Durrand and Williamson take club championship honours at Thurso
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The Thurso Golf Club ladies’ club championship finals took place on a mild, pleasant evening with the course in excellent condition.
The scratch final was between Eileen Manson and Laura Durrand.
Durrand made a fast start with a birdie at the first hole to go one up. A win at the second increased her lead.
Manson took the third with a par and also won the fourth after Durrand had tree problems to square the match.
The fifth was halved after Durrand’s birdie putt stayed out and Manson produced a nice up and down from the edge of the green.
Durrand won the next three holes with a bogey, par, birdie combination. A half in par at the ninth hole left Durrand three up at the halfway mark, having reached the turn in two over par.
An excellent shot to the green on the 10th left Manson with a two-foot birdie putt which she duly sank to reduce the deficit to two holes.
The next four holes were halved. On the 15th Manson’s tee shot left her swing hampered by the trees. Durrand took full advantage, parring the hole and winning the match to become the 2019 club champion.
In the handicap final Sarah Meiklejohn and Angel Williamson had the same handicap so in essence it was played off scratch.
Initially Meiklejohn, after winning the opening hole, had the upper hand. Williamson soon squared the match and the match continued to oscillate back and forth with very little separating the two players.
On the 18th tee the match could have gone either way. It was Williamson to play her second shot first and she ended up just short of the green.
Meiklejohn put her second shot into right-hand bunker and ended up lodged on the face. After Williamson chipped on, Meiklejohn attempted and failed to play her ball out of the difficult lie.
After a further shot to get her ball out of the bunker failed, Meiklejohn had to admit defeat. It was an unfortunate ending to a very close match.
