SCOTTISH WOMANS AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP - Rachel Foster's trophy bid ended in semi finals

The hopes of Ayrshire's Rachel Foster (Turnberry) in the Clark Rosebowl competition at the Scottish Womans Amateur Championship, being held this week at West Kilbride Golf Club, were dashed on Friday morning with defeat in the semi final of the competition.

(Scottish Golf news release)

Gabrielle Macdonald and Ailsa Summers will face each other in the Scottish Women’s Amateur Championship final tomorrow after tightly contested knock-out stages at West Kilbride.

The Scottish women’s squad players triumphed in their two matches on the fourth day of competition in glorious sunshine on the Ayrshire coast.

Craigielaw’s Macdonald started the day by knocking out the top seed and stroke play winner Jessica Meek from Carnoustie in their quarter-final tie. Awaiting her in the semi-final was Tara Mactaggart (Minto) who had beaten Drumpellier’s Susan Wood 4&3.

Macdonald, the 2014 champion, had the slight edge throughout the match, never going behind after winning the first hole, and although it went back to all square, she regained the lead at the fourth and maintained it to the turn.

However, Mactaggart brought it back to honours even at the 10th hole, holding out until the 15th when Macdonald birdied to go ahead and then win the match 2&1.

Summers may not have been the Carnoustie player many would have expected to reach the final after Meek’s impressive week, but she earned her place after a tough quarter-final against Gillian Paton from Montrose, eventually winning on the 20th hole. She went on to play Hannah McCook from Grantown-on-Spey who had eased through her morning semi-final against Gullane’s Joanne Free 3&2.

The semi-final see-sawed between the two with Summers one up after five holes before McCook won the next two to go ahead. However, Summers immediately pulled it back to level the match until she birdied the 11th and never looked back, with four further birdies to seal the match 4&2.

The 18-hole championship final will be played at West Kilbride from 8.30am on Saturday morning.

Also completed at West Kilbride on Friday, were the last two rounds of the Clark Rosebowl which was contested by the next 16 players outside the top 32 championship qualifiers.

Wendy Nicholson from Baberton beat Lanark’s Ruth Hunter 2&1 to reach the final against teenager Jennifer Rankine, who had won her semi-final against Turnberry’s Rachel Foster 5&4. The 15 year-old from Haggs Castle continued her winning form against Nicholson, maintaining the lead from the second throughout the final, to win the Rosebowl by 3&1.