Booth reunited with her clubs and ready for first pro start

Published on Wednesday 17 March 2010 22:16

CARLY Booth and Kylie Walker, Scotland's latest recruits to women's professional golf, tee off their new careers today when they compete in the Lalla Meryem Cup in Morocco and will be hoping to get off to flying starts.

Both players joined the paid ranks after graduating at the Ladies European Tour qualifying school in Spain at the end of last year and will bolster a Scottish contingent on the circuit that includes Krystle Caithness, Lynn Kenny, Vikki Laing and Claire Queen.

At just 17, Booth will create history by becoming the youngest Scot ever to play on the LET, while 23-year-old Walker is equally excited about being one of several players starting their professional careers this week in north Africa.

Booth's preparations haven't gone entirely to plan after her golf clubs failed to arrive in Morocco on Monday night, meaning she missed out on a practice round at the Royal Golf Anfa Mohammdia on Tuesday. However, the player who, at the age of eight, became the youngest golfer to hold an adult handicap before winning the Dunblane New women's championship three years later is determined to take things in her stride as much as possible over the next few days.

"I'm excited and I want to go out there and try to play my best. I don't want to put any extra pressure on myself: just try and enjoy it," she said. "I'll probably feel nervous but I've already played two professional events in the past (she tied for 13th in the 2007 Scottish Open], so I've had some experience and I'm sure I'll be fine."

Booth, who has her boyfriend, Steven Brown, caddying for her, certainly needn't worry about feeling lonely as she gets down to work in her new office. "I know quite a lot of players from amateur golf and I was in Team Faldo with Kiran Matharu, Melissa Reid and Henrietta Brockway," she added. "I also played the Curtis Cup with Florentyna Parker and Krystle Caithness."

Still at Glenalmond School – she will be there until finishing A-level exams in Art, English and PE in June – Booth has received plenty of advice about what to expect on Tour, with Catriona Matthew, the Ricoh Women's British Open champion, among those to offer words of wisdom.

"I went to see Catriona back in January and spoke to her," said the Comrie girl. "I played with her at my first professional event so I kind of knew her and she gave me her email and said if I needed any advice just to give her a buzz. I asked her about tour life and what to expect. A lot of it I already knew but some of it helped and will be very useful."

Matthew has also spoken to Walker, who emulated her fellow Scot last year when making a successful defence of the St Rule Trophy at St Andrews, one of the top British amateur events. Walker also topped the SLGA Order of Merit in 2008 and, though Booth has grabbed most of the attention over the past few months, her performance in finishing as the highest-placed British player at the aforementioned qualifying school was equally praiseworthy.

She spent a week in Dubai, where her brother and one of her sisters live, preparing for the event in Morocco and is setting her sights high as she begins her new career. "I would love to do well right from the start," said the flame-haired Buchanan Castle player. "It might be unrealistic, but I'm going into every tournament to win."

Looking to the future, Walker, who has her older brother, Kris, on the bag this week, is hoping she can follow in the footsteps of Matthew, Janice Moodie and Mhairi McKay by earning a card for the LPGA Tour. "If you are going to be at the top, America's the place to be, the best golfers in the world are there," she added. "In the future, I'll look to get out there to compete."

Caithness, Kenny, Laing and Queen are also in the field in Morocco, where the 54-hole event carries a prize fund of 275,000, with 41,250 going to the winner.

After this week, the next individual event on the LET is the Turkish Open at the National Golf Club in Belek on 7-9 May.