LPGA Tour dream is still alive for Scottish trio

Twelve months after falling at the final stage in the Us-based circuit’s Qualifying School, Scottish trio Gemma Dryburgh, Kylie Walker and Sally Watson have all set up another chance to join Catriona Matthew on the LPGA Tour.

Edinburgh-based American Beth Allen has done likewise after the quartet all survived the 72-hole second stage in the gruelling process at Plantation Golf & Country Club in Venice, Florida.

Allen, who recently claimed her second win of the season on the Ladies European Tour, finished tied 12th in an event won by Norwegian Marianna Skarpnord, with Dryburgh and Walker also progressing comfortably in joint 19th.

It was a bit tighter in the end than Watson would have liked but, nonetheless, she progressed, too, in a tie for 67th in an event that saw 193 players set out bidding to keep alive their LPGA Tour dreams.

The quartet now move forward to the final stage, which takes place at Daytona Beach in Florida from 30 November to 4 December, when the top 20 will secure cards next season on the leading circuit in women’s golf.

Dryburgh, Watson and Walker all bowed out before the fifth and final round at that stage last year, the latter being on course to secure a conditional card before running up a damaging 82 in the fourth round.

Others still in the card chase this time around include English amateur Bronte Law, who finished second behind Skarpnord, five-time LET winner Mel Reid and Irish amateur Leona Maguire.

Elsewhere, another trio of Scots – Clarke Lutton, Jack Mcdonald and Danny Kay – shot matching two-underpar 70s to sit four shots off the lead, held by Dutchman Fernand Osther, after the opening round of the MENA Tour’s Ghala Open in Oman.

Mcdonald, who finished joint sixth in last week’s event in Kuwait, and MENA Tour regular Kay are both using the third-tier circuit to prepare for the upcoming second stage of the European Tour Qualifying School in Spain.

Closer to home, Tartan Tour chieftain Greig Hutcheon, with a level-par 71 to sit two shots off the lead, fared best of four Scots in the first round of the PGA Play-offs at Saunton in Devon.