Kelsey MacDonald. Trust Golf

By Matt Smith
With the Trust Golf Women’s Scottish Open fast approaching, the home guard has been unveiled as a quartet of players will be aiming to keep the trophy in the ‘Home of Golf’ — Scotland.

Ahead of the prestigious tournament at Dundonald Links, July 28-31, home hopes Gemma Dryburgh, Kelsey MacDonald, Michele Thomson, and Kylie Henry have confirmed their participation on one of Scotland’s leading links courses on the breezy west coast.

The Scottish quartet will join an all-star cast which consists of eight out of the world’s top 10 players as well as 19 major winners with 36 major trophies between them including the first three major champions of the year — Jennifer Kupcho, Minjee Lee and In Gee Chun.

Aberdonian Gemma Dryburgh is enjoying a fine run of form this season after finishing fifth at the LPGA Match Play and winning the US Women’s Open qualifier to make her debut in the second major of the year.

“Every year I look forward to playing in the Women’s Scottish Open, this will be my sixth appearance in the event and last year I was lucky enough to receive an invitation from tournament sponsor VisitScotland so I’m really happy to have qualified myself this year,” she said. “I am especially excited to experience all that the newly transformed Dundonald Links has to offer. It’s been a great start to the year and I’m very happy with how my game has been recently, so I just want to keep building on my last few performances and hopefully be in the running come Sunday afternoon”.

MacDonald, a perennial performer at the Women’s Scottish Open, has recorded 12 appearances since her debut in 2008 and made the cut on seven occasions. Last year she finished T-15, her best finish to date, to become the first winner of the Jock MacVicar Leading Scot award. The 2021 season saw MacDonald record two top-10 finishes and four further top-15 finishes to end the year ranked 39th in the Race to Costa Del Sol.

Thomson, who carded an opening round 64 at last year’s Scottish Open to set the course record, will make her fifth appearance at Dundonald Links this summer. With five top-20 finishes this season, Thomson is enjoying a stellar season so far and currently sits at 19th in the LET Order of Merit.

Glasgow native Kylie thought she might have to give up competitive golf last year after sustaining an elbow fracture, but after just her third start since the injury, she put in a fantastic performance at the Aramco Team Series in Bangkok to secure a third-place finish in the individual competition and sixth place in the team competition.

Tournament title sponsor, Trust Golf, has increased this year’s prize-fund by 33 per cent to $2million. The Thai based technology enterprise took over as title sponsor in 2021.

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