The Paul Lawrie Golf Centre Scottish Ladies Open Tour comes to the end of its first season this week with an 18-hole event at Craigielaw GC in East Lothian on Wednesday.
This will be followed by the only 36-hole, two-day tournament on its schedule the Tour Championship at Marriott Dalmahoy’s East and West Courses on Thursday and Friday.
Paul Lawrie, Aberdeen hotelier Stewart Spence and Martin Gilbert, CEO of Aberdeen Asset Management partners in the Paul Lawrie Golf Centre project have had an impressive new trophy made for the Tour Championship winner.
In hard cash terms, the winner will receive £1,200 for heading the field at the end of 36 holes. That is unless she is one of the two amateurs in the field, Charlotte Austwick or Nichola Ferguson, in which case she would receive the trophy plus a prize voucher worth £500, the maximum value permitted under the R&A’s Rules of Amateur Status.
Also at stake are the top prizes in the Order of Merit. Double the usual points are being awarded in the final event so there could be some surprises in the final placings.
The professional winner of the Order of Merit will receive from the Paul Lawrie Golf Centre management free flights and accommodation at the Ladies European Tour Qualifying School in Morocco in December.
Former Scottish amateur champion and past Curtis Cup player Heather Stirling is leading the table ahead of Katy McNicoll, Lisa Shervill and Laura Murray.
The leading amateur in the PLGC Ladies Tour Order of Merit will receive a free stay at self-catering accommodation at Gleneagles Village. The top amateur in the table at the moment is Jess Mee, a student at the University of Missouri.
The Royal & Ancient is a supporter and one of the sponsors of the tour which is designed to help lady professionals raise their game ot the standard required to play on the Ladies European Tour and also to give low handicap female amateurs the opportunity to judge whether they are good enough players to contemplate turning professional.
Among the professionals on view on Thursday and Friday will be Katy McNicoll, Heather MacRae, Heather Stirling, Laura Murray, Kiran Matharu, Michele Thomson, Lisa Shervill, Gemma Webster, Abbey Gittings, Vikkin Laing, Martine Pow, Jane Turner and Pamela Feggans.