Ayrshire’s Claire McLaughlin receives the Jessica Smith Endowed Scholarship

COLUMBIA, Ky. -- Lindsey Wilson women's golf sophomore Claire McLaughlin (West Kilbride) has been named the Jessica Smith Endowed Scholarship recipient.

McLaughlin is the second recipient of the endowed scholarship named after former Blue Raider Jessica Smith, who tragically passed away in an automobile accident on October 2, 2016.

McLaughlin, a Kilwinning, Scotland, native, says she is honored to be chosen for the scholarship.

"I am incredibly thankful to receive the Jessica Smith Endowed Scholarship," McLaughlin said. "This scholarship provides me an opportunity to continue my education here at Lindsey Wilson while playing a sport I truly love. I am forever grateful to the Smith family for their generosity to our golf program and for selecting me for this scholarship."

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Lanarkshire's Katie Graham wins in her debut in the USA

Katie Graham

Terrific debut win for Lanarkshire’s Katie Graham who lined up for Redland Cougars in her first ever USA college event and took home the Individual Title ! 

Katie was -4 after 9 holes in round 2 when the heavens opened and play was a abandoned and her first round level par was enough to seal her first win in college golf. Redlands also room the team event to make it a double 

Click to enlarge

Well done Katie amazing achievement at only 16 years of age 

Leigh Graham

GEMMA DRYBURGH RECEIVES USA COLLEGE AWARD

Gemma Dryburgh, Women's Golf, 2011-15

Scotland's Gemma Dryburgh will be remembered forever at Tulane! She will be inducted into the Tulane Athletics Hall of Fame this fall 

Gemma said "Couldn’t be more excited to announce our Tulane Athletics Hall of Fame Class of 2020!"

Read up on this year’s honorees » 

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• A four-time all-conference performer and three-time All-Louisiana selection.
• A four-year letterwinner who played 126 rounds in 43 tournaments and posted a 74.33 (9,365 strokes) career scoring average, which ranks second in school history.
• Claimed two career individual titles: the 2012 Old Waverly Bulldog Invitational and the 2013 C-USA Championships.
• Finished par or better 35 times with 15 Top-20 performances.
• Posted nine career rounds in the 60's.
• Played in three NCAA Championships, including 2013 (Athens, Ga.), 2014 (Tulsa, Okla.) and 2015 (Bradenton, Fla.).
• Three-time member of the Conference USA Commissioner's Honor Roll and four-time selection to the Tulane 3.0 Club.
• Member of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee during her final three seasons. 

Many congrats Gemma

CLAIRE MCLAUGHLIN IS NAMED MID-SOUTH CONFERENCE WOMEN;S GOLFER OF THE WEEK

COLUMBIA, Ky. – Claire McLaughlin (West Kilbride) was named the Mid-South Conference Women's Golfer of the Week, conference officials announced on Monday.

McLaughlin captured her first individual title last week at the Georgetown Gulf Shores Invitational.

The Ayrshire, Scotland native posted a pair of 2-over 74's to tie William Carey's (Miss.) Papatsara Niamrungrueang for the title. McLaughlin carded a team-high seven birdies for the tournament.

This is the second weekly honour of her career.

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CLAIRE MCLAUGHLIN WINS HER FIRST USA COLLEGE TITLE

From the Blue Raiders Website 

Ayrshire's Claire McLaughlin (West Kilbride) captured her first career individual tournament title today, sharing the Georgetown Gulf Shores Invitational at The Peninsula Golf Club. 

McLaughlin posted a second-round 2-over par 74 to tie William Carey's (Miss.) Papatsara Niamrungrueang for the title with a 148. McLaughlin also posted a 74 during Monday's first round. 

Many congrats Claire

Connie Jaffrey finishes her College Golf Career with the best annual average in Kansas State School history

 Kansas State senior women's golfer West of Scotland's  Connie Jaffrey (Troon Ladies) carded a 5-over par 77 on Wednesday during the final round of her career at the 2018 NCAA Madison Regional held at University Ridge Golf Course.
Jaffrey finished the tournament at 8-over par 224, finishing in a tie for 57th place. During the final round Jaffrey shot 3-over par on the front nine with a birdie on No. 4 prior to a 3-over par back nine with a birdie on No. 12.

