Clark offers to take full-time Scotland team-mates with him to the day job

Nick Rodger

Golf Correspondent

Wednesday 1 August 2012

Working 9 to 5, what a way to make a living.

Matthew Clark at Royal Dornoch yesterday on his way to a one-hole victory over John Mathers. Picture: Kenny Smith

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Nick Rodger

Matthew Clark wouldn't have it any other way, even though the personal banking manager from Kilmacolm may have to alter Dolly Parton's lyric to a more flexible 9 to 6.30 or 7.

"I'm often doing 50 hours a week," said the 30-year-old, after opening his challenge in the Scottish Amateur Championship with a one-hole win over Haggs Castle's John Mathers at a glorious Royal Dornoch yesterday.

In an age dominated by pampered, full-time, elite amateurs, Clark continues to strike a series of blows for the working golfer. His victory in the Newlands Trophy at Lanark a week past Sunday, the second order-of-merit title of his career, consolidated his place in the upper reaches of the domestic rankings and ensured that the Renfrewshire county stalwart will finally realise a long-held ambition: a debut for Scotland in the forthcoming Home Internationals at Gailes.It will be a well-deserved honour and one that Clark won't be taking for granted. "It's been 10 years of hard work and it's a dream for me," said Clark, who was quick to credit his bank bosses for giving him extra time off work to pursue his golfing goals. "I have no ambition to become a full-time amateur but, hopefully, I can impart on the full-time players how fortunate they are."Most of them don't realise the dedication required from players like myself and what it means to get into the Scotland team. Don't get me wrong, they are all talented players, but get them to do a week's work with me and then let them tell you how hard that is. I played five events in a row and was going into work feeling like a burst bag of potatoes."Two-up on sports psychologist Mathers with three to play, Clark admitted he "got away with murder" on the 16th when he lost his ball in the rough only for Mathers to follow suit. The hole was eventually halved in double-bogey 6s and, despite Mathers holing a 25-footer for birdie to win the 17th, Clark staved off his menacing advances down the last.In the day's other first-round encounters, Barassie's Jack McDonald, whose mentor Dean Robertson won the Scottish Amateur crown here in 1993, launched his own title tilt with a 2&1 win over Nairn's Cameron Nelson.Three weeks ago, McDonald was partnering a certain Ernie Els in the final round of the Scottish Open just down the road at Castle Stuart. He was up against the Big Easy then, now he will face the Big Butcher. At 49, Richard Johnston, a well-kent purveyor of fine meats in the central belt, is one of the elder statesman in the field, but the former Stirlingshire County champion meted out a 5&4 defeat to 22-year-old Alastair Graham of Falkirk and now has the teenage McDonald in his sights."We were away on holiday during the Scottish Open and didn't appreciate how well Jack had performed there," said Johnston, who was unable to have a practice round here at Dornoch due to the fact that he and wife Isabell were making a robust defence of their Glenbervie Mixed Foursomes title.Glasgow exile Stuart Loughrey, a former Hayston member who emigrated to Australia over a decade ago and had a stint as a pro Down Under, won the first seven holes against Lochwinnoch's Paul Reilly en route to an emphatic 8&6 triumph.Graham Gordon, the 2003 Scottish champion and another reinstated amateur, marked his return to the SGU's flagship event for the first time since he won it, with a 3&2 defeat of Graeme Collins of Ballumbie Castle.

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Clark offers to take full-time Scotland team-mates with him to the day job

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