Eve’s the last Scot playing in British championships

Aug 19 2008 by Andrew Welsh, Perthshire Advertiser Tuesday

PERTHSHIRE golfer Eve Muirhead was the last Scots survivor in the British Girls Championship.

The Pitlochry qualifier played her first match against English Women’s Champion Hannah Barwood at the Monifieth event.

Following a volley of five birdies, Eve won the match 2 and 1. Going into the afternoon’s play she was the final Scot standing with Kelsey MacDonald, Sammy Vass (Tain) and Rachael Watton (Mortonhall) all failing to proceed into the second round.

Eve’s opponent was Chloe Leurquin from Belgium. Eve was five down after five holes which is bad enough in any match, but all the ties were being played over 16 holes because the Ashludie Burn burst its banks.

Eve was five down with only 11 holes left - what a fightback she made winning a nailbiting match by one hole.

She didn’t hit the ball as well as she had been over the first five holes but her amazing recovery started with a birdie at the eighth to go to four down. Another birdie at the 10th brought the deficit to three. But she lost the 11th to a birdie to go back to four down.

A par at the 12th was all that was required to return to three down then her opponent was bunkered at the 14th and took three putts at the 15th and suddenly Eve was only one down with three holes to play.

The 16th was halved and with a shot into 17, Eve brought the match to all square going down 18.

Both players reached the long par five in three both then left their approach putts short of the hole. But, without a show of nerves, Eve calmly rolled in her 6ft putt for a par as Chloe missed.

Eve went on to last 16 and faced top seed Laura Gonzalez-Escallon from the Royal Waterloo club, Belgium, but unfortunately Eve ended her fantastic run by losing 4 and 3.