P&K GLENEAGLES SCHOLARSHIP

Over the last number of years Perth and Kinross Ladies County Golf Association have been very honoured in being granted the privilege of offering a Gleneagles Scholarship to four girls from the Perth and Kinross County squads. This scholarship is open to all our junior girls under 18 years of age on January 1st and provides the four girls with full use of the Golf Academy including additional coaching throughout the year, full membership to all three Gleneagles courses and of course use of the Dormy House and changing facilities. As this scholarship is such a massive privilege and a huge benefit to the girls who are lucky enough to be selected, we do not take the granting of scholarships lightly. We will only select the girls who we feel will not only benefit but take full advantage of this opportunity during the year ahead.



This year the girls who have been selected are:


Emily Aird (Strathmore)
Megan Aird (Strathmore)
Carly Booth (Comrie)
Nicola Robertson (Dunblane)


Emily Aird at the age of only 12 has reduced her handicap from 21 to 13 in a period of only 12 months. She has participated in most of the SLGA Junior Events and has had some very encouraging successes. Emily is extremely enthusiastic and a great team player.


Megan Aird at the age of 15 has a playing handicap of 10 and along with Emily has entered most of the SLGA Events. Megan is a great supporter of county Events and has played in the Ladies Events as well as the Juniors and I know she will take full advantage of her scholarship.


Carly Booth (16) with a handicap of +3 is our lowest handicap female in the county. Carly is now living at home and attending Glenalmond School, therefore this is the perfect time for Carly to take advantage of the facilities Gleneagles has to offer and I know she is very excited about the year ahead.


Nicola Robertson at the age of 13 has reduced her handicap from 26 to 16 in the space of one year. She attends most of our junior events and she works extremely hard on her golf all year round. I know Nicola will take advantage of this award and will enjoy every minute of it!

We hope the girls this year will once again take advantage of the Perth and Kinross Ladies County Golf Associaiton Scholarship and will keep a close eye on their progress.

EMILY MISSES THE CUT

Emily is now home from Spain and we share in her disappointment at not gaining a LET Tour Card. However we are all very pleased with Emily's performance and are very proud to have someone of Emily's standard part of the P&K Squad. Emily is a great inspiration to all the girls and the juniors. Emily along with Laura Walker have very kindly been attending the Junior Elite Coaching to offer advice and encouragement and we thank them both very much for their commitment to the County.

On behalf of P&K I would also like to pass on our congratulations to Fife's Krystal Caithness who finished the event in a fantastic 7th position at 3 under par also to Pamela Feggans who finished in 24th place at +3 for the tournament and to Aberdeen shires Michele Thomson who completed the tournament in 34th place just one shot off obtaining her full tour card. Michelle will however be granted entry to some LET tournaments.

SCORE FROM SPAIN

Emily has scored 11 over par today in La Manga. She is extremely disappointed but we here at P&K are very proud of our Emily and hope she does well in the next two rounds as all is not lost.

Sorry I don't have any other scores at present.

Play well Emily we are all behind you.

NEWS FROM LA MANGA

As you will be aware it was extremely difficult to piece together the results from yesterdays first round from La Manga as the LET website was down and we just couldn't get the results anywhere! However with the help of Laura Walker we did manage to bring you the scores for the Scottish players. To see the results scroll down to the next post. I did get one score wrong which has now been corrected.

My thanks go to Laura for the information and I hope get today's scores asap! Well done to Emily in what seemed to be terrible conditions.

EMILY RETURNS A 78

Emily Ogilvy has returned a very credible 78 in the first round of the Ladies European Tour Pre-Qualifying School. Emily along with all but two Scottish players played over the South Course, the two remaining Scottish players (Krystal Caithness and Jocelyn Carthew) were on the North Course. Kylie Walker also returned 78 and Krystal Caithness and Michelle Thomson took one extra shot returning 79. Vikki Laing and Pamela Feggan returned the lowest Scottish scores with a 75. The lowest score on the North today was 69 and the lowest on the south was 71.

