It's Kelsey v Louise for Scottish title at Craigielaw
-MacDonald wins birdie classic against Murray,
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Kenney wins 22nd hole thriller to oust Carlton
By COLIN FARQUHARSONThe two outstanding Scots recently not included in the GB&I team of eight by the Curtis Cup selectors – Kelsey MacDonald and Louise Kenney – will meet in tomorrow morning’s 18-hole final of the 97th Scottish women’s amateur golf championship over the Craigielaw links in East Lothian.
The other link between the two is that Scottish Golf Union junior national coach Spencer Henderson coaches both girls. As Louise, who is his girlfriend, said later: "It's a dream final for Spencer. He's very proud to be coach for both finalists.""
Kelsey, 19-year-old Stirling University student from the Nairn Dunbar club, figured in a magnificent, birdie-strewn semi-final against Alford’s Laura Murray
MacDonald, Scottish Under-21 champion for the past two years and named as first reserve for next month’s match against the United States, was five under par in winning by 2 and 1.
Hard luck, Laura! She was three under par for the 17 holes – and still lost.
“That’s the best I’ve every played in a match-play tie,” said a still excited Kelsey after she and Laura combined to produce 12 birdies over the first 14 holes. "I knew that Laura would be trying very hard as this is likely going to be her last ever Scottish championship - and she certainly did. I had to be at my very best to beat her.
"I'm not surprise to hear that the player who has beaten Laura at the last two Scottish championships - Megan Briggs last year and Michelle Thomson in 2008 - went on to win the title. Let's hope I can keep up that sequence!
“Not getting a place I thought I deserved in the Curtis Cup line-up gave me the drive and motivation to come to Craigielaw – not to show the selectors that they were wrong but to prove to myself that I was Curtis Cup class. My confidence is sky high now.”
The other semi-final, between Kenney, a 27-year-old Dunfermline nursery school teacher and Pitreavie Golf Club member, and European tour pro Callum Macaulay’s 23-year-old bride to be (next February), Clare-Marie Carlton (Pitreavie), did not touch the sustained scoring heights of the MacDonald v Murray tie but it made up for it with its drama packed into the closing holes. It was the 22nd hole before Kenney, who had to square the match at the 18th to take it into extra holes, won to realise her ambition to reach the national final for the second year in a row.
“I felt I did not do myself justice in last year’s final when I lost 4 and 3 to Megan Briggs. This year I am really up for it and coach Spencer Henderson has told me that he is as proud as Punch to be the coach of BOTH finalists,” said Kenney who was three up after 12 holes but then lost the 13th, 14th and 16th to birdies from Carlton.“I then three-putted the 17th to go one down for the first time in the match but I was so determined I was not going to buckle under this time. And the way I played the 18th under pressure to win it and square the match, showed that I’ve got the fighting spirit to cope with situations like that,” said Kenney.
At the third extra hole, the Fifer again showed she is made of the right stuff by holing a 20ft putt for a half after Carlton had holed a 20yd chip .
HERE'S HOW THE SEMI-FINALS WENT
MacDonald and Laura Murray crammed six birdies between them into the opening seven holes, at the end of which Kelsey had forged a three-hole lead.The Stirling student birdied the first to go one up, halved the long second in birdie 4s and went three up for the first time with a par at the short third and a birdie at the long fourth.Murray scored her first success of the afternoon and she had to produce a birdie 2 at the short sixth to do it. But MacDonald quickly regained her three-hole advantage with a 3 at the seventh, her fourth birdie of the semi-final.
A par at the short eighth was good enough to put Kelsey four up. She reached the turn in four under-par 31 to Laura's par 35.
Murray started back strongly with a winning par at the 10th and then three birdies in a row from the 11th. At that hole, she cut Kelsey's lead to two but MacDonald was able to match her opponent's birdies at the 12th and 13th in a match of phenomenal figures - 11 birdies between them for the first 13 holes, which became a bag of 14 birdies between them after 14.
Murray made it four birdies in a row with a 3 at the 14th and this time she won the hole to be back to one down for the first time since the first hole. But the Alford player bogeyed the 15th to slip two down with three to play in a classic match-play tie.
Halves at the 16th and 17th left MacDonald the winner by 2 and 1 and into the Scottish final for the first time with brilliant figures of five under par (she had been three under par in the morning semi-finals).
Hard luck, Laura Murray. She was three under par at the finish, and strung together four birdies in a row from the 11th, figures normally good enough to win a semi-final.
HOW LOUISE KENNEY WON AT THE 22ND
Clare-Marie Carlton did not have the best of starts and found herself two down on the third tee. She drove into a bunker to lose the first and ran up another bogey to lose the second.The Paisley player settled at last with a birdie 4 at the long fourth to cut her deficit to one but bogeyed the fifth to lose that before Kenney bogeyed the short sixth to come out of that exchange of holes with a one-hole advantage.
The next four holes were halved in strict par, Carlton turning in one-over 36 to Kenney's 35.
Kenney broke the stalemate with her first birdie of the round, a 4 at the long 11th to go two up. The Fifer got her second birdie at the 12th to go three holes up but that stirred Carlton into a birdie-birdie revival, winning both the 13th and 14th to be only one down on the 15th tee.
The 15th was halved in pars, leaving Kenney one up with three to play but by no means certain of reaching the final for the second year in a row.
Carlton underlined the unpredictability of match-play by turning the tie on its head with a birdie at the 16th - all square - and a winning par at the short 17th - one up for the first time in the match.But she was forced to concede the 18th to be back to level pegging again ... and off into extra holes.
The 19th was halved in bogey 5s, Carlton three-putting after Kenney had been bunkered.
The 20th was halved in birdie 4s, both players now level par for the 20 holes.
The short 21st saw Carlton bunkered off the tee, splash out and hole a 30yd chip for a par 3 which Kenney, again responding to now-or-never pressure, matched by holing from 20ft.
On to the 22nd (the par-5 fourth) where Kenney clinched a place in the final with a par 5
Labels: Amateur Ladies
