Champion Chris is shot on
Chris Lawton won the Club Strokeplay Championship at Stirling on Saturday by one shot from reigning champion Allan Watson with a winning total of level par 142 with rounds of 73 and 71.
First round leader Liam Haldane scored an excellent two-under par opening round of 70 but faded in the afternoon with a 76 to finish tied third.
Chris had birdies at the 1st, 7th, 13th and 16th holes in the second round and his playing partner Allan pushed him all the way with a grandstand finish of five birdies in the last six holes – an astonishing nine-birdie round – for a three-under par score 69.
Allan had a 15-foot eagle putt at the 18th to win the title but it just shaved the hole.
David Oates was tied third with a two-over par total of 146 with two rounds of 73 and Ben Liddell and Blair Carnegie shared fifth spot on 148.
Four qualifiers - Chris Lawton, Kenny Stewart (150), Alan Dryden (155) and Kenny McLean (156) - are unavailable for the matchplay stages and therefore all the scores of 156 qualified. Kenny McLean took the leading handicap prize with a score of 140 on the better second round.
David Kernohan had a hole in one at the par three 8th hole in the first round and wins a Hugo Boss sponsored watch. The CSS on both rounds was 71.
Saturday is Finals Day with all categories of Championship, Juniors, Ladies, Seniors and Gents. First Round of the championship final tee-off is 9.30am with the second round at 2pm. See noticeboard in foyer for full final listings. Presentation of prizes follows around 5pm. Results: Matchplay Round 1 from Monday, June 15: Allan Watson beat Peter Reilly jnr at the 21st; Brendan Watt beat Steven Duncan 5 and 4; Blair Carnegie w/o Scott Baird; Ben Liddell beat Douglas Todd 4 and 2; Liam Haldane beat Stephen Eggo 6 and 5; Barry McIntyre beat Chris Goode 5 and 3; Kevin Brunton beat Andrew Malcolm 2 up; David Oates beat Chris Forsyth 3 and 1. Last night (Tuesday) the quarter-final ties were: A Watson v B Watt; B Carnegie v B Liddell; L Haldane v B McIntyre; K Brunton v D Oates. Semi-finals are on Thursday and the final on Saturday with 9.30am and 2pm tee times.