Last hole and play-off drama at Elgin

David Lane (left), Bob Stewart and Ian Hutcheon at Elgin. David and Ian gained bronze medals for finishing joint third and Ian pipped David for the Over-65s prize on the better last round (Cal Carson Golf Agency image).

Tulliallan's Bob
Stewart wins
Scottish seniors
title at Elgin

Tullliallan Golf Club member Bob Stewart won the Scottish senior men's open amateur golf championship today after a final hour's play at Elgin Golf Club packed with drama and fluctuating fortunes.
Bob moved past faltering overnight leader David Lane (Goring & Streatley) when he birdied the second, fifth, eight and 11th and dropped only one shot, at the fourth, to take the lead with four or five holes to go.
Then the 57-year-old former champion of Tulliallan and Glenbervie golf clubs, as well as Clackmannan county, three-putted to bogey the 14th, pulled his second into a bad lie to bogey the 16th and then a poor drive cost him another bogey at the 18th. He still finished with a 69 - the only man over the three days' play to match the Hardhillock course par - but his nine-over-par final total of 216 was vulnerable.
"I really thought I had thrown my title chance away when I came off the 18th," said Bob Stewart.
David Lane, who had double bogeys at the eighth and 18th for a 76, was not going to win the title for a third time. He finished joint third on 219.
Defending champion Ian Hutcheon from Monifieth - "I was unhappy with my iron shots all week" - also came in on 219 after closing with a 73.
There was now only one man who could catch clubhouse leader Bob Stewart and it was his namesake, Iain Stewart, now resident in Ireland and a member of The Curragh club, near Dublin but born and bred in Clydebank.
Iain Stewart's birdies in his final round at the 11th, 12th and 17th put him two shots clear of the field. On the 18th tee, he needed to finish with a par 4 to win the title by two ... a bogey 5 to win by one ... and a double bogey 6 to go into a play-off with Bob Stewart.
And a double bogey 6 and a play-off it was after Iain Stewart's second shot hit a distance marker and he finally had to hole a fair-sized putt to force a play-off.
Iain's luck did not change in the play-off. He pushed his drive from the first tee into a bad lie in the trees and could only pitch out on to the fairway from where he missed the green left with a three wood. He finished up with another double-bogey 6 to Bob Stewart's pitch and putt 4 from just off the green.
"I felt sorry for Iain. He had rotten luck at the 18th and again in the play-off," said Bob Stewart. "This is obviously by best ever performance since I became eligible to play in seniors' golf three years ago. I've never seen the Elgin course before this tournament. You can bet I'll come back and treasure the memories of becoming a Scottish champion here."
Hutcheon and Lane each received a bronze medal for finishing third equal but the Monifieth man pipped the Englishman for the over-65s prize on the better last round (73 to a 76).