SCOTTISH GIRLS CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL

 ROSEANNE BEATS RACHAEL BY 3 AND 2

 

Roseanne Niven, a 17-year-old scratch player from Crieff, won the Scottish girls (close) amateur golf championship at Peebles today. Roseanne, seventh of the 32 qualifiers for the match-play stages,  beat 18-year-old Rachael Livingstone (Musselburgh Old) , the eighth qualifier, by 3 and 2 in the 18-hole final.

Neither had reached the national final previously and it is fair to say that both played their best golf in winning their way through to the last stage, rather than in the final itself.

That is not uncommon in a match-play tournament where the number of rounds played sometimes catches up with the players on the last day.

Roseanne was four over par and Rachael seven over the card in a match that lasted only 2hr 40min - but it was never a dull contest.

None of the first six holes was halved. On the seventh tee Roseanne was two up, having won the first, with a bogey, the third,  fourth and the six with pars.

Rachael won the second with a par and the fifth with a birdie 3 - the only birdie by either player in the final.

In contrast, the next six holes were halved. Had Rachael been able to get her short game going over that period, she might have been able to take one or two of the opportunities that presented themselves

But it was Roseanne who broke the sequences of halves with a par 4 at the 13th to go three up.

Three more halves finished the final on the 16th green.

The new champion confessed she felt a "wee bit tired" after last week's gruelling European girls' team championships in Denmark.

"I didn't play as well as I wanted to in the final but I'm just happy to have won the title," said Roseanne.

Rachael too conceded that the good play that had marked her progress through the week at Peebles deserted her when she needed it most.

Next year's championship will be played for the first time over the Peterhead Golf Club links, north of Cruden Bay but not quite as far as Fraserburgh.