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Monday, May 07, 2007

Commonwealth Tournament starts in South Africa


KRYSTLE MAKES IMPRESSIVE
DEBUT AS BRITAIN SLAM
CANADIANS 7-0

Britain could not have made a better start to the Five Nations Commonwealth Tournament for women’s amateur teams over the Royal Johannesburg & Kensington Golf Club’s East championship course today.
They slammed Canada 7-0, beating them 2-0 in the foursomes and 5-0 in the singles.
On the second day of this all-play-all league format, the British
play Australia who beat the very highly-rated host country, South Africa, 5 ½-1 ½ .
The Brits – four English players, one Welsh and one Scot (Krystle Caithness from Cellardyke, Fife) ake up this week’s squad -have not won this prestigious tournament, played every four years, since 1991 at Northumberland Golf Club.
The Aussies, on the other hand, have been Commonwealth champions on the last three occasions – 1995-1999-2003.
Krystle Caithness, pictured above, a member of the St Regulus, St Andrews club, had to wait until the afternoon before skipper Sue Turner brought her into the line-up to make her debut at British international level.
And quite an impressive debut it was because the 18-year-old Scot, who starts a four-year golf scholarship at the University of Georgia in the autumn, beat Sue Kim of Canada by 2 and 2.
In a tight match of some quality, both players reached the turn in an approximate par 37. The Canadian birdied the first to take an early lead but a par at the short second was good enough for the Scot to square the match.
Krystle went one up at the fourth with a birdie but bogeyed the next two holes.
Kim squared with a par at the fifth but could only match her opponent’s 6 at the par-5 sixth. Caithness edged ahead again with a birdie 4 at the long eight but Kim countered with a birdie of here own at the ninth to level matters.
After the first three holes of the inward half were halved, the Canadian was the first to crack. She bogeyed the 13th and 14th, which allowed Krystle to go two up at a vital stage with back-to-back pars.
The Scot closed out her opponent with halves in pars at the 15th, 16th and 17th. Krystle was level par for the holes played.

RESULTS
GREAT BRITAIN 7, CANADA 0
Foursomes: K Smith & N Edwards bt M A LeBlanc & L Knowlton 2 and 1;
B Loucks & M Reid bt M Lapointe & M Leblanc (2-0).
Singles – Loucks bt M A LeBlalnc 4 and 3, K Caithness bt S Kim 2 and 1, Edwards bt Knowlton 1 hole, Smith bt M Leblanc 3 and 1, M Reid bt Lapointe 6 and 4 (5-0).

AUSTRALIA 5 ½, SOUTH AFRICA 1 ½,
Foursomes: F Bondad & H Oh bt G Switala & I Verwey 2 and 1;
E Bennett & S Na bt K Shean & A Simon 3 and 2 (2-0).
Singles: Oh bt B Strauss 4 and 3, Na bt Switala 7 and 6, Bondad bt Verwey 4 and 3, S Park lost to Shean 4 and 3, Bennett halved with Simon (3 1/2-1 ½).

Tuesday matches:
Great Britain v Australia, Canada v New Zealand.

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