Emily is placed roughly in the middle of the field which is excellent at the stage. We wish her well tomorrow.

The remaining Scottish scores are as follows:

Vikki Laing, Pamela Feggan 75
Emily, Kylie Walker 78
Michelle Thomson, Krystal Caithness 79
Karen Burns 84
Jo Carthew 90

Many thanks go to Laura Walker who is phoning Emily to keep us all up to date with the scores!

Go Emily!!

GOOD LUCK EMILY

Team member Emily Ogilvy will take part in the Ladies European Tour Pre-Qualifying School. The pre-qualifying round takes place over the North and South courses at La Manga Club in Los Belones, Murcia, Spain, from tomorrow. Emily will be one of 107 players representing 32 different countries will contest Stage I, Pre-Qualifying, over four rounds from Wednesday to Saturday, January 7 to 10.

The leading 60 players and ties from Stage one will join 30 others who are already exempt to make a field of 90 players and ties at Stage 2 Final Qualifying, which will be played on the South course from Monday to Thursday, January 12 to 15.

The Final Qualifying School, also over 72 holes, will be contested over the South course from Monday to Thursday the next week players are hoping to earn one of the 30 cards available to compete on the LET throughout the 2009 season.

Emily has been a fantastic representative of P&K golf and we wish her the very best of luck.

I will try to keep you posted of her progress.

I would very much like to wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy and very successful 2009!

Merry Christmas (hope Santa's good too!)

GOOD LUCK CARLY

Perth and Kinross Team member Curtis will be one of only only two British and Irish entrants for the Arizona Silver Belle junior women's golf tournament next week.

The Arizona Silver Belle Tournament will be played from December 28 to 30 over the Arizona State University's Karsten course at Tempe. It will be over three stroke-play rounds and is open to female amateur competitors from ages 13 to 23 years. All Golfers must walk and carry their own bags which is no great problem to Carly but in America, where very few golfers actually walk between shots, such an instruction might not go down well!

We wish Carly the very best of luck next week, will try to keep you up to date! (Picture courtesy of CalCarson)

WINTER COACHING

The 2008/2009 P&K Senior squad have been announced they are Squad A, Alexandra Bushby (Strathmore), Carly Booth (Comrie), Eve Muirhead (Pitlochry), Annabel Niven (Crieff), Roseanne Niven (Crieff) (USA), Emily Ogilvy (Auchterarder), Jacqueline Snedoon (Alyth) (USA) and Laura Walker (Muckhart). Squad B is Laura Campbell (Pitlochry), Gwen Lambie (Dunkled), Jillian Milne (Criagiehill), Fiona Ramsay (Crieff), Sal Shepherd (Blairgowrie), Catherine Williams (Dunblane), Jane Yellowlees (Murrayshall)

As you can see we have a tremendous wealth of talent in our squads. P&K are in a fantastic position in that we had 20 girls with a handicap of 6 or less hoping for a place, but unfortunatley the places are limited and as you can imagine it is a major headache for the selectors. and one which It was a very difficult decision to select the sdqua and a great bunch of girls who are all out to do the very best they can for P&K.

Our coaching sessions will take place over the winter and Shona Leighton our match secretary is in the process of arranging practice matches against other counties and perhaps against Scratch League teams! So if you have a Gents of Ladies Scratch Team who would like to offer a practice match with the girls please contact Shona or myself and we would be delighted to arrange a date!

We have had one coaching session at Gleneagles already on what was a rather cold day, however the girls concentrated on the long game and coaches Andrew and John gave the girls a talk on the psychological side of the game.

Below are a few photos of the girls in action!

Our winter coaching has started in earnest for our Juniors, with our Elite Squad going along to Gleneagles on Sunday and enjoying some short game coaching and some tips on how to prepare themselves for play both in terms of your game and your metal attitude. Very interesting!

