HELEN ANCHORS SCOTLAND TEAM

EFFORT IN EUROPEAN SENIORS’ CHAMPIONSHIP

Helen Faulds, pictured right, held Scotland on course for one of the top four match-play flight places with a steady round of two-over-par 73 – one of the best of the day – in the first qualifying round of the European senior women’s amateur team golf championship at Ropyal Drottningholms Golf Club, Stockholm today.
The Scots finished the day in fourth place on 388, behind Sweden (378), defending champions France (382) and England (385).

The qualifying rules for the seniors differs from the other European team championships in that only four teams - not eight - qualify for the top flight and contest the medals.

The teams from fifth to eighth place at the end of the stroke-play make up a second flight.
So Scotland need to hold on to fourth place at least over the second and final round of qualifying.
Backing up Helen were Pamela Williamson with a 77, Lorna Bennett a 78, Fiona De Vries an 80 and Kathleen Sutherland also an 80. Moira Thomson had the non-counting score under the best five from six to count format. She had an 82.
Best individual round of the day was a 71 from Sweden’s Viveca Hoff.

FIRST QUALIFYING ROUND
378 Sweden (V Hoff 71, C Birke 74, M-B Heden 77, B Werneskog-Ljung 77, G Ekman 79).
382 France.
385 England (S Ellis 76, C Watson 76, C Quinn 77, H Smyth 78, C Caldwell 78. Non-counting: S Dye 82).
388 Scotland: H Faulds 73 (36-37), P Williamson 77 (40-37), L Bennett 78 (38-40), F De Vries 80 (38-42), K Sutherland 80 (41-39). Non-counting; M Thomson 82 (40-42).
393 Switzerland.
394 Spain.
398 Germany.
399 Belgium.
400 Italy.
408 Ireland: M Gorey 79 (39-40), V Hassett 80 (39-41), S O’Brien-Kenney 82 (40-42), E MacMullen 83 (40-43), M Madden 84 (44-40)Non-counting: M Henderson 88 (45-43).
410 Netherlands.
417 Austria.
421 Finland.
422 Denmark.

+Only the top four teams at the end of the second qualifying round qualify for the championship match-play flight.