By Matt Smith
With the Trust Golf Women’s Scottish Open fast approaching, the home guard has been unveiled as a quartet of players will be aiming to keep the trophy in the ‘Home of Golf’ — Scotland.

Ahead of the prestigious tournament at Dundonald Links, July 28-31, home hopes Gemma Dryburgh, Kelsey MacDonald, Michele Thomson, and Kylie Henry have confirmed their participation on one of Scotland’s leading links courses on the breezy west coast.

The Scottish quartet will join an all-star cast which consists of eight out of the world’s top 10 players as well as 19 major winners with 36 major trophies between them including the first three major champions of the year — Jennifer Kupcho, Minjee Lee and In Gee Chun.

Aberdonian Gemma Dryburgh is enjoying a fine run of form this season after finishing fifth at the LPGA Match Play and winning the US Women’s Open qualifier to make her debut in the second major of the year.

“Every year I look forward to playing in the Women’s Scottish Open, this will be my sixth appearance in the event and last year I was lucky enough to receive an invitation from tournament sponsor VisitScotland so I’m really happy to have qualified myself this year,” she said. “I am especially excited to experience all that the newly transformed Dundonald Links has to offer. It’s been a great start to the year and I’m very happy with how my game has been recently, so I just want to keep building on my last few performances and hopefully be in the running come Sunday afternoon”.

MacDonald, a perennial performer at the Women’s Scottish Open, has recorded 12 appearances since her debut in 2008 and made the cut on seven occasions. Last year she finished T-15, her best finish to date, to become the first winner of the Jock MacVicar Leading Scot award. The 2021 season saw MacDonald record two top-10 finishes and four further top-15 finishes to end the year ranked 39th in the Race to Costa Del Sol.

Thomson, who carded an opening round 64 at last year’s Scottish Open to set the course record, will make her fifth appearance at Dundonald Links this summer. With five top-20 finishes this season, Thomson is enjoying a stellar season so far and currently sits at 19th in the LET Order of Merit.

Glasgow native Kylie thought she might have to give up competitive golf last year after sustaining an elbow fracture, but after just her third start since the injury, she put in a fantastic performance at the Aramco Team Series in Bangkok to secure a third-place finish in the individual competition and sixth place in the team competition.

Tournament title sponsor, Trust Golf, has increased this year’s prize-fund by 33 per cent to $2million. The Thai based technology enterprise took over as title sponsor in 2021.

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The post Scots quartet look to lead the home charge at Trust Golf Women’s Scottish Open appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The big-hitting 22-year-old fired a best of the week 65 Thursday to move to -10 and open up a two shot lead over Scot Kelsey MacDonald at the $500,000 Ladies European Tour season-decider.

Revelling in the fun-filled atmosphere encouraged by her playing partners, American Solheim Cuppers Brittany Lincicome and Angel Yin, Van Dam’s flawless seven under loop of the Majlis was highlighted by three successive birdies from the 2nd (her 11th hole).

The Power Hitters @OMEGAGolfDubai ??!@angelyinlol @Brittany1golf & @Annevandam pic.twitter.com/wfYVgWVRYK

— Ladies European Tour (@LETgolf) December 7, 2017

What happens next though is anybody’s guess. Van Dam won her maiden LET title at the Xiamen International in China last year but has developed an unfortunate reputation since for mixing sublime scoreboard climbs with the nonsensical blowouts.

The final stage of LPGA Q-School is a still fresh and frustrating case in point. After opening with a 68 to share the first round lead in Florida, Van Dam backed up with a soul-destroying 81 before finishing 75-75 and in a tie for 118th place. It means Van Dam is committed to the LET for next season and how she’d love to take a second title into the New Year. She’s certainly trending well – Florida aside – after finishing T-4 and T-3 in the recent Open de France and Indian Open respectively as well as T-23 at the Fatima Bint Mubarak Ladies Open in Abu Dhabi.

