Caddie Golf Tours

LPGA player Catriona Matthew, a born and bred Scot from North Berwick, today completed a steady march to her first Major title at the Ladies British Open, contested over the treacherous links course of Lytham St. Annes. Catriona lead by three shots at the start of the fourth day and though she had a couple of slips birdies at the 13th,14th and 15th gave her a four stroke advantage over the closing strectch. A dropped shot at the 17th did not do any real harm. A final four round total of 285, three under par, secures the prize and close to £200,000 pounds. A superb effort, 68, from Karrie Webb, a three time former British Open champion, gave her second place on even par. Four players shared third place on +1, Paula Creamer, Christina Kim, Ai Miyazato (Japan) and Hee-Won Han (Korea). A wee footnote to Catriona Matthew's win and possibly one of the reasons she likes the golf course at Lytham St. Annes: she won the British Amateur title at this venue sixteen years ago!

Goodness gracious, that was an amazingly tough St. Rule Trophy that was played on the New Course Saturday and then two rounds across the Old Course on Sunday. The wind blew, like it only does when playing golf over the links, making scoring extremely difficult. Laura Murray, my Scottish amateur golfer for the weekend, played well in the conditions and finished with a 78. Laura produced two wonderful shots 'of the day' : a 3 wood to 8 feet, on the par5 6th hole, resulting in a Birdie, and then a wonderful chip & run into the hole, from 40 yards, on the 18th for an Eagle. A fabulous finish to our first round that could have been a couple of shots worse without that fantastic 9 iron chip & run into the cup. The second and third rounds were played on the Sunday over the Old Course at St. Andrews. The par for the ladies is 76. A quiet, relaxed, start on the practice range with just a light breeze developed into a gusting 15/20 mph north easterly wind that added an extra deg...