On a very windy morning at Eyemouth Golf Club, there were several hock results in the quarter-finals of the Scottish girls championship.
Rachael Watton, hot favourite to win the title after being the leading qualifier by 11 strokes for the match-play stages lost by 3 and 1 to fellow Lothians player Kate McIntosh (Broomieknowe).
It was Kate's second big scalp of the week. The No 25 qualifier beat Renfrewshire's Alyson McKechin (Elderslie) at the 19th in the second round.
After a day of shock results at windswept Eyemouth, Kate will now play the No 3 seed, Lesley Atkins (Gullane), in an all-Lothians 18-hole final of the Scottish girls’ championship tomorrow morning.
Lesley Atkins, a pupil a Loretto School, Musselburgh and originally a member of Minto Golf Club when she was the youngest-ever Borders women's county champion, upset the form book in the morning with a 5 and 3 win over the No 2 seed and Renfrewshire women’s county champion Eilidh Briggs (Kilmacolm).
In the afternoon, Atkins was roughly seven over par for the outward half into the gale but had a lead of two holes over the No 3 seed, Gabrielle MacDonald (Craigielaw). MacDonald rallied in the closing stages from three to one down by winning the 15th and 16th but she four-putted to lose the 17th and the match 2 and 1.
All four semi-finalists are young enough to compete again in next year’s championship which is unusual – McIntosh is 16, Atkins 15, MacDonald 17 and Dryburgh 17.
The Ansley Reid Salver second-tier match-play competition - Kate McIntosh won it last year, incidentally - was won this year by Rachel Hanlon (St Regulus), the East of Scotland girls champion who was expected to qualify for the main event but didn’t. She beat Hannah Scott (Broomieknowe) 3 and 2 in the final.
Afternoon results:
CHAMPIONSHIP
Semi-finals
Kate McIntosh (Broomieknowe) bt Gemma Dryburgh (IMG Academies) 6 and 5.
Lesley Atkins (Gullane) bt Gabrielle MacDonald (Craigielaw) 2 and 1.
Final (Saturday 17th July) Lesley Atkins beat Kate McIntosh 5 and 4----
To read the full report on the Final go to the Gillian Kirkwood Website
ANSLEY REID SALVER
Final
Rachel Hanlon (St Regulus) bt Hannah Scott (Broomieknowe) 3 and 2.
Thanks go to Colin Farquharson for the report
