McDougall looks back on amazing experience

CHRIS Evans, the golf-mad radio broadcaster, and his professional partner, Nick Dougherty, may have walked off away with the team title, but he wasn’t the only amateur to enjoy a week to cherish in the Dunhill Links Championship.

After earning a last-minute invitation to join forces with Dutchman Joost Luiten, Alasdair McDougall, a 14-year-old Fifer, grabbed his opportunity with both hands and was still in the thick of things on the final day at St Andrews. The pair signed off with a ten-under-par 62 on the Old Course to finish on 35-under, five behind Evans and Dougherty, but still good enough to secure third place, with the runner-up spoils going to overall winner Michael Hoey and his partner, William Farish Jnr.

For the second time in three days, McDougall, who lives at Drumoig, managed to birdie the notorious Road Hole and admitted the whole week had been an “amazing experience”. The pupil at St Leonard’s High School in St Andrews added: “Watching these people play and the feeling that you get when you get a birdie in front of the crowd is great. I’ve had two birdies on the 17th now and I’m buzzing.

“We had to play the last four holes really well, which we did. I’ve been shaking for most of the round thinking I could be in the top three. That’s all I wanted really.”

McDougall, who won the St Andrews Links Junior Golf Association order of merit last year, said he now has his sights set on playing in the event again as a professional one day. “I just want to do this my whole life now,” he added. “I always wanted to play in high standards of competitions, but this really makes me want to do it even more and I’m going to practise every day so I can get here.”

Praising his younger partner, Luiten said: “It was great to play with him – he can hit the ball. He made some really nice birdies and hit some really nice shots and if he just keeps doing what he does now we’ll see him on the Tour in a couple of years.”