What a day for @Annevandan!

Superb 2nd round bogey-free 65 (-7) moves her to the top of the Omega Dubai Ladies Classic leaderboard on -10 pic.twitter.com/7jQl8qMizB

— Ladies European Tour (@LETgolf) December 7, 2017

She could easily have title No.2 already but for an uncooperative putter in France where she missed a bunch of makeables as Christie Kerr won. We can’t confirm if Van Dam used the same putter in Florida but we do know that mallet was sent to golf’s equivalent of the naughty chair afterwards.

“Well, my putter from last week just needed a break. I didn’t putt well at Q-School… so yeah, he couldn’t come this week,” Van Dam joked.

“It’s actually quite funny because I haven’t been putting great at all, like the last half year. I changed putters two days ago. I completely got something else, normally I have face-balance, and now I have toe hang. It’s a blade. Normally I have a mallet. So everything is different. But I like the look of it and it’s going well, so maybe that’s the change this week.”

What was also funny was Van Dam’s post round interview, conducted by Yin at the behest of the LET media team. The banter flowed between the big hitters with Yin recalling the 350-yard bomb Van Dam hooked over the trees on 18 in the first round to leave an 8 iron into the par 5 and which she duly birdied for an opening 69.

Van Dam was asked what her longest drive was and it sparked a fun back-and –forth. “Probably that one on 18. 320 metres, that’s like 370 yards or something [350 yards to save further confusion],” said Van Dam before Yin quickly retorted: “It’s close to 400.” Van Dam: “No, no, that’s 360. I think it’s like 370 metres.” Yin had the last word on the matter: “That’s pretty freaking long. My excuse is that I broke my driver before I came here. It’s a new thing and I need to warm it up, break it in.”

Van Dam admitted the fairway giggles helped: “We had a lot of fun out there today, and yesterday, as well. We were all playing well, all under par for two rounds in a row, and yeah, we all hit it long, so that helps. All play aggressive.”

Van Dam is out in the final threesome at 11.43am Friday with MacDonald and Georgia Hall. It promises to be a rather more serious affair given MacDonald and Hall are still searching for their first LET titles but Van Dam has vowed to keep smiling.

“Like, it’s the two last days of the season, and I hope to just finish up great and hit some more monster drives, hole a few more putts with my new putter and it should be great.”

Indeed it should.

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Successive 68s will see the second-placed Scot tee it up with Dutch leader Anne Van Dam and third placed Georgia Hall in the final, 3rd round threesome on Friday at the Omega Dubai Ladies Classic.

Like Hall, MacDonald is gunning for her maiden LET title but unlike the Englishwoman she has the added pressure of playing for her livelihood next season. The top-80 keep their cards and MacDonald came into the season-ender 91st, just shy of €3000 outside of safety. It means that while she’ll endeavour to close the two-shot gap on Van Dam, MacDonald must also guard against a slide down the leaderboard. That’s no easy feat with TV cameras suddenly thrust in your face.

“The thing is for me is that I’ve never really had the cameras, so I was quick on quite a few shots. The shots that they probably are going to show [on TV] are going to be terrible,” said the 27-year-old who mixed six birdies – four on the trot from the 15th – with two second round bogeys.

For context, MacDonald has barely made a cut this year, let alone contended. She arrived in Dubai on the back of four unwanted weekends off and with season earnings of just €10,808 – a sum that would barely cover the cost of one of those cameras.

How good is this by @K_Mac_59 @OMEGAGolfDubai ?? pic.twitter.com/KYSYkPom8R

— Ladies European Tour (@LETgolf) December 7, 2017

“There were a lot of cameras on me, kind of entering my like, zone, personal space, and the way I hit shots, I’m very quick, so I kind of got a little distracted at times and maybe hit some poor shots today that I wouldn’t have previously. But I’ve got to just learn from that and if I’m in contention, it’s going to happen a lot.”

