Drumpellier’s Steven Rennie was the hero as Lanarkshire lifted the GolfKings Scottish Men’s Area Team Championship title at Dalmahoy for the first time since 1998.
Rennie held his nerve in the final match on the final green as the six-man Lanarkshire side defeated home outfit Lothians to secure just their third Area Team triumph, edging a closely-fought final 5 – 4 following three foursomes and six singles matches.
After losing the 2014 final to Renfrewshire, there was capital joy this time for Rennie, Craig Ross, Ed Wood, Dominic Dougan, Kenneth Gallacher and Gordon Yates at the Hotel & Country Club just outside Edinburgh.
Having taken the lunchtime lead on Dalmahoy’s East Course thanks to a 2 – 1 victory in the foursomes, Willie Sharpe’s Lanarkshire men eased further clear with singles wins from Ross, the reigning South African Amateur champion, and Wood.
But the Lothians, seeking their first title since 2007, hit back with victories from Scottish Boys champion Eric McIntosh, Broomieknowe’s Lee Morgan and Euan McIntosh, the new Scottish Golf Men’s Order of Merit winner, to level matters.
That meant all eyes turned to Rennie’s clash with Jordyn Rhind, attached to Kingsfield. Rennie’s birdie from 15 feet at the 16th gave him a two-hole cushion, but his bogey at the par-3 17th provided Rhind with hope. Rennie, however, stood firm to half the last and spark the celebrations.
“This is pretty special,” said Rennie, 36. “It was a wee bit nerve wracking coming down 18 but I got the job done. “We’ve got an excellent mix of youth and experience. Kenny is 53 and played in the Senior British Open a few years ago, Craig Ross is excellent and Gordon is a previous internationalist who has come back to the amateur game.
“I didn’t realise this is only the third time we have won this event. I was in the team that lost two years ago, so it’s excellent to finally do it.”
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