More misery as Carly Booth ends day in last spot

Published on Thursday 10 February 2011 17:49

CARLY Booth's tough start to her professional career continued yesterday as the Comrie teenager found herself lying last after the opening round of the ANZ RACV Ladies Masters in Queensland.

On a day when 97 of the 138-strong field finished level-par or better at the Royal Pines Resort, the 18-year-old slumped to a ten-over-par 82 that contained eight bogeys and a double-bogey. Booth, who joined the paid ranks just over a year ago on the back of a glittering amateur career, struggled in her rookie season, missing the cut in ten of her 19 events and failing to register a top-20 finish.

In fairness, the former Curtis Cup player was still studying at Glenalmond College for part of the year, but, even with that out of the way, she was unable to avoid a return to the LET Qualifying School in December.

Booth finished 35th in Spain, leaving her with limited playing privileges for the 2011 campaign, but has been able to secure invites into the opening two events of the year in Australia through IMG, her management company.

She missed the cut in last week's Australian Women's Open in Melbourne and is facing the same fate this week after her damaging opening effort.

Home favourites Karen Lunn and Karrie Webb were among six players sharing the lead after six-under-par 66s, joining Spain's Maria Hernandez, Italy's Diana Luna, France's Cassandra Kirkland and Korea's Eun-Hee Ji in making a strong start.

England's Melissa Reid, second in the season opener in Melbourne last week, continued her impressive early form with a 67, three better than leading Scot Krystle Caithness.

Kylie Walker and Vikki Laing both opened with 74s to lie just outside the top 100.