Sally Watson

Published in The Scotsman 12 December 2014

Sally Watson showed nerves of steel to keep the European Ladies Tour Rookie of the Year race alive as Shanshan Feng opened up a healthy lead at the halfway stage in the Omega Dubai Ladies Masters.

Facing an early exit after undoing her good early work – three birdies in the first six holes after not managing any in an opening 76 – Watson knocked in an eight-foot birdie putt at the last hole in the second round on the Majlis Course at Emirates Golf Club.

The resultant 70 took Watson through to the final two rounds by the skin of her teeth on two-over-par, but she’s there and, what’s more, a six-shot overnight deficit between her and rookie title rival Amy Boulden is now down to just two.
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Practice makes Progress

May 17, 2014December 24, 2015Sally Watson

It is crazy how fast time flies!! I am just getting the chance to sit down and write about my last two tournaments in Switzerland and Turkey and I only have one more day at home before leaving for my next event.
Anyway…Switzerland (my first LETaccess event of the year) was great fun. It came after 6 weeks of hard work both on the range and in the gym and therefore it was nice to get back competing and see what progress I had made. I managed to find myself in a playoff for the win-so it was nice to feel like my hard work is paying off. Unfortunately, I lost in the playoff but it was a great experience nonetheless and I am just so excited to feel like I am getting better all of the time. My dad was kind enough to come and caddy for me for the two weeks, which I am always grateful for-especially when the weather is tough (i.e rain, wind… which seemed to be the theme for the two weeks.)
Turkey was my third LET event of the year, and I continued my trend up the leader board, finishing 22nd (after finishing 42nd in New Zealand and 33rd in Morocco). My coach from Scotland, Ian Muir, came out to watch (and get some sun-which was short-lived since it rained day 1 and day 2 was cancelled due to rain, reducing the event to just 3 rounds). Anyway, I feel like my game is getting better all the time and if I continue to move up 9-10 places every tournament, I’ll be in a good position in 2 tournaments time 😉

Me and my caddy (aka dad) teeing it up in Switzerland

Beautiful Switzerland-if only the clouds would disappear... — Beautiful Switzerland-if only the clouds would disappear…

Teeing it up in my 3rd LET event of the year — Teeing it up in my 3rd LET event of the yea

Weather forecast for Round 2 in Turkey-back to bed day!

Morocco: Take 2 (Coupe Lalla Meryem 2014)

March 19, 2014December 24, 2015Sally Watson

For those of you who have read my blog “Tales from Tour School” you will know that my first experience in Morocco last December was filled with all sorts of adventures (to put it mildly!). This time around, adventures were still to be found (what would life by like without them..eh?) but not in quite the same multitude – and instead of crazy driving (we had police escorted shuttles, so no rental car required), stomach bugs and getting stuck in elevators, Morocco 2014 was characterized by great food and as always, great people.

The great food began in the morning with the delicious breakfast buffet, carried on at lunch with another delightful buffet with a desert table the length of one whole wall – which I was very unfortunately unable to take advantage of since I decided to give up deserts for Lent (perfect timing right?!) My dad, however, (caddy for the week) had no problem indulging himself (everyday) in everything from tiramisu, apple tart, chocolate mousse and creme brûlée, normally all at the same time and right in front of my face- thanks dad!

1911940_10152324842190159_700418336_n The great food didn’t stop there though, dinner was the best part. We were so lucky that our hotel was situated right next to Le Mauresque-an authentic Moroccan, and absolutely delicious, restaurant! I became obsessed with chicken and couscous with caramelized onions, raisins and almonds as well lamb tajine with prunes and almonds (so yummy!). I am one of those people that, unfortunately for those traveling with me, once I find something I like, I become obsessed, and so we pretty much ate there every night, except for Saturday night, on which there was a gala dinner attended by none other than the Royal Highness Prince Moulay Rachid! It was a pretty incredible experience to attend a dinner presided by royalty-not exactly your everyday dinner party and truly a once in a lifetime opportunity! I must say, I could get used to the royal lifestyle if they eat anything like we did at the gala-plate after plate (or should I say HUGE plate, after HUGE plate) of deliciously prepared food, from lamb to fish to chicken, kept getting brought to our table. And then desert arrived-probably enough small pastries for everyone in the field, and there was only 9 of us at the table!!

