TOM LEWIS WINS ST ANDREWS LINKS TROPHY BY FOUR SHOTS

Championship winner Tom Lewis and his caddie-girl friend Lara Cornell on the Swilken Bridge at the Old Course 18th. Image by courtesy of St Andrews Links Trust.

British boys champion of 2009, Tom Lewis scored the biggest win of his career so far and surely clinched a place in the Great Britain and Ireland Walker Cup team for Royal Aberdeen in September, with an impressive four-stroke victory in the St Andrews Links Trophy tournament today.

In arrears at halfway and still trailing after 54 holes, the 20-year-old Lewis, from the same golf club, Welwyn Garden City, as Nick Faldo represented when he was a leading amateur, powered past third-round leader, Sebastian “Jock” MacLean, a 21-year-old from Bolivia with a Scottish sea captain as a forefather, with an scorching outward half over four-under-par 32 in the final round over the Old Course. 

He birdied the fifth, sixth, seventh and ninth.

Lewis, winner of the British and English Under-18 boys’ titles in 2009 and ranked England’s No 1 player last year, also birdied the 10^th to get one hand on the prestigious trophy. After yet another birdie at the 14^th, but a bogey at the 17^th, Tom finished with a 67 after earlier rounds of 68 over the New Course and 74 and 70 over the Old for an eight-under-par total of 279.

He is the second Englishman in successive weekends to win a major title in Scotland – Andy Sullivan (Nuneaton) (who finished joint sixth at St Andrews)  having staged a grandstand finish to win the Scottish men’s open amateur stroke-play crown at Blairgowrie the weekend before.

But there was no need for last-gasp heroics by Lewis. He had matters well in hand as the R and A headquarters came into sight for him.

In a three-way on 283 were Sebastian MacLean, Welshman Rhys Enoch (Truro) and Dutchman Daan Huising who drove out of bounds at the 18th - one of the widest fairways on any course. That cost him second place on his own.
Scott Gibson, 18-year-old Southerness member of the SGU Elite squad, was the standard-bearer of the Scottish contingent almost from the first day of the tournament but a final round of 76 over the Old Course dragged him down to a total of three-over-par 290.
Three Scots - all Fifers - slipped past him to share the home honour on 288: James White (Lundin), Greg Paterson (St Andrews New) and Brian Soutar (Leven Golfing Society).

FINAL TOTALS

Par 287 (1x71, 3x72)

279 Tom Lewis (Welwyn Garden City) 68 74 70 67.

283 Sebastian MacLean (Bolivia) 71 71 67 74, Daan Huizing (Netherlands) 71 68 74 70 Rhys Enoch (Truro) 66 74 71 72.

284 Domenico Geminiani (Italy) 73 72 70 69.
285 Andy Sullivan (Nuneaton) 74 69 72 70, Ben Campbell (NZ) 69 71 73 72, Franco Romero (Argentina) 67 72 75 71.
286 Robin Kind (Netherlands) 73 71 75 67.
287 Craig Hinton (The Oxfordshire) 72 73 70 72, Edouard Espana (France) 70 73 71 73, Jack Senior (Heysham) 72 69 74 73
288 Cyril Bouniol (France) 71 74 70 73.
289 James White (Lundin) 72 73 70 74, Stiggy Hodgson (Sunningdale) 73 73 74 69, Victor Flatau (Sweden) 71 75 72 71, Brian Soutar (Leven) 73 73 71 72, Daniel Nisbet (Australia) 73 71 72 73, Greg Paterson (St Andrews New) 73 71 73 72.
290 Gary Stal (France) 71 73 71 75, Matthew Steiger (Australia) 71 73 72 74, Scott Gibson (Southerness) 71 71 72 76.
291 Paul Shields (Kirkhlll) 71 74 74 72, Dylan Boshart (Belgium) 73 73 73 72, Michael Carnes (US) 71 75 73 72, Alexander Levy (France) 74 70 74 73.
292 Paul Cutler (Portstewart) 73 72 76 71, Todd Adcock (Nevill) 71 75 73 73, Horacio Leon (Chile) 73 73 71 75, Tyrrell Hatton (Harleyford) 73 71 75 73, Ben Westgate (Trevose) 73 70 74 75..
293 Brett Drewitt (Australia) 73 73 74 73, Ricardo Gouveia (Portugal) 70 74 77 72.
295 Le Riche Ehiers (S Africa) 74 70 73 78, Leonard Motta (Italy) 73 71 76 75, Jorge F Valdes (Argentina) 73 70 76 76.

297 Jonathan Hurst (Pleasington) 72 71 79 75.
298 Daniel Wasteney (Bondhay) 75 72 74 79.
299 Jordan Findlay (Fraserburgh) 72 73 78 76.
300 Sam Stuart (St Annes Old Links) 71 75 76 78.