Hard work continues to pay off for Chloe

A few days ago Chloe, who studies at Stirling Uni, won the BUCS Golf Tour Finals, the final individual university tournament of the academic year.

It set her up nicely for the Helen Holm Scottish Open Strokeplay at Troon, teeing off this weekend.

It’s been a busy start to 2018 for the local amateur, having been selected as part of a group of Scots to compete in Tom Watson’s team in the Major Champions Invitational, a new junior event created by Sir Nick Faldo and played in the USA.

It brought together some of the top junior golfers in the world and Chloe proved she could mix it at that level, finishing seventh.

“Nick had managed to get 19 major champions (male and female) involved in the event, and each team of four played wearing team colours, with their major champion’s name on their sleeve.

“Tom Watson had requested to have a team of four Scottish players, due to him having strong ties to the country as a result of winning four British Opens in Scotland.

“He didn’t have any form of contact with the players, albeit tweeted a good luck/congratulations message to the team, which was pretty cool.

“Some of the major champions were present at the event, and we received endless insight into their experience and knowledge.

“Faldo hosted Q&As during dinner some evenings with the likes of Annika Sorenstam, Nancy Lopez, Tony Jacklin and Jerry Pate and provided great knowledge about all areas of the game.

“I could have sat and listened to their stories for hours.

“Between them, they have so much experience and so many great achievements, and they all had different ways of dealing with different things on the golf course, such as pressure.

The competition itself saw Chloe compete against some of the top junior players in the world.

But she went on to prove her own quality and finished in seventh place.

“I was happy with a top 10 in a quality field,” added Chloe.

“The course at Bella Collina was incredible, I loved the layout, and it presented a lot of opportunities for risk-reward.

“In particular the greens were my favourite type of greens – fast and slopey – and I felt I had a great opportunity to demonstrate my strength in this area. I am continuing to work hard at all aspects of my game, and I am fortunate enough to have been able to go overseas to some better climates such as Florida to continue to move forward.

“The next month is quite busy with BUCS Finals, Helen Holm, BUCS Team Matchplay finals, and then the Welsh Strokeplay and Irish Strokeplay in the beginning of May.

“These are great events to kick off the season, and I am looking forward to playing lots of links golf, hopefully in some warmer weather.”