Golf

KAMILLA Lawton has no qualms about stepping into the traditional man's world of the professional club golfer.

The 23-year-old Cheshire County representative will forfeit her amateur status when she signs up as a trainee assistant at Prestbury in the spring, becoming one of only 22 women professionals out of the 1,000-plus members of the PGA North Region.

But the decision doesn't faze her in the slightest. "I hope to make a living out of playing but failing that I will have no problems settling into a club job," said Kamilla whose budding England career was cut short six years ago when she suffered spinal injuries in a car accident outside her Macclesfield home.

She had just got back into full swing and returned to the Cheshire fold when she sprained her shoulder playing from a bunker which put her out of action again for several weeks.

That was in 2000, but in the same year she recovered sufficiently to win the JJB Sports Women's Championship when she beat Flixton's Vivienne Holgate in the final at Marriott Worsley Park.

Kamilla, a junior at Macclesfield and Tytherington before joining Prestbury, had hoped that victory would have resurrected her international career, sparked by twice winning the Northern Girls' Championship aged 15 and 17, but it was not to be.

She continued to turn out for Cheshire and played in the Northern Women's Championship at Seascale last June and was also a member of the side beaten in the English Finals the previous season, but a phone call from Prestbury professional Nick Summerfield ended "four years of doing nothing".

"Andy Corrigan, his assistant, was leaving and Nick asked me if I'd like his job. I jumped at the offer because it was something I always wanted to do but had never been given the chance," she said.

Kamilla's last handicap was three, one better than required to become a professional, and she is already getting the feel for the business by helping in the Prestbury shop.

"I'd been doing mostly bar work in Macclesfield up to then," she said.

"It will take three years to qualify but I will be so busy training I don't think I will have as much time to play although I should be able to compete in regional and county events," added Kamilla who will go under the PGA tutelage with Summerfield, who used to be her coach.

"I thought the members would be a bit funny but they've been awesome."

"One day I hope to join the women's tour but I know I will have to improve my game by a big standard.

"I suppose following in Joanne Morley's footsteps is a bit ambitious at the moment but I will give it my best shot," added Kamilla who, as a teenager spent a week training with Nick Faldo at his Florida academy, a reward for finishing top girl in his junior series.

Following a few days dry weather, the Macclesfield course was in fine condition for the weekend's Winter League round four.

The course is shortened during the winter months, but this must not distract from a superb round by Nigel Naden, playing off a handicap of four.

His gross score of 63, included one eagle, seven birdies and two bogeys, including four successive birdies on holes 14 to 17. He says that it is pure coincidence that this score follows his recent promotion to greens chairman!

However, as all golfers know, tournaments are run on handicap, and this amazing round was not enough to beat Peter Butler with a gross 71 off a 17 handicap and Ron Hardy with a gross 76 off a 19 handicap.