The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Briggs and Meek flying with eagles in Inverness
EILIDH BRIGGS and Jess Meek surged clear of the Scottish Under21 girls’ stroke- play championship field with some brilliant scoring at Inverness Golf Club yesterday.
Former Scottish U18 girls champion Briggs, 20, from Kilmacolm, shot a six-under-par 67 after a tremendous outward half of 30.
She had an eagle 3 at the long fourth and birdies at the first, long fifth, short seventh, short ninth, long 11th, long 14th and long 18th.
Amazingly in such a good round, Briggs also had a double bogey 6 at the 10th. But for that, the Stirling University physical education student would have spreadeagled the first after only 18 of the schedule 54 holes.
She leads by one shot from Meek, 19, whose exploits on the Paul Lawrie Ladies Tour helped her gain a first full cap for Scotland.
Meek, who leaves for the US next month to enrol at the University of Missouri, highlighted her 68 with two eagles — at the par-4 first and the par-5 14th in halves of 34.
Jess also birdied the long third, the sixth, the long 11th, the short 13th and long 18th. She bogeyed the eighth, ninth, 10th and 12th.
Peterculter’s Rachel Polson — who will shortly start her third year at Florida Tech — is lying third with a 70 which began with four birdies in the first five holes and then nosedived with bogeys at the sixth, eighth and ninth for 35 out.
Polson regained her momentum with birdies at the 12th, 17th and 18th.
New Scottish U18 girls match-play champion Connie Jaffrey (Troon Ladies) was another who was in the doldrums for a spell in the middle of her round, with birdies at the first, fourth and fifth and then bogeys at the eighth, 10th, 13th, 14th and 16th.
But she staged a grandstand finish to salvage a 72 and fourth place overnight with an eagle 2 at the 17th and a birdie 4 at the last.
Scottish women’s amateur champion Alyson McKechin (Elderslie), trying to pull off a title double achieved by Kelsey MacDonald in 2010, is 10 shots adrift of the leader with a 77.
Defending champion Nicola Callander of Mill Green, Hertfordshire, is still seeking a return to last season’s form. She had an 83.
Lauren Whyte ( St Regulus) and Clara Young (North Berwick) withdrew.
Top first round scores (par 73): 67 E Briggs (Kilmacolm); 68 J Meek ( Carnoustie Ladies); 70 R Polson (Peterculter); 72 C Jaffrey (Troon Ladies); 74 K Bradbury (Cottrell Park), G Dryburgh (Beaconsfield), N Haynes ( Gosforth Park); 75 K McIntosh ( Broomieknowe), R Watton (Mortonhall), M Vontobel (Ger), A Summers (Carnoustie).