Crushing victory for Locke

Former Open champion Paul Lawrie heaped praise on Sam Locke after the north-east player achieved a storming success in the Scottish Men’s Amateur Championship at Prestwick.

The 18-year-old produced a hugely impressive display to emphatically defeat Anglo-Scot Ryan Lumsden (Royal Wimbledon) 9 and 8 in Saturday’s 36-hole final.

It was the biggest margin of victory in the matchplay final since Colin Montgomerie won at Nairn 30 years ago.

For Stonehaven-based Locke, a member of the Paul Lawrie Foundation since he was aged 14 and a former Scotland Boys’ internationalist, it was his biggest success to date.

Lawrie watched the amateur dramatics unfold from afar, given he has been competing in the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational in Akron, Ohio.

But the Ryder Cup winner still found time to offer words of praise for Locke and said: “We’re so proud of Sam’s golf, but also of him. He is a lovely lad who works very hard at his game and is developing very well. Huge congratulations to Sam – he deserves it.”

In a remarkable morning’s golf at Prestwick, Locke was 10 up at lunch after playing the opening 18 holes in four under par as an off-colour Lumsden, who played for Scotland in the European Amateur Team Championship last month, struggled to seven over.

Despite an early riposte in the afternoon from Lumsden, there was no way back as Locke eased to victory with back-to-back birdies at the 24th and 25th.

Locke, meantime, is looking forward to making his men’s Home Internationals debut at Moortown from August 16-18 after gaining automatic selection to the team following his win at Prestwick.

The selectors opted for experience with Matthew Clark (Kilmacolm) making up the 11-man line-up as playing captain.

Sam Locke: praised by Paul Lawrie.