Perhaps it was a good job for Fintan McKenna’s immediate employment prospects that he didn’t beat Michael Lawrie in the Scottish Boys Championship at Murcar. “He actually works in the coffee shop at my dad’s golf centre,” said Lawrie, the son of the 1999 Open champion Paul, after staving off the challenge of his fellow Aberdonian McKenna to reach the quarter-finals of the under-18s showpiece.
McKenna had certainly upped the ante in his title tilt by beating Sandy Scott, the No 1 seed, on the final green in the morning’s fourth round but he came a cropper in the last 16 as Lawrie claimed a 3&2 win on a tough, testing, windy day in the north east.
Lawrie had been facing the prospect of an early exit on Monday, having stood on the 18th tee one down to Thomas Boyd in their first round encounter, but he showed the sturdy resolve of a clump of granite to birdie that hole and win the match on the 19th. Four ties later, he’s still standing.
“You get to the last tee one behind and you’re thinking ‘this might be it and I’m going home’,” reflected Lawrie, on that early act of escapology. “When you come through that, anything else is a bit of a bonus and I’m pleased I pulled that back.”
Lawrie had been one down through six against McKenna but a telling thrust, which saw him win three holes in five from the 10th, turned the match around.
Awaiting him in the next round is Glasgow-born John Paterson, who was four-up at the turn against Matthew Watson before powering over the line by winning the 10th, 11th and 12th in a 7&6 triumph.
It was a day for harnessing the blustery elements as best you could. “I’m just trying to keep it simple and let my opponents make the mistakes because pars will win,” said Paterson. “My goal at the start of the week was the quarter-finals so to achieve that initial aim is pleasing.”
The last of the seeds tumbled on day four with Bellshill’s Dylan Burt, the winner of last year’s Cadzow Cup, claiming the scalp of Rory Franssen, the No 2 seed, with a 2&1 victory.
The youngest lad still in the mix is 14-year-old Cameron Gallagher, a five-handicapper from Longniddry, who beat Lockerbie’s Christopher Finnie 2&1 to set up a duel with Burt.
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 here