Carly Booth faces long wait to see if she qualifies
Kelsey tames "new" wind
with a 71 in British girls'
2nd Qualifying round
Scotland Under-21 champion Kelsey MacDonald was the first to master a change of wind direction for the second qualifying round of the British girls' amateur championship over the Monifieth Links today.
"We had a west wind on Tuesday but it was coming from the east today and the par-4s were playing really long," said Kelsey who will be 18 in October, by which time she will have enrolled for the start of her first term at Stirling University.
"Fortunately, I'm hitting ball a lot further this year - don't ask me why - so it didn't make all that much difference to me."
Kelsey (pictured right by Cal Carson Golf Agency, all rights reserved) finished with a one-under-par 71 - a two-shot improvement on the first round - for a qualifying total of level par 144.
Confidence has been the key note of the Nairn Dunbar player's run of good form this summer which has seen her win the Scottish schoolgirls title, the Under-21 stroke-play championship and lose out to Carly Booth in the final of the Scottish Under-18 girls' championship.
A birdie 3 at the first - which she reduced to a rescue club off the tee, a nine-iron approach and a 12ft putt - set her up for an impressively solid round which included further birdies at the short 11th, 13th and 18th in halves of 37 (level par) and 34 (one under).
Kelsey also bogeyed the sixth with three putts from 30ft, the 12th, where she had a bad lie in a bunker, and the 14th where she took "the wrong club off the tee."
In last year's British girls champion, Kelsey was the No 2 qualifier and was beaten in the match-play by Kelly Tidy (Royal Birkdale) who went on to reach the final in which she lost to Henrietta Brockway.
One of Kelsey's playing partners today, Ana Fernandez de Mesa (Spain), was the leader in the clubhouse shortly after lunchtime. Ana had a 73 for 143, a shot ahead of Kelsey.
The Spanish player birdied the foufrth and eighth in an outward 37 but could not get a birdie on her inward card which was made up of eight par figures and a bogey at the 12th.
Comrie's 16-year-old Curtis Cup player Carly Booth finished her second round at 12.45 and faced a long, nail-biting wait to see if her total of 13-over-par 157 was going to be low enough to earn her a place among the leading 64 players who will advance to match-play stages on Wednesday.
Carly had a 78 today. Over the 36 holes, the Junior Ryder Cup player has had one triple bogey (at the first hole on Monday) and three double bogeys.
Carly had a nightmare start today with bogeys at the second and third and a double bogey 7 at the long fourth on her way to an outward half of 41, the same as in the first round.
Things did not get much better with a bogey at the 10th and a double bogey 6 at the 12th. She did get a birdie at the 13th - only her second of the championship - but had to be content with parring her way in from there, when she really needed to two or three birdies to give her a chance of beating the cut.
LEADING SECOND-ROUND TOTALS
Par 144 (2 x 72).
143 Ana Fernandez de Mesa (Spa) 70 73.
144 Kelsey MacDonald (Nairn Dunbar) 73 71.
146 Alex Peters (Notts Ladies) 73 73, Nerea Salaverria (Spa) 72 74.
146 Alex Peters (Notts Ladies) 73 73, Nerea Salaverria (Spa) 72 74.
147 Anais Maggetti (Swi) 72 75, Anna Arrese (Spain) 73 74, Victoria Scherer (Ger) 71 76.
148 Charlotte Lorentzen (Den) 73 75, Chole Leurquin (Bel) 73 75, Friederike Reuter (Ger) 72 76, Hannah Barwood (Knowle) 76 72.
149 Alessia Knight (Ita) 72 77.
150 Giulia Molinaro (Igta) 75 75.
151 Rachael Watton (Mortonhall) 77 74, Laure Castelain (Frfa) 77 74, Monon Vanmol (Bel) 74 77, Alexandra Bonetti (Fra) 77 74.
152 Eve Muirhead (Pitlochry) 74 78.
Other Scots' scores:
156 Gillian Monteith (Portpatrick Dunskey) 78 78.
157 Carly Booth (Comrie) 79 78.
164 Mhairi Johnstone (Northern) 84 80.
165 Gillian Simpson (Murrayfield) 83 82.
169 Rachael McQueen (Troon Bentinck) 89 80.
Labels: Girls
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