Carly Booth put in eight months of hard work only to find a ten-week gap in her tournament schedule, but reward was finally at hand in unlikely circumstances at the Aberdeen Asset Management Ladies Scottish Open yesterday.
The Comrie girl, based these days in Cheshire, won this title back in 2012 in what was supposed to be the breakthrough for all that she’d promised since she was 11 years old. Five years on, it hasn’t quite worked out as she’d hoped, but yesterday’s two-under 70 in punishing conditions sent her 50 places up the leaderboard at Dundonald Links and definitely suggests better things ahead.
Although she has had a decent start to the season – enough to win an exemption into next week’s RICOH Women’s British Open from this season’s Ladies European Tour Order of Merit – and qualified for the US Women’s Open earlier this month, she doesn’t quite feel she’s had a chance to get into the campaign properly.
“I’ve been playing well, but it’s been hard to be tournament sharp,” she said. “This morning was crazy windy but I played really solid golf tee to green. I did yesterday too; but I had 35 putts then and 27 today, so there’s the difference.
“Having 10 weeks off before going to the States wasn’t what I needed and was tough. I played well there too over the two weeks but it just wasn’t quite there, and the green speeds were 13 (on the stimpmeter). I can’t remember when I last putted on greens as fast as that.”
A six hour marathon on Thursday and five hours plus yesterday makes for a further test for someone who likes to get round quickly, but after eight years on tour – it’s easy to forget she’s still just 25 – Carly has got used to to it.
“It was just about acquiring some confidence,” she explained. Yesterday I was four-over through four and I missed five footers at every hole, so you just don’t get confidence going when that happens.
“Today it was just about being confident from the start, getting into a quick rhythm and sticking to it all the way. Just stay positive, pick the line and hit confident putts.”
She duly moved up into a share of tenth at one-over for the championship. Carly knows her game at its best is good enough, and as a result has focused on those days when it’s not quite there.
“It’s something I’ve been working hard on, my good golf is always great, but my bad golf is really bad,” she said. “So when I’m not playing well, it’s got so much better.
“It’s just a general improvement, making sure my bad shots aren’t as damaging anymore.”
Yesterday she found herself coming up the last two-under only to hit her bright pink ball into the same spot – left of the left greenside bunker – that twice handcuffed the unfortunate Callum Shinkwin in the men’s Scottish Open two weeks ago.
Like Shinkwin, she misjudged her chip – “you can’t flop it up high because everything runs away to the water on the other side of the green” – but made a good two-putt from the side of the bunker.
“That’s an example of what I’ve been working on, I was thinking the whole time, `just take the par here’,” she said.
As for the ball – the result of a new sponsorship with manufacturer Volvik – she just really likes the colour.
“I always know which is my ball now, but my putting stats are as good if not better than they were with the previous ball I was using, which was a big reason for changing,” she explained.
“It’s a huge two weeks for me, being in Scotland makes it very important and obviously this was my first tournament win and I’d love to get my hands on the trophy again.
“I love Kingsbarns so I’m really looking forward to next week.”
