It's Gaughan v Fairburn for Lothians

junior championship this evening

FROM THE EDINBURGH EVENING NEWS WEBSITE
By MARTIN DEMPSTER
Louis Gaughan, a waif of a lad, is putting up a strong performance in the Lothians Junior Championship, having reached tonight's final at the Braids, where he will face Simon Fairburn in a shoot-out for the Spiers Trophy.
Watched by mentor Eric Mackay, Gaughan hardly put a foot wrong in beating an out-of-sorts Scott Young by 3 and 2 in their semi-final, with Fairburn also ending his match against Josh Renwick on the 16th green, 4 and 2 the margin in that one.
A 15-year-old, Gaughan has been the surprise package in this year's event, having beaten players both older and more experienced than him to set up the chance to become the first Bathgate player to lift the title since Kurt Mungall in 1986.
Having accounted for both Stuart Boyle and Grant Forrest in earlier rounds, Young must have fancied his chances of going on to finish the job this week but the Turnhouse player came up against an opponent who, on the night at least, was much more steady in most aspects of the game.
Continuing to display a velvet-like putting touch, Gaughan, a fourth-year pupil at St Margaret's Academy in Livingston, held a slender lead at the turn, having confidently holed a 12-foot birdie putt at the eighth.
A mistake from Young at the tenth – he pushed his second shot into the gorse bushes – allowed his opponent to go two up, the pair then halving the 11th and 12th, where they both holed testing birdie putts.
Gaughan, who plays off three, then chipped stone dead to win the 14th with a birdie and, though Young won the next with a birdie, it was all over when the West Lothian youngster kept his composure to hole a tricky birdie putt to hit back at the 16th.
"I didn't feel as though I played as well as I did earlier in the week but I'm delighted to be in the final, which definitely exceeds my expectations," said Gaughan, who gained valuable golf and life skill experience when he travelled to Brazil last year to play in the final of the Faldo Series.
Fairburn, bidding to become the first Craigielaw player to claim the crown, got his match off to a flyer when holing a 20ft birdie putt to win the second.
Helped by an eagle-3 at the fifth, where he hit an 8-iron to a foot, the 17-year-old quickly went three up but, to his credit, Renwick dug in, reducing the deficit to just one after winning the seventh with a birdie and then producing a brilliant up-and-down from short of the green at the ninth for a hole-winning par.
Finding almost the same spot as Young in the gorse, the Uphall player then undid some of that good work by losing the tenth but won the next with a birdie-4, Fairburn three-putting there.
Renwick did the same thing at the 12th to lose that before both players hit slack tee shots at the short 13th, Fairburn almost taking out Bob Robertson, the Lothians tournament secretary, with his wayward blow before salvaging a hole-winning par to go three up again.
Fairburn birdied the 14th then lost the next to a par before it was all over when he confidently struck another birdie putt into the hole at the 16th.
"I was shaken a bit by the greens when I had a three-putt early on but Josh gifted me some holes," said the finalist.
*The full article contains 603 words and appears in the Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.

Thursday night's results:

Semi-finals - Louis Gaughan (Bathgate) (12) bt Scott Young (Turnhouse) (13) 3 and 2; Simon Fairburn (Craigielaw) (15) bt Josh Renwick (Uphall) (9) 4 and 2.

+Number in brackets is their position among the 16 qualifiers for the match-play stages.