Even Benny Goodman didn't swing like this.
It may not have made the same Richter-scale shuddering impact as the Ryder Cup's Miracle of Medinah but the Wonder of West Kilbride certainly illuminated the Scottish Boys' Championship yesterday.
The pendulous, unpredictable nature of the matchplay game makes it the most intriguing and alluring of golfing formats and the wildly fluctuating fortunes of this type of head-to-head combat were illustrated perfectly in the second round contest between Murray Naysmith and Calum Bauchop.
Naysmith, a Scotland boys' cap and plus-two-handicapper, had been six up with seven to play but, with the type of salvage operation not seen since they raised the Mary Rose, the battling Bauchop, a five-handicapper from Glenbervie, emerged triumphantly from the depths of despair and managed to winkle out an astonishing one hole victory on the 18th green.
It turned out to be a magnificent seven for Bauchop as he won every hole from the 12th, while shell-shocked Naysmith crumbled in the kind of spectacular fashion that the Glasgow 2014 organisers may struggle to recreate at the Red Road flats.
Bauchop did conjure a couple of birdies, at the 13th and 16th, to aid his rousing recovery but a series of solid pars formed the basis of the fightback as his opponent stumbled home. "I started pulling it back and I think his head seemed to go," said Bauchop. "I'm a five-handicapper and he's a Scottish cap. I'm completely baffled."
It was a baffling day in many ways on the Ayrshire coast. Colin Edgar, a product of the same Cochrane Castle assembly line that has moulded the likes of Dean Robertson and the late Barclay Howard, was left shaking his head in smiling bewilderment as he reflected on an eventful few hours, both on and off the course.
It started with a rampaging 9 and 7 victory over Alistair Wood in the morning. He then had a quick 40 winks at his Johnstone home before enduring the rude awakening of an unexpected and nail-biting dash back to the course for his third round tee-time with Daragh Cuddihy of Gourock.
A birdie putt of 30-feet on the first extra hole eventually gave Edgar a hard-fought victory but it's probably better to let him fill in the gaps. "Because I'd won 9 and 7 and was finished by 9.15 in the morning I just went home for a sleep but on the way back there was an accident on the road and we had to go another route; I thought I'd be late and miss my time," he panted.
"I was three-up in the afternoon game after eight but found myself one down playing the 18th. He putted out for a par on the last and I thought I was out but someone noticed he'd not replaced his marker in its original place after moving his ball that was in my line. Obviously, I was awarded the hole and then I won up the 19th. It was quite a day."
Cuddihy's late mental lapse on the 18th may have cost him dearly, but he was not the first to lose the head on a day of dizzy decisions. Cameron Blair, a teenager from Musselburgh, was embroiled in a nip-and-tuck second round encounter with Michael Lawrie, the son of former Open champion Paul. After Lawrie had launched his drive off the first play-off hole, Blair sliced his tee-shot out of bounds before surprising everybody by then turning to his opponent, shaking his hand and walking off.
Even a major winner like Lawrie senior, who has witnessed the weird and wonderful during a globe-trotting career, was taken aback. "I said to Cameron 'just make sure your ball is out of bounds or hit a provisional' but the official said 'he can't do that, he's conceded'," said Paul. "He must have just got confused. I've never heard of that happening before."
The younger Lawrie's campaign drew to a close in the afternoon, though, as he lost 5 and 4 to the seeded Ben Kinsley. Ewen Ferguson, the top seed and reigning British Boys' champion, continued his menacing progress with a 5 and 4 win over Findlay Soutar of Montrose.
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