Comrie’s Carly Booth booked an eleventh-hour spot in the field for this week’s RICOH Women’s British Open at St Andrews by winning through in a sudden-death play-off on a dramatic night at Kingsbarns Links.
The reigning Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open champion, still only 21, was thrown into a protracted play-off involving 12 players for the last four places in the field playing on the Old Course on Thursday after shooting a three-under 69 in the Final Qualifying event.
Carly seemed to be cruising into the championship at five-under after 14 holes in her qualifying round proper but underwent a late crisis of confidence as she double-bogeyed the short 15th.
That meant a wait of several hours while the field completed their rounds and left her in a tie for 13th place with 11 others and 12 of the 16 places available from the qualifying competition already booked.
However, when it came to sudden death Carly, who had come through the first round of qualifying at the Berkshire two weeks ago, stepped up her game to birdie the par four 10th and secure her place.
Spain’s Tania Elosegui and Louise Larsson of Sweden also recorded birdies to progress into the championship.
The drama continued down the second play-off hole which saw Woburn teenager Lauren Taylor, the former British Women’s Amateur champion and another Swede, Camilla Lennarth, record birdies and eliminate seven other players, including leading amateurs Bronte Law and Laetitia Beck as well as the popular Solheim Cup veteran Carin Koch.
Lennarth carded a second successive birdie at the long 12th hole to claim the final place in the draw, although Taylor still has a decent chance of teeing it up on Thursday as first alternate.
Earlier in a day of magnificent scoring the 17-year-old Chinese player Xiyu Lin led the way with a faultless 65, winning the qualifying event by a shot from England’s Emily Taylor and Malene Jorgensen of Denmark.
LPGA players Syndee Michaels (67), Laura Diaz and Dori Carter (both 68s) successfully came through, as did the Curtis Cup heroine and former Scottish Open Strokeplay champion Amy Boulden from Wales.
There was an agonising miss for Scots Pamela Pretswell, who played all four rounds of the Women’s British at Carnoustie two years ago as an amateur, but missed out on the play-off by a shot after bogeying the 17th.
Similarly Nairn’s Kelsey MacDonald had an eagle three at the ninth in her 69 but came up a shot short of the play-off group.
Among the other notable casualties of qualifying were Mel Reid, the Solheim Cup player, who had a her chances ruined by a quadruple bogey seven at the 13th. The four time LET winner had been two-under par until she hit out of bounds at the shortest hole on the course.
Also missing out was Tiger Woods’ niece Cheyenne Woods, who managed only one birdie in a two-over 74.