Boys’ Championship golf: Last two seeds still standing meet in boys quarter-final

OF THE four ties teeing off at Murcar Links this morning in the quarter-finals of the Paul Lawrie Foundation Scottish Boys Championship, one sticks out like a sore thumb.

According to one of the protagonists, it’s a tussle that will tickle the fancy among followers of the junior game.

It involves the only two seeds still standing in the event – Blairgowrie’s Bradley Neil and St Andrean Ewan Scott, two players who have made notable raids south of the Border in recent years to win the English Boys’ Under-14s Championship.

Scott, a Madras College pupil, achieved that feat first in 2009, the year Neil also showed his potential by winning the Scottish equivalent. A year later, the Perthshire player did the Scotland-England double.

So far this week, Neil has wasted little time getting the job done. In five matches, he’s only played 67 holes and has still to go beyond the 15th. Two thumping wins yesterday swept him into the last eight, where fellow 16-year-old Scott now awaits.

“I think it’s a match most folk would like to see,” declared Neil, the comment raising a wry smile from Scott as he sat in the same chair shortly afterwards. “I’m certainly looking forward to it,” admitted the Fifer. “We’ve never played competitively, so it will be interesting.”

This week isn’t the last-chance saloon for either player in the season-opening event. Scott has one more crack at the title, Neil has two and is aiming to join Inverallochy’s Steven Young, the champion from 1993-1995, in the record books as the only player to win it three times.

“I know I have another two years left to try, but I’m not going to let this chance pass here and let someone else have the title,” he said. “I came off from a match the other day and said to my dad, ‘I believe I can win this now’.”

Neil, who is in fifth year at Blairgowrie High, changed both his putter and putting grip a year ago, but soon regretted doing so. “I have always loved putting and would often practise for three or four hours when I was younger,” he said. “For no real reason, I changed from a blade to a two-ball and also altered my grip but struggled last year so changed back.” The decision has paid dividends so far this week.

All square with five to play against Paul Reilly from Lochwinnoch, Scott stepped up a gear over the closing holes. He particularly liked the 7-iron he hit to five feet for a birdie at the 16th. “That was the shot I’d been waiting on all day and it was nice to pull it out of the bag when I needed to,” he purred.

The other last-eight tie in the bottom half of the draw involves Alan Waugh, a 17-year-old from Cowglen who finished second in last year’s Glasgow Amateur Championship at Pollok, and Turnhouse teenager Lewis Bain, the 2011 Lothians Boys’ champion. While Waugh was always in control in his win over Williamwood’s George Burns, Bain came from four down after six to beat Craigmillar Park’s Fraser Christie on the last green in an all-Lothians affair. “With so many of the Scottish squad boys being out, anyone can win it now,” predicted Bain. On a blustery and bitterly cold day on the north-east coast, Alva’s Lawrence Allan and Borderer Craig Howie also staged stirring fightbacks to keep their title bids alive. Three down after ten, Allan won five out of the next six holes to beat Cawder’s Jamie Savage. It was a notable scalp for the 17-year-old, who has been working hard on his game with Gregor Monks, the pro at Brucefields outside Stirling. “I now have more control over my shots and can also shape it better,” said Allan, who won the junior title at his Clackmannanshire club at the age of 12.

Allan now plays Connar Cook, a 16-year-old who moved to Forfar last year but has entered out of Caird Park, where he was taught as a nipper by the now retired Jackie Black. Having regained the confidence that was drained from him by some poor performances last year, Cook progressed to the last eight by ousting Kirkcaldy’s Ryan Walsh, conqueror of David Wilson, the defending champion, earlier in the day.

Howie, who won at the 21st against Colville Park’s Dominic Dougan after being two down with four to play, now takes on Buckpool’s Jake Scott, who warmed up on the back nine to recover from being four down after ten against Andrew Burgess from Nairn. “I was always confident I could pull it out of the bag,” smiled Scott after clinching his win with a last-hole birdie.