Grace Crawford: it’s a name that evokes the golden age of cinema, but the golfer herself is very much of her time – and very far from being starry-eyed.
The 15-year-old hails from North Berwick, the Scottish golfing hotbed that produced Catriona Matthew, and she shares her compatriot’s straightforward nature when faced by the often-fretful business of emerging triumphant over course, weather conditions and a field of hungry rivals.
In mid-April, Crawford started the final round of the Helen Holm Scottish Open Championship in a blustery wind and tied for the lead with Sweden’s Ellinor Südow, whereupon she birdied four of Royal Troon’s first five holes to open up a significant gap at the top of the leaderboard.
Such a start would have prompted a little light-headedness in many golfers. The especially dizzy might have been quickly distracted by thoughts of re-creating the sensational performances of Henrik Stenson and Phil Mickelson in their epic duel for the Claret Jug at the 2016 Open.
Given her youth, Crawford would have been forgiven for falling into line with convention, of rapidly getting ahead of herself, and just as quickly suffering from leaderboard vertigo.
Instead, she did the exact opposite.
“I was ready for mistakes,” she told Global Golf Post last week. “I knew I’d made the ideal start, but I also know that no round of golf is flawless. I was set for it and kept my golf simple.”
“I’m definitely very grateful to have so many great role models, especially Catriona. Being around her is very inspiring. It makes success in the game seem very real and possible.”
Grace Crawford
The suspicious might grumble that she talked herself into missing the next four greens; the realistic might appreciate that she was prepared for the test, which was why she scratched four vital pars on the scorecard. “I had to keep grinding,” she said.
Crawford reached the turn in 32 blows to be three clear of the field and then completed the back nine in level-par for a 4-under-par 68, a total for the week of 4-under 212, and a four-shot victory over England’s Thalia Kirby – making her the youngest winner of the Helen Holm and the first Scottish winner in 20 years. On Sunday, she added further success in the R&A's Girls' Under-16 Amateur Championship at Enville Golf Club.
Her mature approach, it transpires, is an alliance of that North Berwick breeding and more recent coaching in the Bahamas at the Albany Golf Academy (attached to the host venue of the Hero World Challenge).
“I’ve always been aware that golf isn’t perfect,” she said. “And I’m definitely very grateful to have so many great role models, especially Catriona. Being around her is very inspiring. It makes success in the game seem very real and possible.
“Then my first six months at Albany has really helped improve my on-course strategy and management. Thanks to my coach Jon Hearn I’m thinking about the game in a very different way now.
“I’ve changed so many aspects of my technique. I’ve gained distance, and my mental game has come on. I’m not sure I could have achieved, or even contemplated, this victory before I went there late last year.”
She has access to the practice facilities used by Albany’s co-owners, Tiger Woods and Ernie Els, and is schooled alongside fellow pupils from across the globe. It’s a thrilling ride, and being part of a big wave of young Scottish talent is no less exciting.
Robert MacIntyre, Calum Hill, Grant Forrest and Ewen Ferguson have tasted victory on the DP World Tour in the last two years. Hannah Darling and Louise Duncan are collecting wins in the women’s amateur game, the latter even briefly threatened something very special when heading into the final round of last year’s AIG Women’s Open in a share for fourth before finishing 10th at Carnoustie.
“There’s a lot of names popping up, and it’s very exciting to be a part of,” Crawford said. “I actually went up to Carnoustie to watch Louise in the last round. It was unreal, just brilliant to see her playing to that standard, on that stage, against the best of the best. There’s nothing in the way for me to achieve that. That’s the goal. It just takes a lot of hard work and commitment.”
She’s equally inspired by her newly acquired trophy. “There are so many great names on it,” Crawford said. “Catriona, Leona Maguire, Mel Reid, Pia Babnik. It’s amazing to be part of something that big, and it gives me such a confidence boost. I’ve done something they’ve done. Why not follow their career paths, too?”
Crawford heads back to Albany soon before returning home in mid-June for a summer of competitions. A stroll around her hometown is always a fun one, with just about every street adorned with a blue plaque to commemorate golfers who ventured out into the world to win trophies or grow the game. Maybe one day another will be unveiled in North Berwick with her name on it.
“You never know,” she said with a chuckle. “That would be lovely. There’s a lot of hard work needed to make it happen, though.”
Top: Grace Crawford during the first round of the Helen Holm Scottish Open Championship
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