Pretswell and Booth to team up for Scotland

CARLY Booth and Pamela Pretswell, two former Curtis Cup players, will be Scotland’s representatives in the team segment of the World Ladies Championship in China early next month.

Booth, the 2012 Ladies Scottish Open champion from Comrie, represents her country in the Mission Hills event for the third year running, whereas Bothwell Castle player Pretswell is making her debut on 6-9 March.

They’ll be up against it in the 72-hole stroke-play event, with world No 1 Inbee Park on duty along with So Yeon Ryo for defending champions Korea and second-ranked Suzann Pettersen lining up for Norway along with Marianne Skarpnord. The tournament uniquely consists of three events in one – an individual professional competition, a professional team tournament and an individual amateur contest.

A handful of other Scots are also entered for the individual pro event, including Heather MacRae, who faced a dash this week to secure a visa before heading off yesterday to prepare for her new season in Spain. Booth is in Thailand, where she was due to have Catriona Matthew for company in the third round of the Honda LPGA event being led by Swede Anna Nordqvist. On six-under, she led Booth (74) and Matthew (71) by eight and nine shots respectively.

On the men’s front, Jack Doherty is lying joint-seventh, five shots off the lead at halfway in the Dimension Data Pro-Am in South Africa while David Law’s 66 lifted him into the top ten heading into the last round of the Open Al Maaden in Morocco.