GILLIAN LOCKHART WINS PLAY-OFF AT DUNBAR

SCOTTISH WOMEN'S AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP


There was a late heartbreak for 15-year-old Kelsey MacDonald (Nairn Dunbar) and Murcar Links' Carol Wilson when they lost out in a three-way play-off for the last of the 32 places in the match-play stages of the Scottish women's amateur golf championship at  Dunbar Golf Club.
Kelsey had a second-round 77 and Carol a 78 to hit the 157 mark for the 36-hole qualifying test. Also on the joint 32nd mark was Gillian Lockhart from Kilmarnock Barassie.
In the early evening, several hours after they had finished their second rounds, Kelsey and Carol set out again to see if they could make the most of their reprieve. It was three playing for one spot in the draw against the leading qualifier Heather MacRae (Dunblane New).
Carol was eliminated at the first hole. The second was halved and then Kelsey was bunkered at the short third, came out to 15ft but couldn't hole the putt to save a par.
Gillian Lockhart, safely on the green from the elevated tee, two-putted for a 3 to take her through.
After two qualifying rounds of rare quality, stand by for some classic ties over the next three days as the 93rd Scottish women's amateur golf championship enters the match-play stages.
Three times champion Anne Laing (Vale of Leven) and Martine Powe from Selkirk joined the sub-70 club in the second qualifying round when a slight breeze made low scoring marginally more difficult.
Anne shot four-under-par 68 and Martine a 69, both totalling 141. But the trail-blazers of the opening day - Heather MacRae (Dunblane New) and Louise Kennedy (Pitreavie) - still hogged the limelight.
They tied at the top of the leaderboard on the same mark - six-under-par 138, a professional-class scoring which must rank with the best ever achieved since this championship started in 1903.
Heather claimed the top seed spot by virtue of having the better second round, a 70 to Louise's 73.
"The match-play can't come quickly enough for me," said Heather who cut short her last year at San Diego State University so that she could start impressing the Curtis Cup selectors a lot earlier than if she had stayed on for the full term in California. So far Miss MacRae, winner of the British women's open amateur stroke-play championship at Nairn last August, is bang on target to be a member of the Great Britain & Ireland squad of eight for the Bandon Dunes, Oregon contest in late July.
There seem to be more genuine title candidates than usual over a short course which will give the shorter hitters a chance of upsetting the odds.
Fiona Lockhart (St Regulus), who prevented an Anne Laing hat-trick of titles at Cruden Bay 12 months ago, maintained she played "a lot better" for her opening-day 75 than she did for a two-under-par 70.
Then there's another Curtis Cup team place contender Jenna Wilson (Strathaven) who was brutally honest after she returned a 76 for 148 but still qualified with ease.  "I played absolute rubbish!" she said.
Cara Gruber (Royal Dornoch) and Sheena Wood (Aberdeen Ladies) made it safely through on 149, one ahead of 18-year-old Michele Thomson (McDonald Ellon) and two in front of Kerri Harper (Inverness).
Cara, who put the record straight by telling your reporter that she has shed four stones (not two) over the winter and looking much the better for it, improved by a shot for a 74 which included a roller-coaster ride of 38 to the turn. She had only two par figures on the front nine against three birdies and four bogeys. But after a final bogey at the 10th, Miss Gruber steadied up to reel off eight straight pars.
Sheena Wood ran up a triple bogey 6 with two shots in a bunker at the sixth and then a dojble bogey at the 15th with more trouble.
"Apart from these two bad holes, I played quite well," said Sheena whose 78 also included an eagle 3 at the 14th with a drive, five iron and and a 10ft putt as well as birdies at the ninth, and 17th.
Michele Thomson had a 68 in her last practice round at Dunbar so she was disappointed to take 77 in the first round. A 73 today was more to the liking of the big-hitting youngster who is off to Jacksonville State University, Alabama and the American college golf circuit in the autumn.
She did well to get it round in one-over par after hooking on to the beach at the fourth and running up a double bogey 6. After going three over par with a bogey at the short 10th, Michele, encouraged by her caddie-dad, birdied the 404-yd 14th (a debatable par-5 hole on the card) with a drive and a seven-iron on to the putting surface.
Then Miss Thomson showed her strength again with a pitch-and-putt birdie at the 15th where she almost drove the green at this 303yd hole.