KELSEY MACDONALD IN BRITISH SEMI-FINALS
Scottish champion Kelsey MacDonald is through to Saturday morning’s semi-finals of the British women’s open amateur golf championship at sunny Ganton.
But Curtis Cup player Sally Watson was beaten in the quarter-finals on another very hot day at the Yorkshire venue.
MacDonald, a 19-year-old Stirling University student and Nairn Dunbar Golf Club member, was so unlucky not to be selected for the recent Curtis Cup match at Americans but she beat one US player, Olivia Lansing, by 2 and 1 yesterday to reach the last four, in which she will face another, even more highly-rated international player from the States.
Kelsey will cross swords with 32-year-old Meghan Stasi for a second time, having beaten her by 3 and 2 in the semi-finals of the Doherty match-play tournament on Florida’s Orange Blossom Tour in January 2008.
Stasi was Meghan Bolger when she played for the Americans in the 2008 Curtis Cup match at St Andrews and she won the US women’s mid-amateur championship in 2006 and again in 2007
“Missing out on selection for this year’s Curtis Cup match has spurred me on to win the Scottish title and also to do well here at Ganton. I am playing very well at the moment but I am taking nothing for granted. It’s been a busy year for me already but I am trying to manage my time better so that I don’t get to the exhausted stage,” said Kelsey whose long-term goal is to play in the 2012 Curtis Cup match in her home town of Nairn before she completes her degree course at Stirling University and turns professional.
She won the first hole against Olivia Lansing in the quarter-finals and was never behind after that, gradually increasing her lead until she was three up after 12 holes.
Her American opponent prolonged the tie by winning the 14th and 16th but a half in par ended the match at the 17th.
Elie and Earlsferry GC member Sally Watson, who will be 19 next month, and Rachel Jennings from Staffordshire, the last two surviving members of the GB and I Curtis Cup squad, both went down in the quarter-finals.
Rachel admitted that exhaustion had finally caught up on her, a bit later than the rest of Mary McKenna’s squad. Sally insisted that she was “well rested” but she lacked that vital spark to beat 18-year-old Kelly Tidy (Royal Birkdale), a junior Solheim Cup and junior Ryder Cup player, in their morning quarter-final.
Kelly, twice beaten in the final of the British girls championship, is a young opponent of some class and Sally was unable to put her under real pressure before losing by one hole.
Tidy will meet another 18-year-old, Rebecca Lee-Bentham from Toronto, Canada in the second semi-final.
The final day's programme at Ganton is:
SEMI-FINALS
8.30 Kelsey MacDonald v Meghan Stasi
8.40 Kelly Tidy v Rebecca Lee-Bentham.
FINAL
Teeing off at 1pm.

+There is no admission charge and car-parking is free at Ganton Golf Club. .