Perth players doing well in


windy R&A Junior Open


Perth’s Paul McPhee, pictured right by Cal Carson Golf Agency, has moved into a challenging position with one round to go in the R&A Junior Open at Hesketh Golf Club, Southport.
And Scotland’s girl representative, Annabel Niven, who lives in the village of Tibbermore, near Perth, had another good day to be leading the Silver Division with some players still to finish.
On a day when a wild west wind off the sea blew away many unaccustomed to such conditions, including Japanese overnight leader Mami Fukuda, Paul McPhee showed the right spirit in grinding out a one-over-par 73, the joint best score of the day.
“I’m not playing well but you could say I’m ‘battling well,” said the 16-year-old member at the King James VI island club on the River Tay.
“I bogeyed the fifth, sixth and the 13th but I tried to keep my head up, a kind of damage limitation exercise. Then my luck changed when I holed a 30ft putt to birdie the 14th and got another birdie, an ‘ugly’ one, at the 17th where I finished up wedging my third to this par-5 hole and sinking a 10ft putt.
“The funny thing is, that after struggling for so long, I had a chance to match the par of 72 in the end, which would have been good going in that wind. I missed a birdie chance from about 12ft at the last.”
The only players ahead of Paul going into the Gold Division’s final round are Hong Kong’s Steven Lam, who has shot a pair of 73s for 146 and the American 14-year-old Jordan Spieth who slipped from 72 to 76 but is still in the hunt on 148.
Annabel Niven’s five handicap means she is in the Silver Division girls’ category which means she doesn’t get to play a third round. But with a 78 and 75 for 153 she would have been high up the girls’ Gold Division scores.
Consistency has been Annabel’s strong point over the past two days. On Monday she had halves of 39 and yesterday (Tuesday) she was out in 38 and back in 37. The Crieff player birdied the eighth and bogeyed only only the first, fifth, sixth and 15th in testing conditions.