Youths Championship win proves a tonic for Scott

LESS than a month after losing in the final of the Scottish Boys Championship, St Andrews’ Ewan Scott bounced back in style by winning the Golf Data Lab Scottish Youths Championship at Ladybank, where the final two rounds turned into an endurance test in the wind and rain.

Scott, who sat an exam on Friday morning before rushing to the Fife course for his opening round, signed off with scores of 75 and 74 for a four-over-par aggregate of 288, winning by three shots from Blairgowrie’s Bradley Neil, the player he beat in the quarter-finals at Murcar Links.

“It’s a nice way to bounce back from losing in the final of the Scottish Boys,” said Scott, who turns 17 on Wednesday.

“That was a bit of motivation for me at the start of this week.”

Scott is the third St Andrews player to lift a national title in less than 12 months, Josh Jamieson having won the Scottish Boys’ Stroke Play last year, when Ben Kinsley also won the Scottish Boys’ Under-16 Stroke Play.

Yet, prior to those successes, James Bunch had been the last player from the Auld Grey Toun to win on the national stage in the Scottish Boys’ Stroke Play back in 1993.

“It is nice to keep the trend going and long may it continue,” added Scott after holing a 12-foot par putt on the home green to round off a polished performance in conditions he described as “brutal”.

Two shots clear at the halfway stage and still leading by that margin with a round to go, Scott was cruising to victory after covering the opening 13 holes in level-par, having offset bogeys at the seventh and 12th with a brace of birdies – at the third and 13th.

However, he then ran up a triple-bogey 7 at the 14th, which was started by a bad drive and then involved him playing “Army golf” as he strayed right, left then right again up the hole.

“I knew I had a wee cushion so that made it easier to take,” he said. “And you are bound to have a hole like that somewhere, especially in conditions like this.”

Given that he had hardly had the best preparation due to sitting his Modern Studies higher exam at Madras College on Friday morning, it was a splendid effort from Scott, who first underlined his potential when winning the English Under-14s title in 2009.

“I arrived here with about 40 minutes to spare and that was fine as I was able to put in my normal preparation,” he said.

“I played okay on the front nine then we had to stop when play was abandoned due to the weather.

“However, when we came back on Saturday morning, I managed to play 30 holes without a bogey thanks to some solid golf.”

Neil closed with two 74s to claim the silver medal, with Kirkcaldy’s Ryan Walsh, also a member of the host club, storming through the field with matching 72s in his final two rounds to finish alongside Barassie’s Jack McDonald on 293.