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| Emma Greenlees (Ansley Reid Salver), Connie Jaffrey 2013 Scottish Girls Champion and Tara Mactaggart Championship runner up |
FROM COLIN FARQUHARSON
Connie Jaffrey, 16-year-old Troon Ladies junior member, this morning added the Scottish Under-18 girls' championship to the Paul Lawrie Foundation Scottish schoolgirls and Ayrshire women's county titles she won earlier in the season.
Just back from playing for Scotland in the previous week's European girls team championship in Sweden, Connie beat Tara Mactaggart (Minto), the 17-year-old South of Scotland girls champion, by 4 and 3 in the final at Ranfurly Castle Golf Club.
In one of the most polished performances in an Under-18s' final for some time, Jaffrey had six birdies and was roughly four under par for the 15 holes played.
The Troon teenager bogeyed the first but birdied both the second and third and made it three wins in a row with a par at the fourth hole. Another birdie, at the sixth, put Jaffrey firmly in the driving seat with a four-hole advantage.
The eighth was halved in birdie 4s, Mactaggart's only sub-par figure in the round.
Three up at the turn, Jaffrey bogeyed the 10th but regained a three-hole lead with a birdie - her fifth, all of them at par-5 holes - at the 11th and clinched her title with a sixth birdie at the par-4 15th.
It was Mactaggart's misfortune to run into an opponent playing so well in the final. The Borders girl was only one over par for the first 14 holes before having a double bogey 6 at the 15th, a standard of scoring that would have won many of the previous finals.
SCOTTISH UNDER-18 GIRLS CHAMPIONSHIP
Ranfurly Castle Golf Club, Bridge of Weir
Final - Connie Jaffrey (Troon Ladies) bt Tara Mactaggart (Minto) 4 and 3.
CONNIE JAFFREY HOPES TO GO TO US COLLEGE IN AUGUST 2014 AFTER TITLE DEFENCE AT DUMFRIES
AND COUNTY GOLF CLUB NEXT JULY
FROM ELSPETH BURNSIDE
Connie Jaffrey (Troon Ladies) is the 2013Scottish Under-18 girls' champion following a 4 and 3 victory over Tara Mactaggart (Minto) in the sun-drenched final at Ranfurly Castle.
The 16-year-old was an impressive four under par for the 15 holes – she was three under and three up at the turn.
“Winning this Championship was my goal at the start of the season and I’m absolutely delighted,” said the Kilwinning Academy pupil who had already bagged the Ayrshire Ladies’ County title and the Scottish Schools’ Championship this season. “Today was certainly one of my best ever rounds of golf.”
Jaffrey took up golf at the age of five. “I was going to dance classes but didn’t enjoy it so my Dad (David) took me to the driving range and I loved it,” she said. ”I then went to junior coaching at Gailes and have kept progressing.”
Set to return for her sixth and final year at school, Jaffrey is hoping to go to the US on a golf scholarship in August 2014.
Before then, she will still be young enough to defend the Paul Lawrie Foundation title at Dumfries and County next year.
And looking further ahead, Jaffrey has plans to make golf her living. “I would love to become a professional,” she said. “But not until I’m in my twenties.”
- Carol -- Posted using her iPad
