Allied Surveyors Scottish amateur championship at Royal Troon

Seeded James Byrne, Michael

Stewart fall in first round

By COLIN FARQUHARSON

One day gone - and two seeds, James Byrne (Banchory) and Michael Stewart (Troon Welbeck), gone as well!

Byrne, pictured right by Cal Carson Golf Agency, arguably the form man coming into the Allied Surveyors Scottish amateur championship at Royal Troon, lived down to his worst fears, beaten in the first round by local man Michael Smyth on the 18th green.

Arizona State University student Byrne, winner of back-to-back Order of Merit 72-holers, the Tennant Cup and the East of Scotland Open, joint runner-up in the Sutherland Chalice and second in an Open regional qualifier. James, who had former European Tour winner Dean Robertson as his caddie, was also No 105 in the most recent R&A WAGR with only Gavin Dear (No 13) and Ross Kellett (No 89) ahead of him.

But all of that counted for nothing in a match-play encounter.

It was 20-year-old Byrne himself who recalled on the eve of this championship that he had crashed out in the first round of it in 2008 and 2007. Deja vu?

Michael Smyth is himself a former US student golfer although Darton College does not have quite the same standing in American golfing terms as Arizona State University!

But it's results that count and Smyth recovered from a horrid start which saw him two down after three but all square just as quickly by winning the fourth and fifth.

Byrne looked to have gained the initiative again when he was two up at the turn but he could not shake off his determined and capable opponent who had squared the contest by the 18th tee.

Byrne drove into the rough and Smyth won the hole and the match with a par 4.

Smyth said later: “I can’t quite believe it. My knowledge of the course undoubtedly helped me today and I did feel confident ahead of the game but it was tight at the last and I am very glad to be through.”

Byrne was the No 5 seed and the No 6 seed, Michael Stewart from the local Welbeck club, also failed to rise to the occasion over the Royal Troon championship links which are a test for the best .... without having to worry about what an opponent is doing!

Stewart, only 19, was knocked out, 4 and 3, by a man old enough at 53 to be his father, Paul McKellar, a Scotland cap of yesteryear who was beaten finalist in the "Scottish" and the British amateur championship, both at Royal Troon, in the late 1970s.

McKellar, who has been a member at Royal Troon for the past three years, has a handicap of +2 which underlines the fact that he has retained his class down through the years. Certainly not the kind of unseeded opponent you want to face in your first match.

Stewart, last year's Scottish boys' match-play champion and runner-up to Keir McNicoll in the 2008 St Andrews Links Trophy, did not get off to the best of starts, bogeying the first two holes and losing both of them but he did get back on terms before losing the ninth, which was the beginning of the end for the East Tennessee State University student.

McKellar went three up with a 5 at the 12th and finished his opponent off in style with a birdie at the 15th.

“I felt I was starting to get my game together after the 13th and found my rhythm for the first time. I just need to keep that going and we will see what happens then,” said McKellar.

The exit of the Nos 5 and 6 seeds helps the chances of the two Colville Park players who are Nos 4 and 3 seeds, Paul O'Hara and Ross Kellett. In theory, but probably not in reality, both men should have a clear run through to the semi-finals, given that the eight seeds in any tournament should meet in the quarter-finals.
Edward Trophy and Sutherland Chalice winner Paul O’Hara won by 5 and 3 over the new Scottish Under-16 champion Grant Forrest (Craigielaw) who finished a highly creditable fourth in the European Young Masters near Paris on Saturday. Forrest probably needed just a little longer to get over that taxing tournament and the trip home.

The other two seeds who won through were top man Gavin Dear (Murrayshall), playing competitively at Royal Troon for the first time and relying on his local caddie and Ayrshire county player , Rachael McQueen (Troon Ladies) to read the lines of the putts, and No 8 seed Keir McNicoll (Carnoustie) who was beaten finalist in this championship in 2007 at Prestwick. Both attended Lynn University at Boca Raton, Florida, where Keir was the more successful in US college play.

Still good golfing buddies, they returned to Florida in December to play in the Dixie Amateur in which, of course, Dear confirmed just how much he has improved since his student days by becoming the first Scot to win the prestigious event.

Mark Hillson (Craigielaw), last Scot standing in the British amateur championship at Formby this year - he reached the quarter-finals - was beaten 2 and 1 by John Shanks (Irvine Bogside), which must rank as one of the more surprise results of the opening day.

Shanks, help by some inspired putting, was five up after five holes in three-under-par figures.

Hillson has an R&A WAGR of No 189 which puts him above three men who were seeded for this week's championship - McNicoll (No 430), Steven McEwan (Caprington) (No 277) and the now departed Michael Stewart (No 209).

But, like James Byrne, Hillson could not prove he was the better man on the day in one-on-one match-play "conflict."

SCROLL DOWN FOR ALL THE FIRST DAY RESULTS IN THE ALLIED SURVEYORS SCOTTISH AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP