England's Kelly Tidy wins British championship
25th June 2010

Kelly Tidy (Photo Leaderboard & EWGA)

England's Kelly Tidy won the 2010 ladies' British open amateur championship when she defeated Scotland's Kelsey MacDonald 2/1 in the final at Ganton, Yorkshire.

Kelly, 18, is the first English player to hold this title since Yorkshire's Rebecca Hudson in 2002.

Her success means she is exempt from pre-qualifying for the Ricoh Women's British Open and will tee up with the world's best over her home course at Royal Birkdale at the end of July.

Kelly is also the latest in an illustrious line of Lancashire golfers who have won this championship. She follows Kim Rostron, Janet Melville - then Janet Collingham - and Ann Irvin, who is now president of the English Women's Golf Association.

Ann commented: "I have watched Kelly grow up and this win is absolutely wonderful. We are very proud of Kelly in Lancashire."  

Kelly, who has come through EWGA's lottery-funded training programme, took her place in the final after she beat Canada's Rebecca Lee-Bentham 5/3 with a sub-par performance.

In the other semi final Kelsey MacDonald, the 19-year-old Scottish champion, fought  back from three down to beat Meghan Stasi (USA) on the first extra hole.

In the final, the Scot took the early advantage when she won the first and fourth. All the other holes on the outward nine were halved and Kelly had to wait until the 10th to win her first hole.

Kelsey won the 11th to return to two up, but Kelly won four of the next five holes to reverse the scoreline and a half on the short  17th brought her victory.

"I was one or two down for most of the way," said Kelly. "But I kept telling myself that this is the kind of matchplay course where games can swing first one way, then the other."  

Kelly is an England international who has twice been the runner-up in the British girls' championship. She has represented Europe in both the junior Ryder and Solheim Cup matches.