Briggs takes Alyth lead to live up to top billing

Renfrewshire women's county champion Eilidh Briggs, beaten finalist in the Scottish women's championship at Machrihanish in May, lived up to her rating as the pre-tournament favourite by setting the pace with a level par 71 in the first qualifying round of the Scottish Under-18 girls' championship at Glenisla Golf Club, Alyth in Perthshire yesterday.

Briggs, bound for Stirling University after the summer holidays, had only four pars in an eventful outward half of one-under-par 35.

She bogeyed the short third, birdied the fourth, short fifth and sixth and bogeyed the long eighth.

Coming home, the Kilmacolm scratch player bogeyed the 13th and 15th but got her second 2 of the round - a birdie at the short 16th.

Connie Jaffrey (Troon Ladies) was a shot behind Briggs with only three deviations from par in halves of 36.

She bogeyed the seventh and 11th, birdied the ninth and all the rest were pars.

Aberdeen-born Gemma Dryburgh (Beaconsfield), who played without a practice round after figuring among the qualifiers at The Berkshire GC on Monday in the pre-qualifying round of the Ricoh Women's British Open championship, had a 73.

Coming from the lightning-fast greens of the Ascot venue to the wet and slow putting surfaces of Glenisla gave Dryburgh a lot of problems and she bogeyed the fourth and ninth on her way to the turn in two-over-par 38.

But the student at IMG Leadbetter Academy, Florida - she steps up to Tulane University, Louisiana in late August, was able to birdie the 11th and 13th to offset further bogeys at the long 12th and 15th.

The defending champion, Lesley Atkins (Gullane Ladies) had a double bogey 6 at the sixth on her way to a three-over 74, the same score as 14-year-old Clara Young (North Berwick), the youngest-ever East Lothian women's county champion and a GB&I team member in the recent Junior Vagliano Trophy match for Under-16s at Royal Porthcawl against the Continent of Europe.

Also on 74 were Rachel Polson (Peterculter), recent winner of the Janice Moodie Trophy at Windyhill and Gabrielle Macdonald (Craigielaw).

The leading 32 players after today's second qualifying round will go forward to the match-play stages. At the moment there are 34 players with scores of 81 or better, which suggests the qualifying mark will be around 162 or 163.

The 18-hole final will be staged on Saturday morning.