Golf: Heather MacRae feels at ease as one of the boys

Competing in this week’s Aberdeen Asset Management Northern Open, in fact, is a lot less nerve-wracking than teeing it up against a full ladies’ field in a bid to qualify for next month’s Ricoh Women’s British Open at Hoylake.

MacRae, a fully-qualified PGA professional who is  attached to Gleneagles Hotel, is one step away from achieving that target after being among four Scots to pass Monday’s pre-qualifying test at The Berkshire, yet she admitted feeling more comfortable back on the Tartan Tour yesterday after opening with a two-over-par 72.

That left her seven shots behind the leader, Buchanan Castle’s Jason McCreadie, but, to put her day’s work in a better perspective, MacRae is comfortably in the top half of the field, having beaten one of her playing partners by eight shots and the other by 19 strokes.

Admittedly, she was off forward tees – MacRae and Gullane’s Emma Fairnie, the only other woman in this week’s field, are playing a course between 10-14 per cent shorter than the men – but it was a praiseworthy effort nonetheless, especially at a time when Augusta’s decision to admit two female members has put golf’s gender issues in the spotlight.

“It is weird as I felt more nervous for the first couple of holes at The Berkshire than I did here and it should be the other way around,” said MacRae after a round that would have been even better but for a double-bogey 6 at the fourth, where she stuck her tee shot behind a tree.

Since teeing it up in the Scottish PGA Championship – she was the first female to qualify for the Tartan Tour’s flagship event since Meg Farquhar back in 1933 but missed the cut after rounds of 75 and 81 – MacRae has played against the men, including boyfriend Chris Kelly, who is also in this field, on a fairly frequent basis.

“These events feel normal for me now,” added the former British Ladies’ Amateur Stroke-Play champion, who was forced to stop playing in the LET’s  Access Series due to frequent trips aboard costing around £1,000 each time but is gearing up for a crack at the Qualifying School later in the year.

McCreadie, a two-time former winner who has been out of sorts over the past month or so, eagled the 17th, where he hit his drive to seven feet, to lead by one from Banchory boys Greig Hutcheon and James Byrne as well as former European Tour rookie of the year Jonathan Lomas and David Patrick.

Hutcheon, the winner at the same venue two years ago, made his score by picking up shots at all three par-5s, admitting afterwards that he was feeding off an appearance in last week’s Johnnie Walker Championship, even though he’d been disappointed to miss the cut by two shots at Gleneagles.

“Playing at that level, in front of the crowds and the TV cameras, definitely helps,” said the 39-year-old.

On the course where he shot a 59 when playing a bounce game last summer, Byrne also made a flying start, the highlight of his opening salvo being an eagle at the 11th, where the 23-year-old hit a rescue to three feet.