Ten Scots made their way to St Annes Old Links in Lancashire to fight for a place at the Women’s British Open, which begins at Royal Lytham this week, and none managed to emerge with a place in the field for the fourth major of the year.
Michele Thomson, who endured a disappointing Ladies Scottish Open at Gullane last week, missing the cut with a score of eleven over par, came closest, with the Aberdeenshire player rediscovering her game in impressive fashion to get within touching distance of a qualifying place in the one-round shoot-out at Final Qualifying yesterday.
There were 17 Women’s British Open places available from a field of 99 players and the best round of the day came from Swedish amateur, Linn Grant, who recorded an impressive bogey-free ten under par 62 to ensure she comfortably made it into the Women’s British Open field while England’s Chloe Frankish finished in second spot with a six under 66.
Ten players grabbed automatic spots which left another twelve players on three under par battling it out in a play-off for the remaining seven available places.
Thomson was up against players of the calibre of Americans Paula Creamer and Tiffany Joh, who had led the Ladies Scottish Open for the first two rounds, in the play-off and after surviving the first play-off hole, the Scot bogeyed the second leaving her in a fight with Creamer and Canadian Brittany Marchand for the final qualification place.
Both Creamer and Marchand made birdies while Thomson could only manage a par leaving her agonisingly short of the final qualification spot, with Marchand snatching the seventeenth spot at the third play-off hole. Thomson will, however, be second reserve for Royal Lytham.
The other Scots to come close were Vikki Laing and amateur Connie Jaffrey, who narrowly missed out on a play-off place by a single shot, despite both finishing with a birdie on the 18th.
Also missing out was Kelsey MacDonald, who shot a one under 71. MacDonald was one of only two Scots to have made the cut at the Ladies Scottish Open and so was forced to endure the 5-hour drive down to Final Qualifying on Sunday night, with her chances not helped by an early tee-time yesterday morning.
Chloe Goadby, Carly Booth, Heather Stirling, Heather Macrae, Laura Murray and Jane Turner all also failed to make it through.
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