A famous backdrop for a famous win by Kylie Walker in the St Rule Trophy - two years in a row which makes her only the third player to have back to back wins. Image by courtesy of John Stewart of St Andrews Links Trust. Click to enlarge.

KYLIE RETAINS ST RULE

TROPHY and SCOTLAND

WIN TEAM TITLE

Kylie Walker (Buchanan Castle) today won the St Rule Trophy 54-hole women's open golf tournament for the second year in a row at St Andrews over the weekend.

The Scotland international and Vagliano Trophy preliminary squad member is only the third player to chalk up back-to-back wins in what has become one of the premier stroke-play tournaments on the European amateur women's golf calendar.

Christine Middleton was the first in 1988-89. Catriona (Lambert) Matthew was the second with victories in 1993 and 1994.
Kylie had rounds of 76 over the New Course on Saturday, when there was a high wind, and then two rounds of 71 over the Old Course in much calmer and hotter conditions on Sunday for a total of nine-under-par 218. The New Course has a ladies' par of 75 and the Old Course is 76.

Miss Walker said she had been good around the greens and had only the odd wayward shot.
She won by two shots from Curtis Cup teenager Carly Booth (Comrie) who had rounds of 79, 70 and 71 for 220.
Carly will be rueing going out of bounds at the 16th in her final round. A par there could have led to a play-off climax to the tournament. Miss Booth did win the trophy for the best aggregate by an Under-18 player, finishing eight shots ahead of her nearest rival, Kelly Tidy, the Royal Birkdale player who reached the final of the British girls' championship at Monifieth last summer.

Pamela Pretswell (Bothwell Castle), who dominated the stroke-play stages of the recent Scottish women's amateur championship, finished third on 225 with descending scores of 77, 75 and 73.

Scottish Under-21 champion Kelsey MacDonald (Nairn Dunbar & Stirling University) shared fourth place with Danielle McVeigh (Royal Co Down), winner of the Welsh women's open amateur stroke-play championship a week or two previously.

Kelsey scored 80, 72 and 74 for 226, Danielle 81, 74 and 71.
There are not all that many birdies recorded at the Road Hole 17th - but Ann Ramsay (Kirriemuir) did even better than that. She had an eagle 3 on her way to a closing 79 for 239.

Kylie Walker, Pamela Pretswell and Louise Kenney (Pitreavie), recent beaten finalist in the Scottish women's amateur championship at Southerness, won the team event for Scotland with a total of 443 - 14 shots ahead of runners-up England (Rachel Jennings, Kelly Tidy and Charlotte Wild) with Wales third on 458 and Ireland fourth on 460.

The winning Scots are pictured above (l to r: Kenney-Walker-Pretswell), again courtesy of John Stewart of the St Andrews Links Trust.

FINAL TOTALS

Par 227 (1x75, 2x76)

Order of rounds: 1 New Course (par 75), 2-3 Old Course (par 76). CSS 78 76 76
218 K Walker (Buchanan Castle) 76 71 71.
220 C Booth (Comrie) 79 70 71.
225 P Pretswell (Bothwell Castle) 77 75 73.
226 D McVeigh (Royal Co Down) 81 74 71, K MacDonald (Nairn Dunbar) 80 72 74.
227 E Ogilvy (Auchterarder) 75 78 74.
228 K Tidy (Royal Birkdale) 83 70 75.
230 L Kenney (Pitreavie) 79 77 74, W Hillier (Joondalup, Australia) 82 75 73, T Davies (Holyhead Bay) 77 76 77.
231 Nikki Foster (Pleasington) 80 71 80, Tilly Holder (Woburn) 73 82 76, Katy McNicoll (Carnoustie Ladies) 87 71 73, Rhian Wyn Thomas (Vale of Glamorgan) 80 74 77.

233 Lisa Ball (Matfen Hall) 80 77 76, Julia Boland (Pennant Hills, Australia) 82 78 73, Megan Briggs (Kilmacolm) 78 76 79, Stacey Keating (Victoria, Australia) 79 80 74, Jane Turner (Craigielaw) 82 76 75, Charlotte Wild (Mere) 79 80 74.

234 Rachel Connor (The Manchester) 81 76 77, Rachel Jennings (Izaak Walton) 82 79 73, Laura Murray (Alford) 78 78 78, Rebecca Watson (Holston Hills, USA) 75 79 80.

236 Alexandra Peters (Notts Ladies) 78 78 79.

236 Samnanbtha Birks (Wolstanton) 86 74 76.

237 Charlotte Ellis (Minchinhampton) 83 72 82, Susan Jackson (Ladybank) 81 78 78, Sian James (Bristol & Clifton) 85 75 77, Elaine Moffat (St Regulus) 79 80 78.

239 Niamh Kitching (Claremorris) 80 79 80, Gillian O'Leary (Cork) 78 83 78, Ann Ramsay (Kirriemuir) 77 83 79.

240 Jerry Lawrence (Rochester & Cobham) 80 77 83.

241 Clare-Marie Carlton (Fereneze) 86 77 78, Karen Delaney (Carlow) 86 80 75, Cara Gruber (Royal Dornoch) 80 81 80.

241 Claire Hargan (Mortonhall) 84 79 79, Lauren Taylor (Woburn) 81 83 78, Caroline Bon (Northland, New Zealand) 85, 79 79.

244 Manon de Roey (Rinkven, Belgium) 87 77 80, Rebecca Flood (Pennant Hills, Australia) 84 77 83, Joelle van Baarle (Cleydael, Belgium) 86 76 82.

245 Lesley Atkins (Minto) 84 79 82.

246 Anne Laing (Vale of Leven) 85 85 76, Roseanne Niven (Crieff) 83 80 83, Sheena Wood (Aberdeen Ladies) 83 81 82.

248 Emma Fairnie (Dunbar) 83 84 81, Claire MacDonald (Gullane) 87 79 82.

253 Rozalyn Adams (Addington Court Ladies) 87 86 80.

256 Alexandra Bushby (Strathmore) 91 80 85.

257 Susan Wood (Drumpellier) 89 89 79.

259 Natalie Lowe (Prestbury) 87 89 83, Rachael McQueen (Troon Ladies) 80 84 95.

262 Ashleigh Wilton (Ladybank) 94 84 84.

273 Carmen Simpson (La Costa, US) 91 84 98, Sammy Vass (Tain) 98 89 86.

UNDER-18s

220 Carly Booth.

228 Kelly Tidy.

231 Nikki Foster.

235 Alexandra Peters.

242 Lauren Taylor.

244 Manon de Roey.

245 Lesley Atkins.

273 Sammy Vass.

INTERNATIONAL TEAM EVENT

Two from three scores to count per round.

443 SCOTLAND (Kylie Walker, Louise Kenney, Pamela Pretswell).

457 ENGLAND (Rachel Jennings, Kelly Tidy, Charlotte Wild).

458 WALES (Rhian Wyn Thomas, Tara Davies, Samantha Birks).

460 IRELAND (Niamh Kitching, Danielle McVeigh, Gillian O'Leary).

461 AUSTRALIA (Staceyt Keating, Rebecca Flood, Julia Boland).

488 BELGIUM (Manon de Roey, Joelle van Baarle).