West of Scoltland's
Eilidh Briggs is representing Stirling University on the Orange Blossom Trail in Florida this month.
She has completed the first competition at the Harder Hall Invitational.
Kettering-based
Charley Hull, No 10 in the Women's World Amateur Rankings, is off and running for what promises to be another wonderful season for the 15-year-old Woburn GC member.
Starting the final round of the
Harder Hall Women's Invitational two shots behind 16-year-old, World No 8 Ariya Jutanugarn from Bangkok), Charley, as we have come to expect, rose to the occasion with a closing round of three-under-par 69 which took her past Ariya down the home straight and on to a two-shot victory with a six-under-par total of 282 - and that over a Sebring, Florida course which had been toughened up since last year with the addition of quite a few bunkers.
The "Harder Hall" was started in 1956 and the winners' roll is studded with names of girls who have gone on to win fame and fortune - but it is believed that
Charley Hull is the youngest ever winner. She will have her 16th birthday on March 20. She is certainly the first winner to hail from Europe.
Hull, winner of the last match-play event on the 2011 Orange Blossom Tour before she went on to win the Welsh and English women's amateur stroke-play titles and be beaten in the English women's match-play final, can be considered a certainty to be chosen for the GB and I team of eight for the Curtis Cup match against the Americans at Nairn GC from June 8-10.
She played for GB and I in the Junior Vagliano Trophy match at Royal Porthcawl last June but this will be her first full GB and I cap.
Scotland's
Kelsey MacDonald fared worst of the three
GB and I Curtis Cup team contenders in the Harder Hall Invitational.
The 21-year-old Stirling student and
Nairn Dunbar GC member finished a disappointing 31st on 23-over-par 311 - 29 shots behind Charley Hull and 16 behind Holly Clyburn.
Kelsey had started brightly enough to be in joint seventh place with a first-round 75 but she gradually slipped down the field with subsequent rounds of 81, 75 and 80.
The tournament probably came just a bit early for MacDonald. Hull had been warming up in Majorca while Clyburn finished fourth in last week's Dixie Women's Amateur elsewhere in Florida.
Kelsey usually steps up the pace in the second event of the Florida circuit, the South Atlantic Ladies championship (known as the "Sally") over four rounds, starting at Oceanside Country Club on Tuesday (January 10).
MacDonald still outshone the rest of her Stirling team-mates at Harder Hall.
Rebecca Wilson (Grange, Monfieith) finished on 327 (84-81-79-83), Scottish girls' match-play champion
Eilidh Briggs (Kilmacolm) 328 (82-82-83-81), Harriet Beasley (Woburn) 335 (81-86-83-85), Jordana Graham (Southerness) 335 (89-80-83-83) and Mhairi McKay (West Kilbride) 371 (97-89-92-83).
HARDER HALL COUNTRY CLUB, SEBRING, FLORIDA
FINAL TOTALS
Par 288 (4x72). Yardage 6151
1 Hull, Charley ENGLAND 70 74 69 69 282
2 Jutanugarn, Ariya THAILAND 72 72 67 73 284
3 Jutanugarn, Moriya THAILAND 75 71 68 71 285
4 Delacour, Perrine FRANCE 76 74 70 69 289
T5 Clyburn, Holly ENGLAND 73 76 74 72 295
T5 Roig, Kyle PEMBROKE PINES, FL 72 72 75 76 295
SELECTED TOTALS
31 Macdonald, Kelsey SCOTLAND 75 81 75 80 311
Hally Leadbetter ENGLAND 76 86 74 85 321
India Clyburn ENGLAND 78 82 81 81 322
Rebecca Wilson SCOTLAND 84 81 79 83 327
Eilidh Briggs SCOTLAND 82 82 83 81 328
Jordana Graham SCOTLAND 89 80 83 83 335
Harriet Beasley ENGLAND 81 86 83 85 335
Carol Semple Thompson US 83 84 88 83 338
Mhairi McKay SCOTLAND 97 89 92 93 371
Thanks go to
Colin Farquharson for the report
