Rachael Watton moved up a gear in 2010. She made the tricky transition from a top-class girl golfer into a senior internationalist and helped Scotland end a 19-year drought with victory in the Home Internationals. 

Now she’s ready to make the next step towards her dream of becoming a successful professional. 

After a summer that she hopes will be packed with highlights on the amateur circuit, the Edinburgh-based 18-year-old will be heading for Colorado and a golf scholarship at the prestigious Denver University in September.  After a trip to the campus, she can hardly wait to enrol in September. 

“I started a degree in sports engineering at Strathclyde University last year,” explained the Mortonhall member. “But I dropped out because I couldn’t really keep playing golf and live in Glasgow.  

“Louise Kenney (a fellow Scottish internationalist) knew the Denver coach, Sammie Chergo, and she pointed me in that direction. I also contacted a few other US universities, but Denver fitted the bill. It has had loads of success on the golf circuit and it is also highly rated academically. 

“I had a trip out there last month, and it was everything and more than I expected. It’s a beautiful part of the world and there are lots of great courses. The whole set up was absolutely awesome and now I can’t wait to get out there.”  

“Denver is in division one on the college circuit and so we will be playing all the top players. I should meet up with Sally Watson (Scotland’s two-time Curtis Cup player) when she is playing for Stanford.” 

Introduced to the game by her dad and granddad, Rachel was initially helped by the Midlothian junior programme and became a member of Baberton Golf Club when she was just 11 years old, gaining a first handicap of 31.   

Since then, she has moved to Mortonhall, made spectacular progress and is now recognised as one of Scotland’s budding young talents. A member of the Scottish Ladies’ Golfing Association’s Performance B squad, she benefits from the regular training sessions with national coach, Kevin Craggs. 

“We had an SLGA trip to Spain for winter training and I also practised a lot at Mortonhall,” she said. “The club has also been great because I’ve been working there to earn some money during my year out. 

“Last season was really my first on the women’s scene and it was fantastic to be selected for the Home Internationals and help the team win in Whitechurch. It was the real high point of the year and was just such an amazing week.” 

This summer, she hopes to keep moving onwards and upwards. “Unfortunately, I won’t be available for the Home Internationals because I’ll have to be out in Denver for fresher’s week by then,” she said. “But I should be fine for next year. 

“I will have four years in Denver and then, hopefully, I will be set to turn professional. I won’t turn pro until I feel I am really ready and I think the US college circuit will provide the perfect benchmark to judge my progress  

Last month, Rachael was given a taste of the standard required to make golf a career when she took part in an Exhibition Match at Mortonhall to mark the tenth anniversary of the club’s Ladies’ Section.  

Playing with fellow-member Greg Nicholson, they came off second best to professionals Lynn Kenny and David Patrick. Lynn, who plays on the Ladies’ European Tour, was the star of the show with six birdies. 

“It was a great day and we raised a lot of money for Breakthrough Breast Cancer, which made it even extra special,” said Rachael.  “Lynn played some fantastic golf and it was great to play alongside her.”

EB

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