Olympic curler faces golfing challenge

Sep 9 2011 by Gordon Bannerman, Perthshire Advertiser Friday

OLYMPIC star Eve Muirhead is swapping her curling broom for a golf club.

The 2010 world silver medal winning skip, who has a record four world junior titles to her name, is listed in the Perth and Kinross County team challenging for the Scottish Women’s County Championship finals from September 16-18.

The venue is the Dumfries and County Golf Club and the line-up mirrors the P&K side which captured the North Division title.

The gifted sportswoman played a key role in the county’s recent win at Inchmarlo, winning all six of her matches.

Eve (21), a three-handicap golfer who has won the Highland Women’s Open over her home course at Pitlochry in the past and reached the quarter-finals of the British girls championship in 2008, suspected her curling commitments would stymie the golf.

But her first curling competition of the season in Norway is the following week.

Yesterday, Eve said: “I hadn’t played for a couple of weeks because I had dislocated my knee.

“But I received an invite to the Gavin Hastings golf day at Loch Lomond at the weekend and got to play on the Carrick. It’s a really long course but I played quite well. I’m really looking forward to next weekend now.

“I’m busy with training for the start of the curling season but it’s a free weekend and after we won the qualifiers I didn’t want to miss the finals. “I’m not sure when the last time Perth and Kinross won and I think we’ve got a good chance.

“I’ve known a lot of the team for years and we’ve got a couple of younger players as well, which is important.

“This will probably be the last time I get to play golf this season and I want to make the most of it.

“We’re going there to enjoy ourselves but everybody knows I’m ultra competitive and I want to win.

“I don’t think I’ll be able to win six out of six this time but I’ll do my best.”

The P&K team is captained by Lenore Kyle and also features Stephanie Crolla (Muckhart), Jillian Milne (Craigie Hill), Emily Ogilvy (Auchterarder), Fiona Ramsay (Crieff), Nicola Robertson (Dunblane), Laura Walker (Muckhart), Eilidh Watson (Muckhart). Reserves:Gwen Lambie (Dunkeld and Birnam) and Jane Yellowlees (Murrayshall).