GLENBERVIE'S Colin Gillies, who played in all four rounds in this

year's Open at Royal Troon, confirmed his liking for the Ayrshire coast

when he won through to the final of the #6600 Glenmuir National

Assistants' Match-play Championship at Turnberry yesterday.

The Scottish assistants' match-play winner had an impressive 5 and 4

win over Bridgnorth's Stephen Russell in the semi-finals, having earlier

defeated Barry Hamill, of Lisburn, by 3 and 2.

The Scot's opponent in today's 18-hole final, worth #1500 to the

winner, will be another Irishman and another Hamill, UAP under-25

European Open champion Stephen Hamill, who produced the best performance

of the championship to beat Grangemouth's Colin Brooks in the other

semi-final.

Reaping the rewards of a last-minute change in his putting stance,

Hamill, 23, from Knockbracken, was level par for the 16 holes played as

he beat the Scot by 3 and 2, having gone out in a two-under-par 32.

Brooks, to his credit, also scored well in the conditions, standing at

three-over when the match finished, but the leading money winner on the

Tartan Tour this season had met his match in Hamill.

Having gone in front after winning the long third with a par, the

Irishman picked up two birdies in three holes from the fifth, holing

from 15 feet at that hole and then from off the green at the seventh.

Brooks gave himself a glimmer of hope when he won the tenth with a

par, but two holes later after the Scot could only hack out after having

strayed into the rough off the tee, Hamill was three in front again and

a solid par-4 at the difficult sixteenth clinched the deserved victory.

Second round -- C Brooks (Grangemouth) beat S Betteridge (Nottingham

City), 2 and 1; S Hamill (Knockbracken) beat R Troake (Eldfordleigh), 1

hole; C Gillies (Glenbervie) beat B Hamill (Lisburn), 3 and 2; S Russell

(Bridgnorth) beat K Walker (King's Links), 4 and 3.

Semi-finals -- S Hamill beat Brooks, 3 and 2; Gillies beat Russell, 5

and 4.