As well as enjoying the delicious food Morocco has to offer, I also had the pleasure of spending the week with my dad who was on the bag for the tournament. It is always nice to have some daddy-daughter time and he does a great job of putting up with me on the golf course! My friend from high school, Mia Piccio, (the one responsible for my sky diving excursion and consequently my mum’s new best friend…jk) who is also a rookie on the LET this year was playing in the event, so it was good fun to catch up with her again and enjoy my Moroccan experience with her. Hopefully, I’ll see Mia again at my next event, although given her travel agent likes to allow her an airport connecting time of 8 hours, I’m not sure we will be traveling together any time soon.

Oh….and the golf was quite good too! I finished T33 in my 2nd LET event.

Adventures Down Under

February 12, 2014December 24, 2015Sally Watson

Well I have finally recovered from the 13hour time difference which comes with traveling half way across the world from New Zealand to Scotland and can now reflect on what was an incredible 3 weeks down under. I began my trip with 10 days in Australia which culminated in competing in my first event of the season-the New South Wales Open (part of the Australian Ladies Professional Golf Tour) which I managed to earn a Top-15 finish in despite having taken a few weeks off for Christmas and New Year (and to recover from the stresses of tour school!) I was very fortunate to be staying with a fantastic host family who spoiled me and made my first trip to Australia very memorable. They showed me around Sydney where we visited all of the tourist ‘hot spots’ such as the Sydney Opera House, Harbour Bridge, Bondi Beach and the 2000 Summer Olympics park. (See pics below). I also managed to go to the Sydney Zoo one afternoon which was great fun-so many fascinating animals which we definitely do NOT see in Scotland (not even in the zoo!) I also managed to meet up with one of my high school friends, from IMG, Florida (all thanks to good ole Facebook!) who now plays golf at the University of Sydney -what a small world! He was kind enough to organize for us to play at New South Wales Golf Club (one of the top 100 courses in the world). It was great to catch up-didn’t feel like 4.5 years since we last saw each other-how time flies! All in all, I simply met some great people and like anywhere you travel to in the world-it is the people that make an experience all that it is, so a huge thank you to everyone for making my time in Australia truly incredible.

After Australia, I headed to New Zealand for my first LET event of the season and was very excited for all that awaited me. Being my first LET event of the year, my primary goal was to learn as much as possible so that I can prepare myself as best as I possibly can for the rest of the season and I was very lucky that it was a great learning experience. I found myself leading the tournament half way through the 2nd round, camera men following me, crowds of people growing-all new and great learning experiences. Unfortunately, I had a couple of costly mental mistakes in the final round but considering my main goal was to learn, I would say mission accomplished! Again, in New Zealand I was very fortunate to stay with a great host family-simply fun, loving people. My friend from high school who is also a rookie on the season (Mia Piccio) ended up also staying with the host family with me which just added to the fun factor of the week. To top off a truly great week, Mia and I decided to go skydiving! I didn’t know what to expect-jumping out of a plane and all… but I absolutely loved it. The pure sense of awe and amazement and adrenaline which I experienced was incredible. (See pic below-I also posted a video clip to my Fb page if you are interested in watching my skydive!)

All in all, I had a great time, met great people and learned a lot about my golf game. Now it is time to work hard and get ready for all that this season is sure to provide.

Great View at Bondi Beach ;) — Great View at Bondi Beach 😉

Me at New South Wales GC — New South Wales Golf Club

Wallaby mama and baby :) — Wallaby mama and baby 🙂

I think the Giraffe has the best view in town!

The smiles say it all-AMAZING experience!

SHE may already have played in three majors but Sally Watson is having to start at the bottom rung of the ladder in her bid to secure a foothold in the women’s professional game.

The two-times Curtis Cup member is among seven Scots setting out in Morocco tomorrow in the final two pre-qualifiers for next week’s Ladies European Tour Qualifying School.

Watson’s presence in Rabat is something of a surprise on its own, given the 22-year-old from Elie seemed destined to follow in the footsteps of Janie Moodie and Mahiri McKay by cutting her professional teeth in the US.
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Four days after securing my Ladies European Tour card for 2014 and I am still living in a euphoric state as the opportunity of realizing my dream of becoming one of the top female professional golfers in the world lies ahead.

LET Tour School itself was played in Morocco and as with most things in life the experience was not all plain sailing. My dad was kind enough to accompany me on the trip and therefore share in all of the ups and downs that the trip provided. (I also have to just quickly say how without his support-both as a caddy and as a father- I would not have been able to compete at the high level that I did (finishing 5th in the Pre-Qualifier and then going on to finish T-2nd at the Final Qualifier with final rounds of 69 and 68. So THANK YOU dad-you and mum are the best parents a kid could ever ask for!).

