The Charlie Hull controversy: Scots-born LPGA Tour player has her say

E-mail from Mhairi McKay

Hello Colin,
While I appreciate your note on the Charley Hull saga, pointing out that Charley as a young amateur has been given a spot in a major ahead of a professional trying to make a living at the game, this tournament has a long history behind it and the sponsor (who gets to decide invites - after all, they put the money up for the tournament) decided long ago to give spots to either amateurs or professionals from other tours who didn't have status on the LPGA(for the most part).  

However this is besides the point. Charley has been given an invite and recognised for playing well. Congratulations to her!  I understand there is a conflict with the Curtis Cup training weekend. However, it is unreasonable to expect this girl to travel across eight time zones and have her be able to prepare properly for this major.  

As this major has a corporate sponsor, unlike all of the men's majors, there is a two-day pro-am event (that Charley will not be selected to participate in) being played on Tuesday and Wednesday, thus giving Charley only Monday to play a practice round on the tournament course.  

Having played this great major, it is a course that requires lots of         knowledge so give Charley (especially as I'm sure she'll being going up against some of the American Curtis Cup players) a good chance at some proper preparation.  

Why is this girl being punished for having played well. It is just sickening. Believe me I have nothing but the greatest, most cherished memories, having represented GB and I in two Curtis Cup matches. All I want is the best players to be available for selection.  

Also, both times I played in the Curtis Cup I was studying at Stanford and was unable to attend training weekends. It is my understanding this would disqualify me now if I was trying to play on the team unless I travelled back from the States to play in these weekends.  

Sorry, but I rather be studying and working on my game in the States, playing against the girls I already know are on the American team, than playing in what will likely be a freezing, howling gale at Nairn.  

Charley, you can borrow my old Mission Hills yardage books if you need them. All the best.

Mhairi McKay

PS The Kraft Nabisco is considered the "Masters" of the women's majors.  We all the know the Masters has a long history of amateur invites.

LORETTO COMPLETE HAT-TRICK IN ISGA HOME INTERNATIONALS

NEWS RELEASE
The Loretto School Golf Academy has won the prestigious ISGA Home Internationals for a remarkable third time in succession. The Independent Schools Golf Association (ISGA) held its Home Internationals at Royal Portrush Golf Club in Northern Ireland on February 27-28.
The top finishing schools from last year's knockout, which had over 120 schools competing, qualified to play for their country. Loretto School qualified as the best Scottish school and was selected to represent Scotland.
Monmouth represented Wales, Millfield represented the best English school and Coleraine Academical as the best Irish school.
The format was medal play over two rounds to find the winning team. Each school fielded a four-man team. The Loretto team looked the part in their new Adidas kit for the first round on the Valley in almost perfect weather conditions.
Loretto’s Carl Kolloss led the team out and after a slow start fought back for a four-over par 72. Sami Bouzabia got off to a blistering start with five birdies in the first six holes but he was unable to maintain the momentum dropping back to a 72. Alexander Wilson played steady golf the whole round to shoot a two over par 70.
Ben Skinner was out last and shot the low round of the day with an excellent two under par 66. This gave the team a four over par total which put them three shots clear of Millfield in second place.
The final round was on the Dunluce, a fantastic course which is due to host the Irish Open in the summer. Playing in reverse score order Carl Kolloss led the team out, playing a crucial round of two under par 70, the low round of the day.
Sami Bouzabia, out second again, got off to a good start but was again unable to maintain his score, dropping to a ten over par 82. This put the pressure on the final two players as Millfield were playing well.
Alexander Wilson, after another steady round, made a fantastic up and down on the 18th to post a one over par 73. Ben Skinner, out last for the second time, shot a fantastic front nine but hit a rocky patch in the middle of the back nine with three double bogeys in a row.
He regrouped quickly and finished with two crucial pars to shoot a four over par 76 and a team score of +3 for the day and +7 for the tournament. This was good enough to retain the ISGA Home Internationals, maintaining a three- shot lead over Millfield who finished second ahead of Coleraine in third and Monmouth fourth.

RACHEL HANLON FINISHES 14th IN TEXAS INVITATIONAL

St Regulus, St Andrews member Rachel Hanlon, a freshman student at Western Texas Community College, Snyder, finished 14th in a field of 55 at this week's Lady Cru Spring Invitational college golf tournament at Stone Tree Golf Club, Killeen in Texas.
Rachel, pictured, had rounds of 79 and 82 for a total of 161 over a par-72 course of 5,818yd.
She finished 12 shots behind the winner, team-mate Judy Papenfus (75-74).
Western Texas also won the team title by nine shots from Oklahoma Christian in a field of 10 teams.

