Classic final win at 38th over Paul O'Hara

David Law first to complete Scottish boys' and men's national title double By COLIN FARQUHARSON Eighteen-year-old David Law from the Aberdeen municipal course of Hazlehead is the new Allied Surveyors Scottish men's amateur golf champion. Paul Lawrie's protégé, a Harry Potter bespectacled lookalike, unseeded and No 598 in the R&A world amateur golf rankings, scored a thrilling and upset win over the favourite, the fourth seed and world ranked No 127, Paul O'Hara (Colville Park), at the 38th hole of a roller-coaster of a 36-hole final over the windswept Royal Troon Golf Club links. And so young Law, winner of the Scottish boys' match-play championship at Royal Aberdeen in April, made a Scottish golfing history. He is the first teenager to win both the boys' and the men's national match-play titles in the same season. And when one considers that the Scottish men's championship started in 1922, that underlines the magnitude of David's feat. After the victory by Nigg Bay's Donald Jamieson over Charlie Green in the 1980 Scottish final at Balgownie, it took another 23 years before the next Aberdonian victory - by Graham Gordon (Newmachar) over Stuart Wilson at The Duke's in 2003. Now David Law has made it two national winners from the Granite City in six years. "I can hardly believe it. I'm delighted that I was able to play well in front of the biggest crowd that's come to watch me – and Paul – play," said David who is a full-time amateur with no desire to go a US college, although he's bound to be bombarded now with scholarship offers from the States. "What surprised me was how comfortable I felt out there. I wasn't nervous at all, well, maybe now and again. Maybe going through it all at boys' level in April at Balgownie helped me deal with the situation. And my short game is not usually as good as that!" Paul Lawrie, playing in the Scottish Challenge at Aviemore, had been sending David text messages all meeting and they exchanged several such communications of the eve of the final. "Paul told me to stay focused, keep my concentration and to believe in myself that I could win. Paul has helped me a lot with my short game this year and I've been out to his practice green at his house. It's all helped to make this week possible. "At the start of the week I thought reaching the quarter-finals would be a good performance for me in a men's championship. But once I started winning matches, I grew more and more confident and kept revising my possibilities." What did he think of the prospect of playing No 1 for Scotland in his debut in the men's home internationals in September? "That team hasn't been chosen so I'll wait until that happens before I start thinking about that. I've got the boys' home internationals to look forward to next week. I'm now away to drive home to Aberdeen and tomorrow (Sunday), I'll drive south again to meet up the the rest of the Scotland (under-18) team. I've had 'well done' texts from them all already. I hope my mother's packed another suitcase for me!" said David. It was a classic match-play final – one of the best for years - that kept a gallery for 250 enthralled. What a pity that one player had to lose. O'Hara, 22, playing in his third final, having lost the 2004 (Gullane) and 2006 (Prestwick) showdowns, had been bidding to follow in the footsteps of his European Tour-playing brother Steven who won the Scottish amateur title at Royal Dornoch in 2000. No two brothers have both won the championship since it was first played in 1922. Paul O'Hara, playing in his eighth tie of the week, had never been behind to any of his previous seven opponents. He was the first seeded player Law had met in the championship. "I didn't play as well as I had done earlier in the week, but David holed a lot of putts out there. Several times I thought I had him but he kept holing the putts, kept getting up and down to halve holes" said O'Hara. "Losing in the final for a third time doesn't hurt as much as some people might expect. It was a really good game and a lot of people would die to get into one championship final, let alone three." Law was two up after six holes but found himself two down after 15 holes before winning the short 17th with a birdie 2 and holing a brave six-footer for a half at the 18th to go in for lunch only one down. O'Hara quickly went two up again by birdieing the 19th hole but he let the initiative and the lead slip out of his hands by being bunkered at the 23rd and 25th to be pulled back to all square. O'Hara had a nightmare 29th hole – two penalty drops out of the gorse – finally conceding it after playing six shots to reach the green.That handed Law a one-hole lead for the first time since the seventh hole in the morning and, in the final analysis, was probably the turning point for the Aberdonian's victory.. But O'Hara was not ready to throw in the towel. He squared the contest with a par – no mean feat in such windy conditions – at the 33rd and then got up and down in two shots from a bunker, holing from 18ft, at the short 35th to stay on level terms. In truth, Law had one of his raring putting lapses there. Despite O'Hara's heroics from the sand, David, after a magnficent iron tee shot to within five or six feet, had the chance to go to the 35th tee one up. But he missed. Both young men had birdie chances on the 36th green but couldn't coax their putts, of around 18ft into the hole, Law's putt just twisting off line at the last minute and stopping only an inch to the right of the cup.. O'Hara said later that he felt he had a winning chance in extra holes because they would be played into the fierce wind and, in his opinion, Law didn't hit his approach shots so well under these circumstances. Sure enough, David missed the green had at the 37th (first) by a good 30yd hole on the left, although he had the right club because his ball finished pin high but in light wispy rough. O'Hara, for his part, hit the green with his approach and faced a 20ft putt to birdie the hole for the third time. It looked like the end for the Aberdeen teenager but with a coolness and skill of which mentor Paul Lawrie would have been proud, Law tossed his lob wedge recovery from the rough high in air, across the wind - to within five feet of the flagstick. Over now to O'Hara to putt for a 3 which would make him champion. He left his effort short but still a certain par 4, which would be decisive if Law failed to hole his putt. In the circumstances, one would have forgiven David if he had taken a long time studying the line with the help of his caddie and Scottish boys championship beaten finalist, Paul Shields (Kirkhill). But he did not. Almost as if he knew he could and would hole it to stay alive, Law stepped up and calmly rolled the putt into the centre of the hole. On to the 37th and I felt that something, someone had to give sooner rather than later. And it was O'Hara. He made two errors of judgement. He took too much club or hit it harder than he needed to into the wind because his ball overshot the green. That was the first mistake. The second was his attempt at a recovery shot. As the Motherwell man said later, "I played a terrible chip there. I think I was trying too hard and thinking I had to hole it (for a birdie 3)." Law, just short of the green in two, used his putter and got his ball to within a couple of feet of the hole. When O'Hara could not hole his putt for a 4, David stepped up and sank his to become Scotland's first teenage double champion. RESULT Final (36 holes) David Law (Hazlehead) bt *Paul O'Hara (Colville Park) at the 38th hole. *denotes seeded player.