IT HAS been quite a year for Carly Booth. As a 15-year-old at St Andrews in June, she became the youngest-ever Great Britain and Ireland Curtis Cup player. She then added to her impressive golfing CV in September by competing in the Junior Ryder Cup in America.
Now, aged 16, she has continued her pioneering ways by becoming the first girl to be awarded a golf scholarship at the prestigious Glenalmond College in Perthshire.
Following spells at school in Florida and Arizona, the girl who first hit the glob
al golfing headlines when she became Comrie Club Champion at the age of 11 is delighted to be back home as a day girl at the school recently featured in the BBC2 documentary series, Pride and Privilege.
And while it might need an extra nudge to get out on to the practice range during a Scottish winter, Booth demonstrated that her game remains in fine fettle. In Abu Dhabi in November, she became only the third girl to successfully defend the Daily Telegraph Junior Golf Tournament.
"It was my first trip to Abu Dhabi, and it was a really good week," said Booth, who won by an emphatic half dozen shots from England's Alex Peters. "Last year, the event was in Dubai so it was great to retain the trophy."
While a professional career surely beckons in the future, life for this glamorous and thoroughly modern miss is, as yet, not totally ruled by golf.
She enrolled at Glenalmond in September, and has a busy academic timetable. "I've settled in very well, everything to do with school is really good and I'll be here for two years," she said. "I'm in the lower sixth and studying for four A levels – English, business, physical education and art.
"I also get plenty opportunities to play golf, either at the school's course, Gleneagles or at our own course at my home in Comrie."
Perhaps not surprisingly, a teenager who is comfortable travelling around the globe admits that a Scottish home life does have certain drawbacks.
"The weather certainly isn't as nice as the States," admitted the youngster who has just spent Christmas and New Year in Arizona and finished in the top 20 at the prestigious Silver Belle tournament.
The only serious girl golfer at Glenalmond, Booth can enlist a few boys as playing partners, and she is very happy that she can compete on equal terms. "There are five really good players, although none of them have golf as their first sport."
At home, there is plenty of sporting banter. Booth's father, Wally, competed for Scotland in weightlifting at the 1966 Commonwealth Games, and older brother, Wallace, recently helped Scotland win the World Amateur Team Championship in Australia. And while Booth was holding on to her trophy in Abu Dhabi, her other brother, Paul, a Downs Syndrome youngster, was retaining the British Under-23 power-lifting title for those with special needs.
Next summer, Booth might even have to take a momentary step back into Booth family sporting shadows as Wallace hopes to play in the 2009 Walker Cup and Paul expects to be representing Tayside at the Special Olympics in Leicester.
As for Glenalmond, the school is delighted to have such a perky personality and talented individual as the school's first beneficiary of the new and innovative golfing award.
The scholarship is funded by the Old Glenalmond Golfing Society and was launched as part of their 75th anniversary celebrations. Golf has been played at 160-year-old Glenalmond for over a century and the OGGS President, Gordon Thorburn, commented: "We are delighted that Carly is the first recipient of our scholarship.
"We believe scholarships like these are important to the future success of young people with particular talents. It can help them access an education and facilities that perhaps would not otherwise have been available to them.
"We have received encouraging support from OGGS members in our fundraising for the scholarship and I hope many future generations will benefit from it."
While a tournament playing career has been Booth's presumed destiny for many years, she is certainly in no rush to embark down such a pressurised route. At the moment, she just wants to be – well, at least for some of the time – the same as any other teenager.
"I'm really grateful to have been given the scholarship," she concluded. "I'll have two years here before I even think about turning professional. "At the moment, I just want to enjoy my time at school and on the golf course."
The full article contains 768 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