Back to Morocco and the tales of Tour School. It did not take long before the first disaster struck. My dad and I had decided to hire a car (which if anyone is ever traveling to Morocco is something I would recommend you think very carefully about before signing the car rental papers!) Before leaving Scotland my dad had researched driving in Morocco and came across a LegalNomads article titled “Decoding the Insanity of Driving in Morocco” in which Jodi (the author) describes how Morocco is “a country in which conventional road rules are vaguely optional”, “honking is as ubiquitous as seeing a donkey on the side of the road” and can mean anything from “I am going to pass you” or more often “I am in the course of passing you,” to “I suspect the light is about to go green and you haven’t already been revving your engine in preparation, ergo you are going to waste my time with 2 seconds of slow driving and ought to move your ass into gear.” (This my dad and I found to be one of the most common uses of the horn, which basically meant the roads were never amiss somebody honking at somebody else.)

The article also has an important note on Lane Division Lines, basically that they are not to be paid any attention to as “staying in your own lane in Morocco” (or the correct side of the road for that matter) “is a concept not remotely entertained in Morocco” (something my dad would have been wise to have taken to heart before we arrived rather than after a few days of experience).

Anyway, my dad was either brave enough to go ahead with renting a car after reading this article or mistakenly skeptical that the article had over-exaggerated the chaos which is driving in Morocco and so off we went from the airport in our little rental ready to take on the roads of Morocco. My dad, always very prepared had downloaded TomTom’s maps of Morocco, thinking that, as most people do these days, with Satellite Navigation getting lost is a thing of the past-boy were we wrong!! In our attempts to find our hotel for the first week in Rabat, we somehow managed to literally drive through a Moroccan street market in the middle of one of Morocco’s more heavily populated neighbourhoods (to put it mildly)-roads which are barely big enough for a car before vendors begin setting up their stalls and then seemingly thousands of people swarm the streets to buy tomorrow’s vegetables or some new discounted Gillette deodorant! Driving through the market-obviously completely lost, despite having put into TomTom the address of our hotel found on the hotel’s own website-would have been bad enough without TomTom suddenly deciding to shut down. As I am sure you can imagine, this all resulted in a significant increase in the blood level of my now swearing like a sailor driver/father. Finally we managed to get ourselves out of the market area and onto a somewhat more main road, found a gas station, regrouped and only about an hour after scheduled arrival time, find our hotel. Not exactly the ideal start to 2 of the most important weeks of my life thus far!

Week 1 -the Pre-Qualifier- continued to present itself with challenges including my dad getting stuck in an elevator-with the car keys in which were my clubs-before the third round and me catching a stomach virus sometime after the first round which lasted until the final round meaning I consumed all of about 500 calories for 3 days of tournament golf, most of which came out of me, one end or another! All I can say is that, ‘boy we were glad to have simply survived the week let alone qualify for the final qualifier!’

Week 2-the Final Qualifier- was pretty much smooth sailing (although compared to the first week most things would have seemed so). As far as the golf went, I didn’t get off the the best start, being 3-over through my first 7 holes of the tournament (and by the sounds of it, giving most of my family and friends back home a rather stressful Saturday morning watching their computers) although I managed to stay patient-knowing I had 83 more holes of golf definitely made this easier-and finished only 1-over for the first round. I had made a decision before the tournament started to not look at any scoreboards and just focus on doing the best that I could and let the chips fall where they may, so I was unaware of where my 73 placed me in the field but I think it was around the 30-40 mark which is roughly where I stayed over the first three rounds, shooting 71 and 74 in my second and third rounds. I made a wee tweek to my swing on the range after the third round which allowed me to hit almost every green in the 4th round and helped me shoot 69, despite bogeying the last two holes. I was definitely rather disappointed with this finish but learned some valuable lessons which better prepared me for the pressure of the final round. Unfortunately, (especially for the stress levels of my dad and those following the live scoring at home) I bogeyed the first hole of the final round, with a great up and down. However, rather than rattling me, this calmed me down a little and I told my dad that some of my best rounds have started with a bogey-and this time was no different as I went on to shoot 69, putting me in T-2nd place, safely securing my tour card.

I am already looking forward to next year and all of the opportunities which lie ahead and feel very fortunate to have such an incredible support team-family, friends and coaches- behind me. I only hope I don’t have to rent too many cars in 2014! Happy Christmas everyone!