Amy Boulden (73, 73), Italy's joint overnight leader Giulia Molinaro (70, 76) and Sweden's Daniela Holmqvist (72, 74).
The only other Scots to figure among the 64 match-play qualifiers were Rachael Watton, of Mortonhall, on 152 (77, 75), Jessica Meek (Carnoustie Ladies) on 153 (82, 71) and Alyson McKechin (Elderslie) on 157 (82, 75). Meek, 17, was on the waiting list until the last minute on Tuesday and her 71 is a record for a Carnoustie Ladies member.
Laura Murray, the Scottish champion, shot 158 (79, 79) but missed out on card comparison.
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