The Elite squads for this year are:

Group 1. Emily Aird (Strathmore), Megan Aird (Strathmore), Ailie Burnett (Dunkeld), Erin Millar (Pitlochry), Nicola robertson (Dunblane) and Eilidh Watson (Muckhart)

Group 2. Laura Aitken (Killin), Caitlin Bartrop (Whitemoss), Claire Gadsby (Muthill), Hannah Robb (Strathmore), Kathry Robertson (Auchterarder), Siobhan Teague (Auchterarder)

A huge thank you also go to Senior Squad girls Emily Ogilvy and Laura Walker who came along on Sunday to offer support and encouragement to all our girls. They were great.

I will post photos of the juniors soon, I completely forgot on Sunday!!

OUR ROSEANNE TOP BRIT IN THE EUROPEAN GA

Huge congratulation go to Squad member Roseanne Niven who has been ranked 8th in top 20 for 2008 by European Golf Association. Scotland had two players - Roseanne Niven and Kylie Walker - in the top 20 of the final 2008 European Golf Association female amateur rankings for the year. Roseanne was not only the highest ranking Scot but also the highest ranking Brit. Fantastic Roseanne!

2008 was a phenomenal year for Roseanne. It saw her win the British women's open amateur stroke-play championship and she was the only British or Irish player to reach the last four of the British women's open amateur championship at North Berwick. We at P&K are very proud of all she has achieved. Well done Roseanne.

Two Spanish players were placed 1st and 2nd they were Carola Ciganda and Maria Hernandez with Sweden's Anna Nordqvist placed third.

The top 20 European Golf Association female amateur rankings for 2008 are:

1 CARLOTA CIGANDA (Spain) 267.50pt.

2 MARIA HERNANDEZ (Spain) 242.50.

3 ANNA NORDQVIST (Sweden) 205.00.

4 CHRISTEL BOELJON (Netherlands) 182.60.

5 CAROLINE MASSON (Germany) 180.50.

6 BARBARA GENUINI ( France) 180.00.

7 CAROLINE HEDWALL (Sweden) 168.00.

8 ROSEANNE NIVEN (Scotland) 153.17.

9 AZAHARA MUNOZ (Spain) 150.00.

10 STEPHANIE KIRCHMAYR (Germany) 148.50.

11 THERESE KOELBACK (Denmark) 135.00.

12 VALENTINE DERREY (France) 127.50.

13 BREANNE LOUCKS (Wales) 125.50.

14 TARA DELANEY (Ireland) 122.50.

15 BENEDICTE TOUMPSIN (Belgium) 121.50.

16 JACQUELINE HEDWALL (Sweden) 116.63.

17 KYLIE WALKER (Scotland) 114.63.

18 SAHRA HASSAN (Wales) 114.40.

19 CAROLINE WESTRUP (Sweden) 110.00

20 PIA HALBIG (Germany) 108.75.

CARLY TAKES THE TELEGRAPH TITLE

First of all I apologise for being so late in posting the fantastic news that team member Carly Booth regained her Daily Telegraph Junior Championship Title in the oppressive heat of Abu Dhabi. With temperatures over 30 degrees she beat the par of 72 in all three rounds, leading by two shots after 18 holes and by six after two rounds. She scored 70, 68 and 70.

A clearly delighted Carly stated “It feels good. I’m really pleased and it’s been a hard week but I played well. I had a big lead and knew it was there for the taking but you never know until the last pin. I creamed a three-wood approach into the 18th and I knew for sure then. I took a deep breath and knew it was done – I did what I came to do.The National Course is very open and wide here in Abu Dhabi. It is also quite short and I have a good long game so it’s been perfect for me – I’m really happy,”

And so you should be Carly, well done you!!

The rest of the girls scores were as follows:

208: Carly Booth (Comrie) 70 68 70.

214: Alex Peters (Notts Ladies) 72 72 70.

218: Kelsey MacDonald (Nairn Dunbar) 75 71 72, Hannah Barwood (Knowle) 73 71 70.

