The head coach of Scottish Women’s golf remains “excited” for the future, despite Scotland finishing with the wooden spoon for the third year in succession at the Home International at Scotscraig.
The young Scottish team were blown away 7-2 by a confident Welsh team on Friday as the Principality recaptured the Miller Trophy for the first time since 2009, the last time the four-cornered event was held in Scotland.
Only Monifieth’s Heather Munro, left out of all but two sessions over the three days, was able to record an outright win against the rampant Welsh team, beating Samantha Birks for her first point on her debut for her country.
The halved match with Ireland on Wednesday meant the Scots avoided recording three defeats for the third year in a row.
However, Kevin Craggs, who is also coach of Scotland’s leading woman player Catriona Matthew, remained upbeat, pointing out the late scheduling of the event did not help the Scots.
“I’m quite excited about where we are going with the current crop of players,” he said of a side which included four debutants and five teenagers.
“I’m not trying to make excuses but this event comes at a time of the year when players are starting to feel tired and golfed out and while we have got a lot of exciting young players, we are struggling at the moment when it comes to the depth.”
The Women’s Home Internationals are staged about a month after the men’s version, at a time when many of the best Scottish players have restarted college in America.
“Rachael Walker, Lesley Atkins, Rachael Watton and Gemma Dryburgh, four key players who would possibly have been in this side, are in the States,” added Craggs.
“Perhaps if this event was played at a different time of the year and they were available it would be a different story.
“I think we are suffering more than the other countries in that respect.”
The coach was still impressed by the performance of his young and inexperienced team and thought it augured well for the future.
“In the first foursomes against Ireland, our pairing went out in 30 so there was some quality golf played there and the England match could have gone either way.
“I don’t think we need to go away and go back to basics as I think we are doing a lot of things right at the moment.
“I think there are areas we still need to see improvement but whilst the result here wasn’t what we were looking for, I’m still going to go away believing a lot of good things are going on.
“If you look at our players from a ball-striking point of view, physically and perhaps even tactically, they are as good as anyone.
“We will analyse what has happened this week and where we need to improve.
“But providing these girls retain a desire and enthusiasm, I am confident we will be back contending for the title before too long.
“It’s fine margins in this game.”
Wales, with Chloe Williams completing a perfect record of six wins from six, swept the morning foursomes and although Eilidh Briggs, Scotland’s top performer of the week, took golden girl Amy Boulden to the final green, she lost one down.
Munro, 17, was one down at the turn but won the 10th and 12th to take control and closed out the match with birdies on the 15th and long 16th.
Scottish champion Alyson McKechin and another debutant, Hannah McCook, also rallied from behind to gain half points but Wales had plenty in hand.
Results: Scotland 2 Wales 7. Foursomes: A McKechin and E Briggs lost to S Birks and K O’Connor 3 and 2; M Briggs and G Macdonald lost to C Williams and K Bradbury 2 and 1; H McCook and C Jaffrey lost to A Boulden and B Harries 6 and 5.
Singles: E Briggs lost to A Boulden 1 hole; L Whyte lost to C Williams 4 and 3; A McKechin halved with K Bradbury; H Munro bt S Birks 3 and 2; C Jaffrey lost to K O’Connor 1 hole; H McCook halved with B Harries.
England 4 Ireland 5. Foursomes: G Hall and L Taylor bt O Mehaffey and P Grant 3 and 1; S-J Boyd and R Goodall halved with Li Maguire and Le Maguire; A Dimmock and A Peters lost to M Dunne and E O’Driscoll 4 and 3.
Singles: L Taylor lost to Le Maguire 3 and 2; G Hall bt O Mehaffey 7 and 6; G Cowley bt M Doyle 1 hole; A Peters lost to A Farrell 1 hole; R Goodall lost to P Grant 2 and 1; DS-J Boyd halved with Li Maguire.
Final table: Wales 3pts, Ireland 1, England 1, Scotland .