Student wins with fabulous birdie putt at final hole
A KINTYRE teenager walked off with Machrihanish golf club’s biggest title in front of his caddying dad, David.
Andrew Wallace, 19, scored a superb maiden open victory after going six shots ahead in the final round with eight holes remaining.
A club spokesperson said: ‘Machrihanish golf course can be a tough old track, especially when the wind blows, and round three conditions, last Saturday, were as tough as they come with high winds and heavy squalls of rain.
‘The greens were running true but with the wind and rain, scoring was predictably high in round three with only seven of the 23 starters breaking 80.’
Greg Watson, whose father Duncan Watson III is a past champion, started the day in third place, just a shot behind round two leaders, young Wallace and the slightly older Alan O’Neill.
Watson shot the round of the day with a truly tremendous level par 70 to thrust himself into a two-shot lead over Wallace going into the final round.
Four birdies
A two-over-par 37 on the way out was a steady start but Watson put the foot down on the way in, coming back in two-under-par 33, including birdies at the 12th, 13th, 15th and 18th.
Wallace had an excellent three-over-par 73, the second best round of the day after Watson’s sensational effort. Having reached the turn at three over par, Wallace fired back to back birdies at 12 and 13 to haul himself back into contention and back into Watson’s slipstream for the final round.
Moving into third place was George MacMillan, six times champion and a man who is never far away from the big prizes.
George shot a good five-over-par 75 to leave him six adrift of Watson going in to the final round.
He suffered from another tough start to the round, dropping four shots in the first holes. But having got to the turn in 40, he had nine solid pars on the way in for an excellent 75 and just about maintained his chances of taking another title on the Sunday.
Only one other man could claim to have any chance of lifting the title in the last round, Alan O’Neill.
O’Neill injured his leg during the week and was clearly struggling to get round the course, never mind play golf in such difficult conditions.
However, his third round 78 kept him in touch with the leaders just seven behind Watson going in to the last day.
The leaderboard going in to round four was: 1 Greg Watson 215, 2 Andrew Wallace 217, 3 George MacMillan 221 and 4 Alan O’Neill 222.