BLOGS

A quality international field of the lady amateurs entered for this years St. Rule Trophy, 1 handicap or better, being held over x3 rounds on the New Course (x1) and the Old Course (x2).

I was fortunate to be allocated one of Scotland's top amateur players, Heather MacRae +1.9, who has been in some really good form recently having won the Welsh Amateur & then reaching the semi-finals of the Scottish Amateur at Royal Troon.

A practice round over the Old course on Friday gave us a few hours to get to know each other & work out a strategy for playing x2 rounds over the Old on the Sunday and some thoughts for the New Course on Saturday.

The New Course on Saturday proved a wee bit awkward for Heather and a rather unusual putting display, on the front nine especially with 20 putts, was our undoing. The three x3 putts really hurt and contributed to an outward 41. The back nine was more like herself with 16 putts and a 37 which gave us a total of 78. This left us x10 of the pace, a lot to make up.

The 1st round over the Old Course on Sunday the real Heather MacRae turned up and from the ladies scorecard we shot 6 under par x70, managing x4 birdies & an eagle on the front nine shooting a x32. The back nine on the Old is always tougher and we returned a 38 with x1 bogey and x1 lovely birdie on the 17th Road Hole, which plays as a Par 5 for the girls.

The 2nd round was a a quick turnaround, roughly ½ an hour, and after a fine birdie on the 1st, then the 2nd and the 4th I had images of repeating the morning front nine and posting a great score. A greenside bunker on the par 5th resulted in a par x5 and we were out in a respectful x35. A solid back nine of x38 that included x3 birdies and x2 bogeys gave us a respectful x72.

The overall score for the three rounds was 220 and Heather finished in the top ten. A good, gritty performance achieved after the disappointment of the opening round of x78.

The best score posted over the New Course was an was a wonderful x68 and the Old Course gave up an absolutely fantastic x66 on the Sunday. The great caddie Bozzy guided the young German girl around and later told me that it should have been a 63/64 as she lipped out from x3 feet for birdie on the 13th and bogeyed the 15th! Great golf from these young girls lets hope we see them on the main tours in the future.

Cheers for now, another St. Andrews update next week after the Links Trophy, the men's amateur tournament that has been previously won by Sergio Garcia and Lee Westwood.

Boynie.