Top boy McDonald eyes title double

SCOTLAND'S leading junior golfers descend on West Kilbride this week for the 69th staging of the Scottish Boys' championship, writes Nick Rodger.

The 256-strong field is headlined by Kilmarnock Barassie youngster Jack McDonald, who will be aiming to add the national boys' matchplay crown to the strokeplay title he currently holds.

Scott Henry, Steven Young and Scotland on Sunday's John Huggan are the only players to have achieved that feat over the years and McDonald, who picked up five points from six as Scotland were pipped to the Boys' Quadrangular championship last month, will be confident of adding his name to that select group. The 17-year-old, who opens his campaign tomorrow with a first round duel against Kingussie's Jordan Shaw, is joined in the line-up by his international team-mate, Jack Scott of Deeside, who underlined his title credentials with victory in the opening SGU Junior Tour event of the season at Monifieth last weekend. Craigielaw's Grant Forrest, who won the Scottish under-16 strokeplay at Largs in 2009, and Borderer Simon Fairburn, the recently crowned Scottish Junior Champion of Champions, also compete as does Pollok's Conor O'Neil, the lowest handicapper in the field at +1.9.