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Thursday, January 17, 2008

MICHELE THOMSON LOSES
TWO-HOLE LEAD IN GOING
DOWN TO ISABELLE LENDL

Aberdeenshire champion Michele Thomson (McDonald Ellon), conqueror of compatriot Carly Booth from Comrie in the previous round, was beaten in today's quarter-finals of the Jones/Doherty women's amateur match-play golf tournament at Coral Ridge Country Club near Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Michele, third in the previous Orange Blossom Tour event - the South Atlantic Ladies Amateur Championship, lost an early two-hole lead before going down by 2 and 1 to Florida-based Isabelle Lendl, 16, pictured right, one of three daughters of former world tennis ace Ivan Lendl, who have been playing in the tournament.
Michele had been pulled back to square by the turn and her opponent just had the edge on the inward half.
Isabelle will now play another Lendl sibling, Marika, the defending champion, in the semi-finals.
One Ladies Golf Union Elite Squad player, Liz Bennett from Hampshire - winner of the South Atlantic Ladies Amateur title on Saturday, did make it through to the last four of the Jones/Doherty tournament which was won by Catriona Mathew in 1992 when she was a student at Stirling University.
Bennett beat team-mate teenager Rachel Jennings (Izaak Walton) by 3 and 1 to earn a semi-final meeting with Meghan Bolger, who was named earlier this week in the US Curtis Cup team for the Old Course match in St Andrews at the end of May.
Bolger was outdriven on every hole but one, but the former college golf coach at the University of Mississippi ended 12-year-old Alexis Thompson's bid to become the youngest title winner in the 76-year history of the tournament. Alexis had already won two tournaments in her home state over the past four weeks.
Alford's Laura Murray (Robert Gordon University) was beaten in the quarter-finals of the First Flight competition by Rachel Connor, teenage daughter of the Manchester Golf Club professional.
Also in the last four of the First Flight is LGU Squad player Sahra Hassan (Vale of Glamorgan).
Quarter-final results:
Players from US unless stated

CHAMPIONSHIP
Marika Lendl bt Lisa Schlesinger 5 and 4.
Isabelle Lendl bt Michele Thomson 2 and 1.
Meghan Bolger bt Alexis Thompson 2 and 1.
Liz Bennett (Brokenhurst Manor) bt Rachel Jennings 3 and 1.
FIRST FLIGHT
Taylor Collins bt Carly Ray Goldstein 3 and 2.
Rachel Connor (Manchester) bt Laura Murray (Robert Gordon Univ) 2 and 1.
Kylie Roig bt Natalie McNicholas 5 and 4.
Sahra Hassan (Vale of Glamorgan) bt Lauren Blount 4 and 3.

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