Another great round of 69 by Pamela Pretswell (pictured above) this time in Sweden to take the European amateur championship lead with two rounds to go at Falsterbo Golf Club.
Glasgow University student Pamela Pretswell (Bothwell Castle)opened up a two-stroke halfway lead with a sparkling two-under-par second round of 69 in the European women's amateur golf championship at Falsterbo Golf Club on the southern tip of Sweden today (Thursday). There are two Scots in the limelight as Pamela's fellow GB&I Vagliano Trophy team player Kylie Walker (Buchanan Castle) is in fifth place.
It was a final round of 69 at Royal Aberdeen last Friday that earned the 20-year-old Pretswell from Hamilton the Taunton Trophy for the best round over the three days of the British women's open amateur stroke-play championship in which she finished joint seventh.
And Bothwell Castle member Pamela hit that 69 mark again, thanks to a grandstand finish of an eagle 3 at the 18th hole. She had earlier bogeyed the first, the only shot she dropped, and birdied the long 13th in halves of 35 (one over) and 34 (three under).
Showing an improvement of four shots on her first-day 73, Pretswell is on the 142 mark for the par-71 course.
Late last summer Pretswell won the Swiss women's international open amateur championship on what was primarily a holiday trip!
In Sweden, she leads by two shots from France's Lucie Andre, No 1 in the European Golf Association rankings, and Sweden's Caroline Hedwall, a US college circuit player who was beaten in the final of the British women's open amateur championship at North Berwick last year.
Then comes Northern Ireland's Danielle McVeigh, winner of the British title at Balgownie last Friday, on 145, one shot ahead of fifth placed Kylie Walker who slipped back from a 70 to a 76, thanks to a double bogey 7 at the long 18th, the same hole that Pretswell reduced to three strokes.
Walker had earlier bogeyed the fifth, sixth, 10th and 12th but looked to have stopped the bleeding of strokes when she got a birdie 2 at the short 14th. Then came the calamitous 18th hole which meant she had taken 40 shots to cover the inward nine.
The third Scot in the field of 133, Majorca-based Lauren Mackin had three double bogeys in a round of 83 (37-46) for 160.
SECOND ROUND LEADERS
Par 142 (2x71)
142 Pamela Pretswell (Sco) 73 69.
144 Lucie Andre (Fra) 72 72, Caroline Hedwall (Swe) 70 74.
145 Danielle McVeigh (Ire) 70 75.
146 Kylie Walker (Sco) 70 76.
147 Maaike Naafs (Net) 73 74.
148 Holly Clyburn (Eng) 76 72, Marion Ricordeau (Fra) 74 74, Josephine Janson (Swe) 73 75, Emelie Lundstrom (Swe) 73 75, Daisyt Nielsen (Den) 71 77, Louise Larsson (Swe) 70 78.
Thanks go to Colin Farquharson for the report
