2015 CHAMPION : UPDATED REPORT

 

 And the winner of the 2015 ESVLGA Championship is Karen Ballantyne who successfully defended her title against fellow Craigmillar Park member Mairi Pollock by the margin of 2 & 1. 

 

 

After the lovely sunshine enjoyed at the conclusion of the semi-final matches and over lunchtime, a few clouds rolled in for the Final. However the blue skies were still around whilst we were treated to a display from the Red Arrows at the nearby East Fortune Air Show together with a variety of other planes.  It's not often that our ESVLGA Championship Final has its own Red Arrows "fly past" to mark the occasion.

 

Wow, so close together!!!

After the clouds rolled in and brought some rain there came a step back in time





 Back to the golf on display!  Continuing with her good putting touch from the morning, Mairi eased to a 2 up lead after seven holes. The tricky eighth hole resulted in a half but a regulation par 4 at the ninth by Karen, meant that Mairi's lead reduced to 1 up at the turn and the match was squared by Karen at the eleventh hole.  Karen took a short-lived lead at the thirteenth with Mairi immediately winning back the par 3 fourteenth. However, Karen's pitch onto the fifteenth green rattled the flagstick and dropped into the hole meaning Karen went back to 1 up and she doubled her lead with an excellent pitch into the sixteenth green and a conceded birdie putt.  A half in par 3 at the seventeenth was not enough for Mairi to take the match up the eighteenth and thus Karen Ballantyne became the 2015 ESVLGA Champion.  Congratulations Karen.

 

Karen will represent the  East Division at the  SVLGA Championship at Blairgowrie on 20th/21st September and will be presented with the Lady McInnes Shaw Championship Cup at the AGM/Prizegiving at Gullane in November.