Golf: Carly feels the hurt after making the cut

Sep 23 2008 by Gordon Bannerman, Perthshire Advertiser Tuesday

CARLY Booth’s Junior Ryder Cup swansong ended in disaster, reports Gordon Bannerman.

The top-rated Perthshire teenager had been dreaming of playing Valhalla before Nick Faldo’s senior side began their defence of the trophy.

But Carly, a battle-hardened veteran of the European Junior Ryder Cup team, ended up in a Kentucky casualty unit, instead of savouring a nine-hole “Friendship Match” over the famous US course.

Yesterday, just hours after returning to the family’s Comrie home, the Scotland international explained: “The American junior team all leapt into the lake after their victory and a few of the Europeans, me included, decided to join them.

“But unfortunately, I must have cut my foot on a rock and ended upwith stitches in a foot wound.

“I was unlucky because everyone else was fine. I crawled up the banking and there was blood everywhere. The cut was an inch deep.

“That meant I couldn’t play at Valhalla the next day. It was a huge disappointment. I met some of the senior Ryder Cup players there and when Lee Westwood saw me, he wondered what on earth I’d been up to!”

It wasn’t Carly’s only disappointment, with the young Europeans losing their grip on a trophy defended at Celtic Manor two years ago, with an older American team posting a 22-2 victory.

Like Faldo’s senior side, the Euro kids failed to defend the trophy on American soil.

But the Perthshire teenager was responsible for denying the Yanks a stunning last day whitewash.

The European challenge crumbled from day one and Carly, a Curtis Cup campaigner despite her youth, held her nerve to eke out the only half point in the final day singles.

She had to nail a tricky downhill seven-footer on the final green to deny rival Jennifer Johnston victory and the Americans a flawless last day scoreboard over the Olde Stone course.

Carly, who is continuing her education at Glenalmond after a spell in the USA, said: “I was just trying to avoid defeat. I had been four up with seven to play. But we went down the last all square.

“As a team we didn’t expect to even come close to a whitewash.”

The next Junior Ryder Cup will be held at Gleneagles in two years time.