Carly Booth makes pro debut in Morocco:
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Sponsorship deal with Nike on the cards


FROM THE SUNDAY HERALD WEBSITE
By Elspeth Burnside
Another chapter?in Carly Booth’s pioneering rise to the top level of world golf will unfold this ?coming week when she lines up in her first tournament as a professional at the Lalla Meryem Cup in Morocco.
At just 17, she is the youngest?Scot to tee it up for cash and is also the baby of the Ladies’ European Tour. But Booth is accustomed to breaking ?barriers. Aged eight, she became the youngest girl to attain an adult handicap and three years later was the world’s youngest club champion at Dunblane.
Two years ago, she made history again by becoming ?the youngest player to line up for Great Britain and Ireland in the Curtis Cup at St Andrews. By then, she was a mature, talented and ?photogenic 15-year-old.
Now the blonde, bubbly teenager is ready to play alongside the big girls on the professional circuit. She passed through the LET qualifying school with flying colours at La Manga in Spain in December, but already has her sights on America and the more lucrative LPGA Tour, the home to the world’s greatest female players.
“I’ve already decided to enter the LPGA qualifying [school] towards the end of this year,” she said on the eve of flying out to Morocco for her first rookie test. “But I’m really looking forward to a season in Europe. My goal is just to do my best.”
Booth has already been recognised not only as a potentially world-class player, but as a sportswoman whose looks make her extremely marketable. Hence her appeal to sponsors – she is ready to sign a deal with Nike.
Naturally, this has contributed to comparisons with American teen sensation Michelle Wie, who turned professional at 15 and, after a bumpy ride, came good as a 19-year-old last year with a first LPGA victory and a Solheim Cup debut.
Booth’s parents have kept a keen eye on Wie’s various?peaks and troughs, and are aware that the pressure on a young talent can be enormous.
While they have done their utmost to protect her, their daughter has still encountered difficulty in preparing for her professional debut. Scotland’s foul winter and the necessary ?inconvenience of having to attend school forced her to squeeze in a quick trip to Spain to limber up.
“I had played very little since the Tour school in December?so it was great to get out to Marbella,” said Booth, who returned on Friday from a week spent in the Costa Del Sol resort with European Tour player Eric Ramsay and her boyfriend and caddie, Steven Brown.
In her final year of a golf scholarship at Glenalmond College, Booth will leave school when she is 18 in June. Before then, there are A level exams in art, English and physical education standing in her way.
She added: “It is difficult fitting in study when I am away so much. I expect to pass, but I’m not expecting As. [But] I’ve no intention of using them.”