Can Scottish Women's Championship produce new Scottish Golf poster girl?

Catriona Matthew, of course, filled that role for a long time before, more recently, Gemma Dryburgh also did her bit to inspire young Scottish girls to get into golf.

The same can be said of Louise Duncan, Hannah Darling and Lorna McClymont in recent years but, following their switch to the paid ranks, the question now being asked is ‘who will be the next Scottish amateur star?’

Well, it might well be answered in the Scottish Women’s Championship, which gets underway at Southerness on Friday as 75 players head out in two rounds of stroke-play qualifying before the top 16 progress to the match-play phase.

At just 14, Carly McDonald is one of the youngest players in the field, but the St Andrews golfer is on a hot streak heading into Scottish Golf’s marquee women’s tournament.

She won the Scottish Girls’ Open at Luffness last month before adding The R&A Girls’ Under-16s Championship shortly afterwards at Gog Magog in Cambridgeshire.

Both those successes came on the back of McDonald also being crowned as the Scottish Girls’ champion and topping the Scottish Girls’ Order of Merit last year, when she represented Great Britain & Ireland as well at under-16 level.

Curtis Cup chance beckoning in 2028

It was too early for McDonald to be considered by compatriot Catriona Matthew for an upcoming Curtis Cup defence by GB&I in Los Angeles, but the next one at Royal Dornoch in 2028 is a distinct possibility if she keeps progressing at the rate she has been.

North Berwick’s Grace Crawford was the player in McDonald’s shoes a few years ago, when she also won The R&A Girls’ U16 title just after becoming the first Scottish player since Heather Stirling in 2002 to triumph in the Helen Holm Scottish Women’s Open at Royal Troon.

Now at Alabama after a spell at Albany in the Bahamas, Crawford is another player who could give Scottish Golf’s push with girls’ and women’s golf a timely boost by going all the way over the next three days on the Solway coast.

As could Freya Russell, who, after losing in the final two years running, is entitled to feel she can go one better, though it is dangerous in golf, of course, to start thinking too far ahead.

On one of the most under-rated courses in the country, Russell’s first target will be to produce two solid stroke-play rounds to ensure she is involved in the main match-play event and not the Clark Rosebowl, which is a consolation competition.

East Kilbride’s Susan Woodhouse is the defending champion following her surprise title triumph at Western Gailes while others in the field include three other past champions in Alison Davidson (1997), Elaine Moffat (1998) and Cameron Neilson (2022).

Teeing up is triumph for Robyn Fowlie

Others to watch out for at the Dumfriesshire venue include former St Rule Trophy winner Jen Saxton (Dunfermline), Abigail May (St Andrews) and Rosie Maguire (Pollok).

For Robyn Fowlie, meanwhile, just teeing up will feel like a triumph after she suffered a bleed on her brain in a freak sledging accident earlier this year. “What happened in January really has put things in perspective,” admitted the 22-year-old of ending up in A&E at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and having her world turned upside down for a spell.

“After all that I’ve been through, I’m really looking forward to Southerness and excited to try and compete because I love that side of the game.”