JUSTIN ROSE was last night celebrating making his first cut as a profesional on the main Volvo European Tour - but he only made it by a whisker at Slaley Hall.

The chances of the Hampshire teenager figuring in the final two days of the Compaq European Grand Prix had looked paper thin after a first round 75 - three over par.

When he bogied the first hole of his second round, Rose looked destined to continue his depressing sequence of missed cuts since turning professional after his fourth place in the Royal Birkdale Open almost a year ago.

But he came fighting back superbly, even after picking up a second bogie at the ninth, and four birdies down the finishing straight brought him home in 69.

It left Rose level par for the tournament and with an anx-ious wait to know whether that would be good enough. It was. The cut came at level par.

But while there was joy for Rose, there was agony for another Hampshire player Steve Richardson, who missed out by one shot after failing to consolidate on a first round 71.

He finished with 74, one better than Gary Emerson's second round score, but he joined another Salisbury player Andy Beal (73 68) in the final two rounds thanks to his 68 on the opening day.

Rose's 1997 Walker Cup team mate David Park led the tournament at 12 under.

Meanwhile Hampshire powered into the Southern Final of the English County Women's Golf Championships at Hadley Wood last night.

Sue Gardiner's county team needed a big winning margin to see off a strong challenge from Berkshire - and a ram-paging 8- victory over Buckinghamshire was just the ticket.

Berkshire edged a 5-4 win over Hertfordshire, but Hampshire topped their South East group with three wins and a half from their four matches this week.

It's the first time the qualifying stages have been held over a week, and Hampshire revelled in the new format. They now meet Surrey in the Southern Zone final at Denham on July 5.

Gardiner's girls will be hoping it will be third time lucky because they have lost in the last two zonal finals. Ominously they must face Surrey without two of their leading players Kerry Smith and Chris Stirling who are on England duty in the European Team Championships.

Hampshire made the best possible start to their final qualifying match against Bucks in the bright Hertfordshire sunshine yesterday, achieving a clean sweep in the morning foursomes.

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