CHARLEY HULL SHOWS HER WORLD CLASS TO BE SPANISH 2 SEED

By COLIN FARQUHARSON
Colin@scottishgolfview.com
Controversial Charley Hull, only 15 but ranked No 9 female amateur in the world, showed her undoubted class by claiming the No 2 seed spot with a five-under-par tally of 137 in the qualifying rounds of the Spanish women's amateur international golf championship at El Valle Golf Club, Murcia today.
Kettering-based Woburn wonder girl Charley, holder of the English and Welsh women's open amateur stroke-play titles, shot 68 and a five-birdie 69 to finish one shot behind leading match-play qualifier Natalia Escuriola Martinez (66-70).
There have been no developments since the Ladies Golf Union offered to help her make arrangements to leave the Nairn Curtis Cup selection trial early on Sunday, March 25 so that she could fly to California for the Nabisco Kraft LPGA major event.
Holly Clyburn (Woodhall Spa), Amy Boulden (Conwy) and Pamela Pretswell, who have all committed to playing in the Nairn three-day trial, all did well in the Spanish qualifying.
Clyburn, who played in the 2010 Curtis Cup match in the States, and Boulden finished joint seventh in the stroke-play section of this championship on one-under-par 141, Holly 71-70, Amy 70-71.
Bothwell Castle's Pretswell, who also played in the 2010 Curtis Cup match in America, qualified in joint 11th place with 72 and 70 for level par 142. Pamela finished off with 12 straight pars after birdied the second and third and bogeying the short sixth.
No other Scots got inside the qualifying mark of 148 (only one of the five on that mark made it) which reduced the field of 95 to 32 for the match-play. Ailsa Summers (Carnoustie Ladies) (79-76) and Jane Turner (Craigielaw) (80-75) finished on 155. Hannah McCook (Grantown-on-Spey) totalled 158 with scores of 83 and 75 while Rebecca Wilson (Grange, Monifieth) finished on 173 with rounds of 85-88. 
LEADING MATCH-PLAY QUALIFIERS
 Par 142 (2x71)
136 Natalia Escuriola Martinez (Spa) 66 70.
137 Charley Hull (Eng) 68 69.
139 Isabel Gabsa (Spa) 72 67, Celine Boutier (Fra) 67 72, Chloe Leurquin (Fra) 67 72.
SELECTED SCORES
141 Holly Clyburn (Eng) 71 70, Amy Boulden (Wal) 70 71 (T7).
142 Pamela Pretswell (Sco) 72 70 (T11).
143 Chloe Williams (Wal) 75 68 (T13).
146 Gabriella Cowley (Eng) 74 72, Emilee Taylor (Eng) 73 73 (T19).

FAILED TO QUALIFY
151 Nicole Whitmore (Eng) 78 73 (T49).
152 Jess Wilcox (Eng) 74 78 (T54).
154 Rachel Drummond (Eng) 80 74, Meghan MacLaren (Eng) 79 75 (T63).
155 Ailsa Summers (Sco) 79 76, Jane Turner (Sco) 80 75, Katherine O'Connor (Wal) 73 82, Becky Harries (Wal) 76 79 (T71).
158 Hannah McCook (Sco) 83 75 (T79).
173 Rebecca Wilson (Sco) 85 88 (93rd).

TO FIND OUT WHO PLAYS WHOM IN THE MATCH-PLAY DRAW ON THE SPANISH FEDERATION WEBSITE

CLICK HERE

THE LATEST IN THE CHARLEY HULL SAGA

FROM GOLFWEEK WEBSITE
By ALISTAIR TAIT
Golfweek reached Charley Hull in Spain, where she is playing in the Spanish International Ladies’ Championship.
“I appreciate the LGU has offered to let me leave the training session early,” Hull said. “I would still love to represent GB and I in the Curtis Cup, but I feel that travelling on Sunday wouldn’t give me enough time to prepare properly for the Kraft Nabisco, especially when you consider I would be practising in totally different conditions at Nairn than California.
“I want to be at my best when I play in my first major, and that’s why I’m travelling to America early so I can get used to the jet lag and time difference. "I want to be fresh when I play in my first major, and I don’t think travelling to Nairn and then flying to California and having little time to practice would be the best preparation.”

EDITOR: Just a reminder in case you've lost the plot somewhere. Charley Hull is 15 years of age and an AMATEUR golfer. The Kraft Nabisco is the first major on the LPGA Tour for lady PROFESSIONALS. So why is a professional body allowing one of its tournament sponsors to invite a very young amateur to play in one of its majors when that place could be given to a golfer who plays golf for her living. You tell me.

