By COLIN FARQUHARSON
Michele Thomson from Ellon, Aberdeenshire endorsed her Curtis Cup team selection by winning the Scottish women's amateur championship for the first time after an 18-hole final with golf that matched the glorious sunshine at Lossiemouth on the Moray Firth today.
In a final, packed with birdies and played at an old-fashioned pace – 17 holes completed in just over three hours, 20-year-old Michele beat another first-time finalist, Jocelyn Carthew, a 30-year-old Ladybank Golf Club, Fife member, by 2 and 1.
Michele, a +1 player at McDonald Ellon Golf Club, a seasoned international and a full-time amateur who has been playing competitively this year since the Orange Blossom Tour in Florida in January, entered the final as hot favourite to beat Jo, an uncapped one-handicapper who had never progressed past the second round of the national championship before and a player who works for a living.
But Carthew let the big gallery – and her more highly-rated opponent - know she wasn't just there to make up the numbers when she won the first two holes with birdies and then halved the third with her third birdie in a row.
Thomson, the longer-hitter, then rolled up her sleeves and won the next four holes with a par-birdie-birdie-birdie burst that saw her jump from two down to two up.
Carthew came back off the ropes to win the eighth with a great putt for a birdie but turned two down again when Thomson holed a 15ft birdie putt at the ninth.
Out in five-under-par 33 to Carthew's two-under 36 and two holes to the good, Thomson had by no means subdued underdog Jo. The pair of them produced nine birdies between them in a high-class outward half.
Carthew won the 10th with a birdie, lost the 11th to a birdie and then got back to one down again when Thomson had her first bogey of the day.
This was the low point, quality-wise in the match, the 13th being halved in bogeys.
Normal service was resumed with a half in birdie 4s at the long 14th before Thomson regained a two-hole lead when Carthew three-putted.
The writing was on the wall for the elegant Ladybank player then. Two down with three to play, she could only halve the 16th and 17th, leaving Thomson a worthy 2 and 1 winner.
Thomson was five under par at the finish and Carthew two under par … proof that it was a quality final with 13 birdies in all.
Click on the link on the RHS on the Gillian Kirkwood "widget" to read the full report and see a photograph --- The link says --- Jo Carthew plays her part in birdie festival
Ladies Golf News in Scotland, the West of Scotland and Renfrewshire
