Orange Blossom Tour: South Atlantic Ladies Amateur

RACHEL FAILS TO
MAKE MOST OF
BALMY BREEZE
IN FLORIDA

England girl international Rachel Connor, 17-year-old daughter of the Scottish-born Manchester Golf Club professional, was in joint 13th place going into the fourth and final round of the South Atlantic Ladies amateur golf tournament at Oceanside Country Club, Ormond Beach in Florida.
Rachel did not make the most of perfect scoring conditions – temperatures in the mid-70s with a slight breeze coming off the ocean – for she had a third-round 78 after opening with a 75 and then and 83.
She is on 19-over-par 235 – 13 strokes behind the leader, another teenager, Natalie Sheary from Hartford, Connecticutt. Natalie had the best score of the third day, a par-matching 72 for a six-over-par tally of 222.
FOR WAKE FOREST IN 2011
Miss Sheary won the Connecticutt State women's amateur championship in 2006 but is still only 14 or 15 years of age. She has already signed a Letter of Intent to join Wake Forest University in 2011.
Natalie leads by one shot from another American, Kelly Calkin, with one round to go.
Curtis Cup player and title-holder Virginia Grimes (pictured above with caddie) is in fourth place on 228, having lost her momentum with a third-round 77.
Halfway leader Tiffany Chudy fell off her pedestal with an 81 to drop to joint seventh place on 230.
Of the Stirling University students’ touring party, Emma Tipping from Sandiway, Cheshire, was best placed in a share of 16th place on 236 after a very good third-round 73 for 236.
Dubliner Rachel Cassidy is joint 36th after a 75 for 248.
Dawn Dewar (Monifieth) and Claire-Marie Carlton (Fereneze) are both on 251, Dawn after a third-round 79 and Claire-Marie an 80.
The last two Stirling students, England’s Catherine Baines (301) and Florida-born Courtnay Montgomery (307) are lying 89th and 91st in the field of 91.
Sarah Carty from Dublin – not a Stirling University student – had a third-round 90 to be sharing 44th place on 252.

United States Curtis Cup captain Carol Semple Thompson is in 21st place on 238 after a 77.
The South Atlantic Ladies Amateur tournament – better known as the “Sally” – is the second event on the annual Orange Blossom Tour for female amateurs in Florida.

LEADING THIRD-ROUND TOTALS

Par 216 (3 x 72)
Players from US unless stated
222 Natalie Sheary 76 74 72.
223 Kelly Calkin 74 76 73.
227 Kira Meixner (Canada) 79 73 75.
228 Virginia Grimes 77 74 77.
229 Kathy Hartwiger 74 76 79, Alexandra Bodemann 77 79 73.
230 Tiffany Chud 75 74 81, Susan Choi 77 80 73.
231 Tonya Choate 75 79 77, Jessica Yadloczky 74 81 76.
233 Rachel Williams 87 71 75.
234 Boo Brynestad-Grotvedt 82 75 77.
235 Rachel Connor (England) 75 82 78, C J Kim 80 79 76, Kristin Wetzel 81 81 73.
Other scores:
236 Emma Tipping (England) 80 83 73 (jt 16th).
238 Carol Semple Thompson (US) 82 79 77 (21st).
248 Rachel Cassidy (Ireland) 85 88 75 (jt 36th).
251 Dawn Dewar (Scotland) 88 84 79, Claire-Marie Carlton (Scotland) 82 89 80 (jt 40th).
252 Sarah Carty (Ireland) 78 84 80.
301 Courtnay Montgomery (US) 103 101 97 (89th).
307 Catherine Baines (England) 101 99 107.