222: Gina Brown (Mere) 76 73 73, Heidi Baek (Felixstowe Ferry) 73 72 77, Katherine O'Connor (Tadmarton Heath) 71 74 77.227 Nikki Dunn (Harrogate) 75 75 77.

243: Rachael McQueen (Troon Ladies) 83 79 81.

CARLY IS TOPS

Well done to Team member Carly Booth who not only won the Scottish Junior Champion of Champions but won it in real style!! Played over the fabulous Kingsbarns golf Course, Carly returned an amazing 5 under par 67 to take the crown by 5 clear shots. Carly's round began with five birdies in the first seven holes and with a total of eight throughout the round. She also had one bogey at the par three 2nd and a double bogey on 14th following a lost ball. When I spoke with Carly last night she was delighted with her performance and felt she had her confidence back following a lot of hard practice, practice which certainly has paid off. Well done Carly, a fantastic end to the season.

Perth and Kinross were well represented on the day with 3 of the 13 girls coming from our County. Team member Annabel Niven came a very credible 5th returning an 84. Annabel's round included a fantastic eagle three at the long par 5 12th. Our third representative was Ailie Burnett from Dunkeld and Birnam.

FANCY A PING DRIVER?

County member Maya Robertson is selling her 3 month old Ping Driver. It is a 14 degree ladies shaft Ping G5. The selling price is £85.00, less than half the original price.

Interested? Then give Maya a call on 01887 829781.

If you have any equipment you would like me to place on the web then give me an email with the details.

PERTH AND KINROSS JUNIOR PRIZE GIVING

Yesterday we held our first ever Junior get together and Prize giving at Strathmore Golf Centre and what a successful day we had. Strathmore Golf Centre as always were very gracious hosts and we were very lucky to have their 9 hole Leitfie Course all to ourselves! We held a 9 holes, shotgun start, Texas Scramble. Our thanks go to 11 ladies who came along to help on the day, they were Carol Lambie, Lenore Kyle, Dawn Butchart, Pam Drysdale, Laura Walker, Pat Colquhoun, Liz Miskimmin, Janet Griffiths, Dot Doris, Jackie Moran and Shona Leighton. Lenore, Dawn, Laura, Pat, Janet, Dot, Jackei and Shona were team captains and Pam, Lenore and Liz walked round to support all the teams. Also a huge thank you to you our players, it really was a fanatstic turnout.

We all enjoyed our game and the winners of the Texas Scramble were Ailie Burnett and Elise Henderson along with Team Captain Laura Walker who returned a par matching 29. 2nd place was Dawns Team with 31 and third place Dot's team with 32. Well done all who took part and sorry about the wee bit of rain at the end!

Following our game we all enjoyed a very nice lunch and some yummy cakes. We then asked our President Liz Miskimmin to present the prizes which had been won over the season. Our Scratch Champion Ailie Burnett closed the day with a vote of thanks to all who had helped and support the juniors throughout the year.

It was a super day which I am sure the juniors all enjoyed. Well done to all the prizewinners, below is a slide show of the day. If you would like any of the photos just email me and I will be happy to send them to you.

COUNTY AGM

Our AGM and dinner was held last night at Craigiehill Golf Club and what a fantastic turnout it was. As all who were there heard, this year has been a particularly successful year for P&K. Our squad of players have excelled themselves and their list of achievements are second to none. Below is a quick resume of their individual achievements.

Carly Booth:
Carly was selected to play in the GB&I Curtis Cup Team and was the youngest ever member of the Team. She qualified to the final stages of the British Womens Open Amateur Golf Championship at North Berwick. Carly won the Scottish Girls (Close) Amateur Championship at Alyth. She was selected to represent Scotland at the Girls Home Internationals at Panmure Barry and she played her way into the final stages of the British Open Strokeplay championships at Malone golf Club in Ireland. Along with fellow Scottish team mate Kelsey Macdonald she won the girls team trophy at Belgian Junior International Tournament. Carly was also once again chosen to represent the European Team in the Junior Ryder Cup in America this year.

