Trio earn first caps for Scots Under-18s

GIRLS TEAM: East Lothian's youngest women's county golf champion, 14-year-old Clara Young, Aberdeen-born Gemma Dryburgh and St Andrews' Lauren Whyte will be making their debuts for Scotland in the Girls' Home Internationals at Gullane No 2 course from 2 to 5 August.

Young recently played for the Great Britain and Ireland team in the inaugural Junior Vagliano Trophy match for Under-16s against the Continent of Europe at Royal Porthcawl, but this will be her first appearance for the Scotland Under-18 girls team. Young, Dryburgh and Whyte take the places of Rachael Watton (Mortonhall), Gabrielle Macdonald (Craigielaw) and Germany-based Rachael Taylor in the Scotland squad of eight who beat Ireland and Wales but lost to champions England in last year's Under-18 internationals at Bangor Golf Club, near Belfast.

The squad for Gullane, captained for the second year in a row by Karen Marshall (Baberton), is: Lesley Atkins (Gullane Ladies), Eilidh Briggs (Kilmacolm), Gemma Dryburgh (Beaconsfield), Hannah McCook (Grantown on Spey), Alyson McKechin (Elderslie), Ailsa Summers (Carnoustie Ladies), Lauren Whyte (St Regulus), Clara Young (North Berwick).

At the following week's British girls' open amateur championship over the Gullane No 1 course (August 8 to 12), the trio whose scores in the qualifying rounds will count for Scotland in the international team event are: Eilidh Briggs, Gemma Dryburgh and Alyson McKechin.