Coulter a champion in defeat
BETH Coulter might have taken eight at the last to lose out in the inaugural Girls Under 16 Open Championship but she was a winner in the way she handled her disappointment.
The 14-year-old Kirkistown Castle player looked set for a wire-to-wire victory at Fulford in York when she led by a stroke with the par-5 18th to play.
In the end, she finished two strokes behind Scotland’s Hannah Darling when her second shot hit a tree and went out of bounds, leading to a triple bogey.
But she won many admirers for the way she took her disappointment on the chin and congratulated Darling, one of the up and coming stars in the British game, who holed a 40-footer for birdie at the 18th for a two-under 72 in what turned out to be the winning score at four-under 218
“It was a bit of a rollercoaster all the way round,” said Beth, who finished second on two under after a 78 and also claimed the Under 14 prize.
“Coming down the last, I wasn’t scoreboard watching so I didn’t know how Hannah was doing. I was actually standing over the ball and said ‘don’t hit the tree and go out of bounds’ and that’s exactly what I did.
“It was maybe a wee bit too risky, I’ve just got to learn from it and get on with it.
“But very well done to Hannah, she deserved it, she played very well today. Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be for me. I’ve only been playing competitively for three years so it was a great learning experience.”
It was also a memorable week for the other three Irish competitors at Fulford with Woodstock’s Aine Donegan 13th, Old Conna’s Lucia Madsing 35th and Tramore’s Anna Dawson 67th.