Alexandra Bushby:
Alex made the cut in the Helen Holm Scottish Women's open amateur stroke-play championship. She broke the Lansdowne Course record which had stood at 74 since 1997 by returning a fantastic 71. Alex won the North of Scotland Championship at Strathmore and qualified into the matchplay stages of the English Mid Amateur Championship and made it through to the semi final stages. Alex also won the Perth and Kinross County Champion of Champions at Gleneagles in September but the highlight of Alex’s year must have been earlier this month when she took part in the SLGA Champion of Champions at Glasgow Gailes. Following a 76 over the par 75 course she was then involved in a sudden death play off with fellow team mate Carly Booth. Alex birdied the first extra hole to lift the trophy.

Annabel Niven:
Annabel was chosen to represent Scotland a the Under 16 Open Stroke Championship at Craigielaw and was top Scot finishing 12th. She was nominated by the SLGA to play in the R&A Junior Open golf championship at Hesketh and won the Nordic & Central European Trophy for the best nett score of both boys and girls. She was also selected to represent Scotland in the Girls Home Internationals at Panmure Barry.

Roseanne Niven:
Not only Qualified to the matchplay stages of the British Women's Open Amateur Golf Championship at North Berwick but made it through to the semi final stages. She was 5th in the Finnish Open and was placed 7th at the Scottish Under 21 Girls Open Championship at Powfoot. The pinnacle of Roseanne’s achievement for this year was wining the British Women's Open Championship at the Malone Club in Belfast. Roseanne’s final round 69 took her into a sudden death play off with fellow scot Kylie Walker where she lifted the trophy following a birdie at the first extra hole. This win, entitles Roseanne to play in the Rioch British Women’s Open Championship at Royal Lytham St Annes in 2009. Roseanne has since went on to be selected for the Scottish Team at the World Amateur Team Championship in Adelaide.

Eve Muirhead:
Broke the Pitlochry Course record with a sparkling 69 during the qualifying round of the Highland Open and went on to win the event. She made her way through to the qualifying stages of the Scottish Girls (Close) Amateur Championship at Alyth and won her first round match but then came up against the eventual winner Carly in the second round. Eve placed 7th in the Scottish Under 21 girls open championship at Powfoot and qualified through to the matchplay stages of the British Girls Open Amateur Championship at Monifieth. She was the last Scot standing after two rounds. We can not ignore Eve’s other sporting achievement this year when she was named in the 6 strong ladies curling squad for the 2010 winter Olympics.

Emily Ogilvy:
Emily endured a very serious shoulder injury over the winter but she came back in great spirit making the county championship her first competitive round of the season. She then went onto qualify into the matchplay stages of the Scottish Amateur Golf Championship at Lossiemouth. Emily also qualified to the final stages of the British Women's Open Amateur Golf Championships at North Berwick and progressed to the final qualifying stages of the British Open at Berkshire. Emily was also selected to represent Scotland in the Ladies Home International Matches at Wrexham Golf Club.

Laura Walker:
County Champion 2008 and was the run away winner of the 2008 County Order of Merit.

As you can see an extremely busy year for the girls and one which we should all be very proud of.

Next year is the Counties Centenary and we will be holding an extra County Meeting to celebrate this event. We will make this event special by have nearest the pin, longest drives etc as well as playing for a brand new Centenary Trophy. So when you all receive your fixture cards put that date in your diary as priority!! Last night I announced that the teams black gillets seem to be very popular and next year we will be selling them to all members to mark the County's Centenary and after last night I already have lots of orders! We will bring along different sizes for you to try on at the first two or so meetings next year and the ordered gillets will be available for the Centenary event.

