Double disappointment for GB at Gleneagles

Both Great Britain women teams suffered semi-final defeats in the inaugural European Golf Championships at soggy Gleneagles this morning.

Meghan Maclaren and Michele Thomson lost to France 2 in the semi-finals at Gleneagles. Picture: Getty Images

Aberdonian Michelle Thomson and her Great Britain 3 team-mate, Meghan MacLaren, lost 5&4 to the French second string of Justine Dreher and Manon Molle.

And there was disappointment, too, in the dreich conditions in Perthshire for Great Britain 1 pair Georgia Hall and Laura Davies.

They were three up with five to play but lost after taking a double-bogey 7 at the last to Sweden 3 pair Cajsa Persson and Linda Wessberg.

Laura Davies was feeling he cold in the miserable wet weather for the semi-finals in the European Team Championships. Picture: Getty Images

Thomson and MacLaren had joined forces with Connor Syme and Liam Johnston to secure silver medals in the historic mixed event on Saturday.

Playing foursomes stroke-play again as opposed to fourballs in the group phase earlier in the week, the home duo ran up against a brick wall in their opponents.

The French were three-under-par for the holes played, clinching victory in style as Manon holed a 20-foot eagle putt at the par-4 14th.

“I don’t think the conditions effected us too much as we are used to weather like this,” insisted Thomson. “Meghan played pretty well and I didn’t back her up as well as I could have.

“I don’t think there was a reaction to yesterday. We were as pumped up as we could have been. We want a medal as badly as anyone. It was nice to get a silver yesterday but we wanted the gold today.

“It’s our first defeat of the week and we will try and pick ourselves up for the afternoon and hopefully pick up a bronze medal.”

MacLaren, who lives in Wellinborough in Northamptonshire but is “quarter Scottish”, added: “We played great all week. Today we just made a couple more mistakes than we have been and the French girls played unbelievably all day. They didn’t gave us anything and, in these conditions, that is hard to play against.

“We fought well for a long time but we just gave ourselves too much to do.”

Referring to Manon, Thomson said: “She played unbelievable today. Her short game was incredible.

“Even when they missed the green in some ridiculous places, she managed to save them and Justine then holed the putts. They worked really well together.”

The two defeats left the Great Britain teams facing each other in the bronze medal match and MacLaren said of that: “If we walk away with two medals from this week, it is going to be pretty good going.”