The Auld Alliance may have been a little bit strained in Carnoustie last night.
Not since Robert Maxwell beat Cecil Hutchison in 1909 has there been an all Scottish final in the Amateur Championship but the prospect of another tartan tie was tantalisingly close yesterday until a Frenchman by the name of Romain Langasque flung a spanner into the works.
While Craigielaw's Grant Forrest marched into today's 36-hole showdown with a 4&2 win over another hopeful from across the channel, Alexandre Daydou, Jack McDonald of Barassie was edged out at the 19th hole of a tense, tight tussle with Langasque. You could say it was all rather de Gaulle-ing for those with Caledonian connections. McDonald, a beaten semi-finalist in the 2012 championship at Royal Troon, had enjoyed another super week and the impressive young Ayrshireman took the defeat with smiling, graceful acceptance. C'est la vie and all that.
One out of two is not bad at all, of course, and should Forrest overcome Langasque in today's final then the home of golf will be celebrating successive Amateur Championship winners for the first time since 1898.
There's plenty of golf to be played before that but Forrest, the 10th Scottish finalist since the championship was last held at Carnoustie in 1992, is certainly in fine fettle and up for the challenge after he eased past Daydou with a purposeful display that was aided by three birdies on his opening five holes. On the day he turned 22, the celebratory candles were almost snuffed out in the morning, mind you, as his fellow Scot, Greig Marchbank, looked to be heading for victory in their last eight joust. Two down with two to play, Forrest was tottering on the precipice but he clung on by his finger tips as Marchbank missed two match-winning putts from five-feet on both the 17th and 18th to allow the tie to be levelled. Forrest seized his opportunity as the encounter moved into extra holes and came through on the 20th after Marchbank made a damaging excursion into the fairway bunker.
"It was the best game of matchplay I've ever had," said Forrest as he reflected on that contest of wildly fluctuating fortunes. "It seemed to have everything. My birthday always falls during the Amateur and there have been times when I have lost matches on that day. At Cinque Ports a couple of years ago, someone even crashed into my car to make it even worse."
Hampered by a niggling hip injury which, ultimately, led to a down turn in his performances, Forrest has found both his fitness and his form again since returning to home soil from the University of San Diego last month. "If you'd told me at the start of the week that I would be in the final I would have said 'no way' because I was struggling," added Forrest, who is now one win away from the jaw-dropping possibility of earning invitations to July's Open and next year's Masters and US Open.
Standing in his way is Langasque, who shares the same coach as Ryder Cup player, Victor Dubuisson. At the venue where Jean van de Velde endured that monumental muck up on the final hole of the 1999 Open, Langasque, a 20-year-old from just outside Nice, did his best to evoke those memories a hole earlier when he took an aggressive approach on the 17th and found the Barry Burn to allow McDonald to go one up. "I take risks," said Langasque with shrugging, Gallic nonchalance.
The duo both played it safe on the treacherous 18th and laid up but after McDonald's par-putt from 10-feet didn't drop, Langasque holed his from seven to square the match at the death. "Yessss!," he roared with a punch of the fist. "Oui doesn't sound as good," he said later after winning on the 19th where McDonald was long and left with his approach and could only get his recovery from an "ugly spot" to around 14-feet. The Scot couldn't salvage his par and Langasque ensured that there would be a French connection in the final.
Oh well, we'll just have to wait another 106 years for that all Scottish showpiece.
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