MacDonald credited McNicoll, a PGA assistant at men’s Scottish Open venue Gullane G.C. in East Lothian, for keeping “me clam and in the moment.”

McNicoll will endeavour to remain that “good influence” given what is at stake this weekend.

Two superb 68s by @K_Mac_59 put her in second place on -8 at the Omega Dubai Ladies Classic @EmiratesGC pic.twitter.com/XB4HvRxiHa

— Ladies European Tour (@LETgolf) December 7, 2017

“I’ve not had the best of seasons, hard to get a bit of momentum,” said MacDonald. “But I love the course here. I’ve got good vibes from the last few years. So I came in with a lot of confidence and positivity. I just need to press on and enjoy my weekend.”

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The 21-year-old may have been attired in loud golf-themed trousers but her limited and quietly-spoken English meant there were slim post-round pickings for the press following her five-under 67 on the Majlis course at Emirates Golf Club.

Rest assured Sangchan is fluent in Siamese and super low scoring. She’ll take a one shot buffer into Thursday’s second round over five players – Scot Kelsey MacDonald, Finland’s Minea Blomqvist and Noora Tamminen, Australian rookie Celina Yuan and Dane Nanna Koerstz Madsen – while Dame Laura Davies and Solheim Cupper Florentyna Parker are among a group of seven players a further stroke back after 69s.

Sangchan’s media huddle afterwards lasted all of five questions, the first of which was clearly lost in translation. Paraphrasing the rest, she arrived in Dubai feeling pretty chipper about her game, stayed in the moment and found the Majlis greens “really fast”.

To flesh that out a little, know that the world’s 228th ranked player arrived in Dubai fresh from four top 30 finishes in her last four events, highlighted by T-11 and T-12 efforts in Abu Dhabi and China, the latter in defense of her thus far sole Ladies European Tour title at last month’s Sanya Open. Her pursuers will also be aware that the Thai won the Hong Kong Ladies Open in June so clearly knows how to get the job done.

With two LET titles, Blomqvist is the most decorated of those closest to Sangchan on the leaderboard but it was her compatriot Tamminen who had the most to cheer about on the centenary of Finland’s independence after acing her second hole, the 11th, with a seven iron from 140 yards.

Elsewhere, newly crowned European No.1 Georgia Hall escaped a tiring day with a pleasing two under 70, a score matched by last December’s Dubai runner-up Charley Hull. Brittany Lincicome and Aditi Ashok signed for 71s but reigning order of merit champion Beth Allen won’t have been thrilled with a 75 on her 36th birthday.

Hall can’t be beaten in this season’s OOM race and it’s just as well as she is running on empty at the LET’s season decider after successfully negotiating last week’s final stage of LPGA Tour Q-School.

“I landed from Orlando at like one o’clock yesterday [Tuesday] afternoon. Didn’t get to the hotel until three. It’s a 13-and-a-half-hour flight and I didn’t sleep. So I had a good sleep last night but still a bit jet-lagged,” said the 21-year-old Englishwoman who is still searching for her maiden LET title.

“I kind of struggled on the back nine today but I played okay. Just some approaches to greens weren’t that great, but I’ll sort it out tomorrow and see what happens.”

In-Kyung Kim is another looking for a big Thursday after signing for a one-over 73. It left the reigning British Open champion sitting on the projected cut line but at least the South Korean slept easier than Camille Chevalier. The Rookie-of-the-Year title is the 23-year-old Frenchwoman’s to lose but she won’t be pleased with her opening 75. It gives Swede Jenny Haglund (76) and third placed Luna Soburn (70) hope, albeit of the slim variety as they’d both need Chevalier to miss the cut as well as finishing at least second. Yuan has a mathematical shout too if Chevalier misses the weekend but would also need Haglund, Soburn and others to finish down the standings.

The post Thai treat as Sangchan serves up a 67 to lead Ladies Classic appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.