 At 3:30 a.m., on Monday morning Connie was not feeling well at all it did not look good for her to even tee off. However she played her heart out each round."
The Kilwinning, Scotland native, will go down in the record book as one of the greatest women's golfers to ever wear the purple and white. She finished her senior year with the best annual stroke average in school history (72.85), while her career mark of 74.13 was also first. 

Jaffrey also concluded her four-year run ranked second in career wins (4), top-five (9) and top-10 (15) finishes, while also tying for fourth in career rounds played (122) and ranking eighth in career tournaments (42).
"Connie has been a great player and good person for K-State women's golf," 
Duke won the regional title by carding a 14-under par 850, topping second-place Virginia by nine strokes.

 Scotland's Connie Jaffrey Receives Individual Bid for NCAA Regional

From the K- State Website 

After senior Connie Jaffrey was announced as an individual qualifier to the NCAA Regional in Madison, Wisconsin, K-State women's golf head coach Kristi Knight wrapped up an interview with a simple summary of Wednesday. 
 "It's a good day for K-State golf," Knight said, as K-State's women will be represented in the postseason for the fourth-straight year, tying the program's longest such stretch. 

 Jaffrey (Troon Ladies) held no nerves as she sat down to watch Wednesday's NCAA Women's Selection Show on the Golf Channel. K-State women's lone senior, with two tournament titles in her final campaign alone, felt confident the "best golfing performance" of her career would leave her playing in an NCAA Regional somewhere. 

 "The coaches were pretty confident, which made me pretty confident to see my name up there," Jaffrey said. After about an hour of waiting for the individual qualifiers to pop up, Jaffrey finally saw what she expected. She was chosen as the top individual qualifier for the Madison Regional, where she will play the University Ridge Golf Course on May 7-9.

 “It's always a good feeling when you go to Regionals," she said. "It's what you worked for." Jaffrey extends K-State's streak of being represented in the postseason to four years, tying the program's longest run of NCAA appearances from 2001-04. 

 "It's not easy to get in as an individual and it's not easy to get in as a team," Knight said. "I'm just really proud of Connie. She's just had a really solid year. She's just played extremely well. Over the course of a long season, spread out over two semesters, she did a great job. I'm really happy for her and really proud of her." 

 A native of Scotland, Jaffrey said she takes pride in keeping K-State's name involved in NCAA's postseason. She hopes it can lead to more in the future. "I'm always proud and honored to represent K-State. I do feel as though I'm part of the family. That is K-State's motto. We are a family, so I definitely think that's important, bringing them and representing my college in regionals," she said. 

"It means that our program's strong, it definitely gets our name out there and hopefully more players will be encouraged to come to K-State." 

 While at K-State, Jaffrey said she's taken her putting to another level. This season, she's focused more on her ball striking to gain consistency all over the course. Both are evident in her 72.48 stroke average, which is nearly two strokes lower than her career-best average and is on pace to break the single-season school record set by her former teammate, Madison Talley. 

 More than anything, however, Jaffrey said the biggest difference this season has been how she's mentally approached it. "It's been a happy environment for me," she said. 

"For my senior year I just wanted to go out with a bang, so I was less worried, less stressed, and just kind of had a bit more fun playing tournaments and putting no pressure on myself. I definitely think having more fun and enjoying it has made me perform better."

Connie Jaffrey in Contention for Arnold Palmer Cup

MANHATTAN, Kan. – Kansas State senior women's golfer Connie Jaffrey (Troon Ladies)

 is one of 25 international women in contention to compete in the Arnold Palmer Cup, the Golf Coaches Association of America announced Thursday.
 
Jaffrey, a native of Kilwinning, Scotland, was ranked No. 15 among international women thanks to a No. 46 showing in the latest Golfstat national rankings. Using Golfstat's NCAA Player Ranking as a base, the Arnold Palmer Cup Ranking awards bonus points for wins and high finishes and a penalty for poor finishes. The ranking also contains a strength of schedule component.
 
Holding an 18-5 record against current members of the top 100, Jaffrey's current season stroke average of 71.43 is tops in school history by over two strokes. She has totaled three top-five finishes this year, including victories in the Marilynn Smith/Sunflower Invitational in September and Maryb S. Kauth Invitational in October.

For more information visit www.arnoldpalmercup.com.