If Bradley Neil is the current poster boy for Scottish amateur golf, then Glenn Campbell is its rhinestone cowboy.
He's probably sick to the back teeth of these ropey references to the country crooner - it's a different spelling for a start - but this seasoned campaigner has been on song at Downfield in this week's Fairstone Scottish Amateur Championship. Next up on the hit parade?
"Just a game with some wee upstart frae Blairgowrie," he said with a smile after easing into the last 32 with a two-hole victory over Royal Aberdeen's Nick Macandrew. The particular upstart in question is the aforementioned Neil, the reigning Amateur champion, the No.1 seed here and a fellow member at Blairgowrie. Downfield is not quite the OK Corral, but this duel promises to be a blazing shoot-out.
Campbell is the wily old gunslinger who has seen it all before at this level. Almost a decade ago, the 41-year-old greenkeeper won the Scottish Championship at Southerness and became the standard bearer for the Blairgowrie club on the amateur front. Neil's emergence on the scene has probably dunted a few of Campbell's pictures off the clubhouse wall of fame, but the former Scotland cap is relishing the opportunity to go head-to-head with the new kid on the golfing block.
"I'm actually 1-0 up on him, as I beat him in the county championship back in 2010," reported Campbell, who just makes guest appearances on the domestic circuit these days due to work and family commitments. "I saw Bradley's potential when he was 10 or 11. He's worked very hard and he's reaping the rewards now."
Campbell suggested that Neil, who beat Michael Bacigalupo 5 and 3, will probably clatter a drive some 60 or 70 yards ahead of him. "But I can get on to the green first," he added. "It's not all about big, booming batters in this game of nip-and-tuck."
As the Perthshire pair chatted away in a joint blether with the assembled scribblers, Campbell made sure he seized the early bragging rights. On the par-5 11th hole in his match with Bacigalupo, Neil had knocked a gap wedge into the green for his second shot. Campbell, meanwhile, unleashed a 6-iron for his approach in his tie with Macandrew.
"What did you make?" asked Campbell of his teenage rival. "I birdied it," responded Neil. "I eagled it," retorted Campbell swiftly. You half expected him to deliver the triumphant 'get it right roon' ye' gesture favoured by buoyant booler Alex Marshall. He might keep it until the end of hostilities this morning.
The winner of the Campbell-Neil clash could face a testing tussle with Stewart Smith, five-times Downfield club champion, who continued his purposeful progress with a 4 and 3 win over Angus Carrick. Smith will now square up to the Williamwood teenager Fraser Davren, who thwarted the ambitions of another Blairgowrie member, Wayne Crole, with a 19th-hole victory.
One man also making decent strides is the Aberdonian Chris Robb. The 23-year-old has certainly been in form on the strokeplay stage with an eight-shot victory in the East of Scotland Open and a four-shot win in the Cameron Corbett Vase in recent weeks. He has carried that momentum into the matchplay format and a 5 and 4 win over James Wilson set up a tasty tie with Ben Kinsley, the beaten finalist in April's Scottish Boys' Championship.
"I usually get pumped in the first round so this is a nice change," admitted Robb. "I'd never really found a right way to approach matchplay. I used to get too fussed about what my opponent was doing, but now I'm just focusing on my own game."
Alexander Culverwell, the reigning national champion, emerged from a "scrappy" tussle against Greig Marchbank with a one-hole win. As he bids to become the first player to retain the title since Charlie Green in 1983, there seems to be a certain familiarity to proceedings.
"There's a feeling of déjà vu," said Culverwell. "I played Greig at a similar stage last year and now I'm playing Kyle McClung, who I also played a year ago."
Jack McDonald, last year's Scottish amateur No.1, swept to a 7 and 6 win over Greig Kennedy, while Barry Hume, the Scottish champion at Downfield in 2001, continued to plot a path through the field with a 3 and 2 defeat of Anthony Blaney.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article