YOUNG WINS NEARLY $3,000 IN

NATIONWIDE TOUR EVENT

AT HIS HOME TEXAS CLUB

Texas-based Steven Young from Inverallochy won $2,999.50 for a joint 30th place finish in the US Nationwide Tour event, the WNB Classic, at the weekend.
The 72-hole tournament was played at Midland Golf and Country Club, where Steven has been on the professional staff for a number of years.
He had rounds of 71, 71, 72 and 70 for a four-under-par total of 284 - six shots behind the winner, Brad Adamonis (US) with scores of 68, 68, 72 and 70. It was a rare competitive appearance - on a sponsors' invitation - for Young who failed by one shot to gain a US PGA Tour player's cards shortly after turning professional in 1997.

Had Steven made it to the No 1 circuit in the States, he would very probably prospered and might even have gone on to Ryder Cup status. But, having missed out by the narrowest of margins, Young was never really the same player again.

After a season or two on the Tight Lies Tour, he decided to "retire" to the security of a club pro job at Midland, Texas.

As an amateur, Young had seemed destined to have a bright future in the paid ranks. He was Scottish boys' match-play champion three years in a row from 1993 to 1995; won the British boys' championship at Dunbar in 1995 and won the Scottish youths championship in 1997, the year he played in the Walker Cup match at Quaker Ridge, New York State.
Young, playing in the lead-off singles both days, won both his ties. His only team-mates to win one singles match were Craig Watson and Justin Rose and the United States won 18-6.
+Martin Laird, also a former Scottish youths champion, missed the cut in the weekend Nationwide event with scores of 74 and 73 for 147. Laird, in 17th place in the money table with $193,909, needs to stay in the top 20 through the last three events of the season to be guaranteed promotion to the US PGA Tour next year.