Keagan Thomas makes winning debut at Monifieth

Even the Scottish Boys’ Championship isn’t safe from Springbok clutches after Durban-born Keagan Thomas made an impressive winning debut at Monifieth.

Eligible through his Dundee-reared father Steve, who moved to the Rainbow Nation around two decades ago to work in the IT industry, the 16-year-old was never behind in beating Elgin’s Cameron Kerr by 3 and 2 to set up a second-round clash this morning with Conor Toal from Old Ranfurly.

Thomas, a plus-two-handicapper whose wins back home include the South Coast Classic in Natal, is a pupil at Hilton College in Pietermaritzburg, north of Durban, but could be about to turn his back on the country that has produced a handful of major winners in recent years and this season alone has already chalked up six successes on the European Tour.

“Obviously there are many great players coming out of South Africa, but I feel they support players better in Scotland at the stage I’m at,” said Thomas. Safety fears could well be another consideration for his father and German-born mother and, with relatives in the area, a return to Dundee might be on the cards.

While he’s huge a Tiger Woods fan, Thomas also likes watching the smooth-swinging Louis Oosthuizen and has enjoyed the pleasure of meeting Gary Player, the man who set the bar for South African golfers on the world stage, on three separate occasions. “Gary’s grandson, James Throssel, is golf captain of my school team,” he revealed.

Like Player in his prime, Thomas has had little trouble acclimatising to Scottish conditions. While it was 28C in Durban yesterday, it wasn’t much above freezing when he teed off just before 8.30am on the Angus coast. “I had plenty of clothes on and also had handwarmers in my gloves,” he said of coping with the difference in climate.

Unfortunately for debutant Jack Purdie – the 15-year-old from Largs, in fact, was playing in his first national competition – coping with Bradley Neil, the second seed from Blairgowrie, proved impossible. The 17-year-old swept to a 9 and 8 victory, winning every hole apart from the sixth and bagging three birdies – at the fifth, eighth and ninth – in the process.

“I’ve been pretty anxious the last couple of days because I saw [fellow seed] Calum Hill taken to the 19th in his opening match and you don’t want to be the first big name to go out,” said Neil, who also started in whirlwind fashion at Murcar 12 months ago. He only played 67 holes – never being taken beyond the 15th – in reaching the quarter-finals. There, he was four up after five but eventually lost on the last to Ewan Scott, the title favourite this week. Admitting his opening opponent this time around had been “nervous”, Neil added: “I’m a year older and feel more experienced. But it’s not going to be easy as there are a lot of good players in the field.”

Scott, one of them, is already through to the last 64. Handed a bye in the first round, the 17-year-old from St Andrews also started his week with a big win, beating Inverurie’s Calum Morrison by 6 and 5 in one of the early second-round jousts. “I hit a few loose shots but won the second and was always up after that,” reported Scott, last year’s beaten finalist, of a bogey-free effort that contained birdies at the seventh and 13th.

One player determined to prevent Neil and Scott setting up a rematch in Saturday’s 36-hole final is Bearsden’s Ewen Ferguson, the third seed. A two-hole winner against Deeside’s Lewys Anderson, the 16-year-old certainly has the pedigree to throw a spanner in the works. As well as finishing runner-up in last year’s Scottish Boys’ Stroke-Play Championship, Ferguson also racked up a string of victories during a stint at the Hilton Head Junior Academy in South Carolina.

Boosted by surviving his first-day scare, Hill won six holes on the spin against Angus hope Jamie Beedie to enjoy a more comfortable passage into the third round, where he was joined by Williamwood’s George Burns, the No 4 seed, after he came from two down with eight to go to beat Alexander Wilson, the Valderrama club champion, with a birdie-4 on the last.

“I knew I’d have to play well and I did,” admitted the Glaswegian, who holed a six-footer at the 17th to stay all square before producing a great up and down from through the back of the green at the next, where Wilson found sand off the tee.

Emulating the feat of Paul Lawrie’s two sons from the opening day, the Franssen brothers – Cameron and Rory – from Inverness completed the second family double of the week as they both negotiated first-round tests. Cameron, a two-handicapper, beat Deeside’s Ross Powell 6 and 5 while Rory, who plays off four, was a 2 and 1 winner over Jack Bingham from Whitecraigs. If they can both win again this morning, it will be an all-Franssen third-round tie.