SAMMY VASS from Tain, 35 miles north of Inverness, is through to play Ailsa Bain (Peebles) in tomorrow morning's Scottish girls' final at Lanark. Image by courtesy of Tom Ward Photography. Top right is Kate McIntosh (Broomieknowe), winner of the Ansley Salver Final (image by courtesy of Jean Macintyre).

Playing Sir Bob Charles one week, then the

Scottish girls ... it's all the same for Sammy

By COLIN FARQUHARSON

If you've played a challenge match with your dad against a former Open champion, Sir Bob Charles, over your home course at Tain - as 17-year-old Sammy Vass did last week, then competing in the Scottish girls championship at Lanark has to be a piece of cake. Not that the matches have been easy, anything but, but Sammy has been possibly playing under less tension than the majority of her rivals.
So it has proved for United States-bound Sammy who has won her way through to play Ailsa Bain from Peebles in the 18-hole final tomorrow morning (tee off 9am at Lanark GC).
Vass, the North of Scotland girls champion, beat Rachel Hanlon (St Regulus), conqueror of No 2 seed Eilidh Briggs (Kilmacolm) at the 20th in a nail-biter of a morning quarter-final, by one hole in the semi-finals.
Bain toppled the No 1 seed, Rachael Watton (Mortonhall), also by one hole, in the other semi-final.
Those who maintain that medal-play and match-play are two totally different forms of golf might have their opinion confirmed by the fact that Vass was 11th of the 32 stroke-play qualifiers for the match-play stages and Bain 20th and yet one of them is about to become the Under-18 girls’ champion of Scotland.
The Bain-Watton tie produced arguably the better golf with the girls having eight birdies between them. Bain looked to be heading for a win inside the distance when she went three up at the turn, having taken the seventh, eighth and ninth holes.
But Watton rallied to cut her deficit to one hole with a birdie 3 at the 16th. Bain held her at bay with halves in par at the last two holes.
There was never more than a hole in it either way in the Vass-Hanlon semi-final.
Hanlon outscored her opponent in birdies 2-0 but Vass, who played for Scotland in last year's European girls team championship at Murcar Links, brought her greater experience into play to hang on in there until she won the 16th with a par 4 to lead for the first time since she won the first but lost the second. A half in pars at the 18th ended the contest.
Sammy enrolls at the University of Central Florida in late August. It would be a feather in her cap to go to the United States as Scottish girls champion, the first from Northern Counties since Laura Walker, then a Nairn Dunbar member, at Powfoot in 2002, and possibly the first ever from north of Inverness.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Sammy's mother Magi, who runs the Northern Counties girls' section and who was a Scotland junior international (as Margaret Russell) herself around about the time Pamela Wright (Aboyne) was in the team, will no doubt be warning her daughter that anyone who can beat the No 1 seed, as Ailsa Bain, did today is going to prove one tough opponent to get the better of in the final of a national championship.
Kate McIntosh (Broomieknowe) won the Ansley Salver competition by beating Katie Reid (Monifieth) by one hole in the final.
Championship results today
Quarter-finals

Rachael Watton (Mortonhall) bt Lesley Atkins (Minto) 2 and 1.
Ailsa Bain (Peebles) bt Rachael Tayor (Bad Griesbach) 1 hole.

Sammy Vass (Tain) bt Jessica Meek (Carnoustie Ladies) 2 and 1.

Rachel Hanlon (St Regulus) bt Eilidh Briggs (Kilmacolm) at 20th.

Semi-finals
Bain bt Watton 1 hole.

Vass bt Hanlon 1 hole.

ANSLEY REID SALVER

Semi-finals

Kate McIntosh (Broomieknowe) bt Claire Prouse (Hazlehead) 1 hole.

Katie Reid (Monifieth) bt Clara Young ( North Berwick ) 1 hole.

Final
McIntosh bt Reid 1 hole.