My sincere thanks go to all members for making my first year as Captain so very enjoyable albeit it extremely busy! I have enjoyed all the County Meetings and of course watching and supporting our squad of very talented girls. It has been a real joy but the icing on the cake has to be P&K winning the Inter County Team Championships at Downfield and making our way to the Scottish Finals. It was fantastic and thank you to all who supported and kept up with all that was happening.

My warmest congratulations go to all our prize winners last night and below is some of the photo's from the evening. If anyone would like a copy to be emailed just contact me and I will be happy to do so.

AGM AND DINNER

Tomorrow will evening is our Annual General Meeting and Dinner at Craigiehill Golf Club. Our secretary Alex Bushby has had a great response, with approx. 60 members coming along. If you haven't already contacted Alex with your acceptance please do so as soon as possible to enable us to keep Craigiehill informed of numbers.

I look forward to seeing you all tomorrow night.

COUNTY ADULT AND JUNIOR DAY

Angus County hosted a very successful competition yesterday which featured past and present County squad members and juniors from 4 counties (Angus, Stirling & Clackmannanshire, Fife and Perth & Kinross) yesterday at Edzell Golf Club. 24 parings took part in all. Although no P&K pairings were in the prizewinners our top pairing was Dawn Butchart and Erin Millar who returned a very credible 38 points.

The winners were Fiona Gilbert and Claire Borthwick with 40 stableford points on the better inward half from Shonagh Raitt and Katie Reid. Frances Millar and Louise Smith were 3rd, also with 40 points, losing out on the last 6 holes.The prize for the best 1st nine holes went to Ann Hay and Gail Wilson from Angus, and the best 2nd 9 went to Lorna Fury and Kym Honeyman from Fife.

Well done to everyone and I hope you all enjoyed your day, I certainly did! And of course many thanks to Aileen Hunter of Angus who organised the day. Below are photos of our pairings.

GOOD LUCK TO SANDY AND ALEX

County Team Player Alexandra Bushby and her mother, P&K Member Sandy Bushby are making their way to the Dailymail Foursomes Finals at Dalmahoy this weekend. Alex and Sandy are the only P&K members who are taking part and we wish them the very best.

SCRATCH LEAGUE DINNER

Blairgowrie Golf Club were hosts for the annual Scratch League Dinner last night where Craigiehill were declared the winners for 2008. Alyth were 2nd and Strathmore 3rd. Above is the trophy being presented by Blairgowrie Vice Captain Liz Fertacz to Alison Stockley of Craigiehill.

The evening was well attended, Susan Arbuckle chaired the meeting and various points were raised and discussed. Following the meeting we all enjoyed a lovely meal.

Craigiehill will now be our hosts next year and it was agreed that the results will be posted following each match on our website. So look out for the scores here next year!

Many thanks once again to Blairgowrie and well done to winners Craigiehill.

ADULT AND JUNIOR DAY

Angus County have once again organised an Adult and Junior greensomes competition. All Adults should be current or past county squad members and junior girls must be under 18 with a handicap of 36 or less. The hope is that this format will give junior girls the opportunity to play along side established talented lady golfers.

This is the second year this has been organised by Angus and with such a great turnout it is certainly turning out to be a very popular event.

I have highlighted our pairings.

10.30: M Summers & L Smith - E Moffat & A Tait
10.37: J Brown & A Pryde - L Fury & K Honeyman
10.44: H Anderson & A Summers - A Wilton & S Munro
10.51: C Penman & J Chalmers - D Ford & L Whyte
10.58: F Blair & E Jamieson - D Watson & S McGuire
11.05: F Gilbert & A Alston - L Walker & L Campbell
11.12: C Capocci & J Laird - J Yellowlees & A Burnett
11.19: S Raitt & K Reid - G Lambie & E Aird
11.26: A Hay & G Wilson - S Leighton & M Aird
11.33: E Allison & A Goodwin - D Butchart & E Millar
11.38: E Goodwin & N Underhill - F Ramsay & E Watson
11.45: AN Other & AN Other - L McGregor & A Hutton