SUNCOAST LADIES SERIES, FLORIDA SCOREBOARD

TIMACUAN GOLF CLUB, Orlando

Three rounds' stroke-play

SECOND-ROUND SCORES
Par 144 (2x72) Yardage 6480

1 Misun Cho (South Korea) 64-72--136 -8
2 Sue Kim (Langley, British Colombia, Canada) 71-70--141 -3
T3 Yu Liu (amateur) (Championsgate, Florida) 73-69--142 -2
T3 Cindy Feng (amateur) (Orlando, Florida) 68-74--142 -2
5 Katie Kempter (Albuquerque, New Mexico) 72-71--143 -1
6 Jacqui Concolino (Orlando, Florida) 73-71--144 Even
T7 Megan McChrystal (Stuart, Florida) 72-73--145 +1
T7 Jennifer Hong (Granger, Indiana) 74-71--145 +1
T7 Sandra Changkija (Orlando, Florida) 71-74--145 +1
T7 Kate Scarpetta (amateur) (Moosic, Pennsylvania) 71-74--145 +1
T7 Lorie Kane (Charlottetown, Pei, Canada) 72-73--145 +1
T7 Mitsuki Katahira (Kawasaki City, Japan) 76-69--145 +1
T13 Rebecca Durham (St Simons Island, Georgia) 70-76--146 +2
T13 Yukari Nishiyama (Kanagawa, Japan) 74-72--146 +2
T15 Emma Jandel (Dayton, Ohio) 74-74--148 +4
T15 Rebecca Samuelsson (Gothenburg, Sweden) 76-72--148 +4
T15 Sara-Maude Juneau (Fossambault, Quebec, Canada) 72-76--148 +4
T15 Danielle Mills (Pointe-Claire Quebec, Canada) 75-73--148 +4
T19 Renee Skidmore (Everett, Washington) 79-70--149 +5
T19 Courtney Harter (Clearwater, Florida) 77-72--149 +5
T19 Rachel Connor (Manchester, England) 76-73--149 +5
T22 Alainna Stefan (Dearborn, Michigan) 72-78--150 +6
T22 Brooke Marnitz (Lexington, Kentucky) 79-71--150 +6
T22 Martina Gavier (Cordoba, Argentina) 75-75--150 +6
T22 Ashli Bunch (Morristown, Tennessee) 76-74--150 +6
T22 Ginger Howard (Bradenton, Florida) 74-76--150 +6
T27 Cristina Corpus (San Leandro, California) 77-74--151 +7
T27 Briana Vega (Reunion, Florida) 79-72--151 +7
T27 Kendall Wright (Sugar Hill, Georgia) 76-75--151 +7
T27 Naon Min (South Korea) 76-75--151 +7
T31 Nikki Hadd (Crestview, Florida) 74-78--152 +8
T31 Elise Swartout (Ann Arbor, Michigan) 74-78--152 +8
T31 Calle Nielson (Nashville, Tennessee) 78-74--152 +8
T34 Britney Hamilton (Lake Orion, Michigan) 75-78--153 +9
T34 Jordan Hardy (Sylacauga, Alabama) 77-76--153 +9
T34 Taylor Collins (Davie, Florida) 77-76--153 +9
T37 Jenny Suh (Fairfax, Virginia) 78-76--154 +10
T37 Laura Jansone (Jurmala, Latvia) 76-78--154 +10
T39 Rachael Schmidt (Elk River, Minnesota) 79-76--155 +11
T39 Victoria Thompson (Akwesasne, Ontario, Canada) 78-77--155 +11
T39 Karlin Beck (Auburn, Alabama) 79-76--155 +11
42 Jessica Yadloczky (Casselberry, Florida) 80-76--156 +12
T43 Susan Martin (Norcross, Georgia) 79-78--157 +13
T43 Shasta Averyhardt (Flint, Michigan) 77-80--157 +13
T45 Rio Milord (Delray Beach, Florida) 77-81--158 +14
T45 Ginny Brown (Austin, Texas) 77-81--158 +14
T45 Emily Flanigan (Reunion, Florida) 82-76--158 +14
T45 illian Fraccola (Fort Myers, Florida) 81-77--158 +14
T45 Suzanne Stanley (amateur) (Decatur, Alabama) 79-79--158 +14
T50 Liz Li (amateur) (Lake Mary, Florida) 79-80--159 +15
T50 Elvira Barcala (Maracay, Venezuela) 83-76--159 +15
T52 Mari Chun (Pearl City, Hawaii) 78-84--162 +18
T52 Sherri Pla (West Palm Beach, Florida) 79-83--162 +18
54 Christie Appleton (Quinton, Viriginia) 79-84--163 +19
55 Brogan McKinnon (amateur) Toronto, Ontario Canada) 83-83--166 +22
56 Tyler Williams (Orlando, Florida) 85-88--173 +29
57 Amanda McPhee (Winchester, Massachusetts) 90-85--175 +31
WITHDRAWN
Janine Fellows (Houston, Texas) 79-WD
Alexandra Casi (East Palestine, Ohio) WD
Wendy Doolan (Australia) WD