It’s hard to think that Carly Booth is still just 27 years of age. She seems to have been on the go for so long, you half expect footage of her golfing exploits to be housed in the fusty archive section of the British Pathe newsreels.
From Britain’s youngest club champion at 11 to a double Ladies European Tour winner less than a decade later, Booth has grown up in the spotlight.
It’s not an easy place to exist, of course. Publicity, pressure, praise, put-downs? It’s par for the course in this fickle old game of complex demands and hefty burdens.
Here at the Aberdeen Standard Investments Ladies Scottish Open, Booth will be hoping to roll back the years. It was in this event in 2012, after all, that she notched her first tour win.
A month or so later Booth won a second title in Switzerland. Just as her career was gathering momentum, it all came shuddering to a standstill. Booth made just three cuts the following year and only four in 2014.
🏆 GOOD VIBES ONLY 🏆 @CarlyBooth92 maiden win on the LET at the 2012 @ASInvestmentsUK @LadiesScottish. Great memories 🙌🏻 😆 #ASILSO pic.twitter.com/loi0kRKKNo
— Ladies European Tour (@LETgolf) August 7, 2019
A fourth place finish in Australia earlier this season was her best result since she tied for fourth in the Ladies Scottish Open six years ago.
“The thing with this industry is that there are so many different ways to do it and you can maybe say, ‘oh, I should have done this or I could have done that’, but at the time I did what I thought was best,” said the Comrie girl, who has had a trio of top-10s on the circuit this season and credits her new coach, Robert Rock, with an upturn in her fortunes.
“I’d never practised as hard as I did in 2013 and 2014, and they were my worst years. I mean, how does that work? I think a lot of it is just in your head. I think I just got myself into a better place in my mind, changed coach and I just started enjoying golf more.”
In the women’s circles at the moment, much is being made of the toils and troubles of Lydia Ko, the New Zealand sensation who was world No 1 at just 17 and held the female game in a double nelson of dominance.
READ MORE: Rising star Maguire returns to happy hunting ground
Booth never reached those giddy heights, of course, but she can still empathise. “It’s hard,” added Booth. “People forget that we can’t all be at the top of our game every week. There are a lot of things to it and it just gets on top of you.
“I’ve seen so many amazing amateur players go through that whole age from 12 to 17, and then either they go to college, or they just stop playing. Even though there are thousands and thousands of pros out there who have made made it, there are still thousands and thousands who had the potential, the drive and the talent to make it but didn’t.
“That’s sport for you. People don’t know what goes on in their personal lives either. That can really affect you on the golf course. I know that from experience. If you’re not in a happy place off the course, how do you expect to be in a happy place on it?”
Booth is in a much happier place these days. The former Curtis Cup player is one of seven Scots in a world class field – it’s free for spectators to get in by the way – and she’s feeling quite chipper.
“Funnily enough, the year I won was the last time I had a sponsor’s invitation to this event so maybe it will happen again this year,” said Booth who has received another invitation this week.
Despite the ups, downs, twists and turns of a sporting life, Booth still wouldn’t trade it in.
“If I’ve had a bad round I’ve thought ‘why do I do this, why do I put myself through this?’,” she said. “But then two hours later, I’m like, ‘I’d rather have a bad day doing this than do anything else’. All I want to do is play golf.”
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