PETER LATIMER WINS HIS FIRST PRO PRIZE WITH FOUR-UNDER 68

By COLIN FARQUHARSON

Colin@scottishgolfview.com

Scot Peter Latimer, who started a three-year PGA training foundation degree course under club pro Robert Joyce at Felixstowe Ferry GC, Suffolk a few months back, has scored his first win as a professional over his new home course in a local Alliance competition.

Peter, 24, pictured, shot four-under-par 68 to earn the first prize of £135.

Latimer says he is really enjoying life down in England and getting lots of golf, which is not always the case for a young man starting out his PGA apprenticeship. His next competition is over the Royal St George's course - which he has never played yet - in a mini pro circuit in the south of England.
Latimer, a St Andrews New GC member as an amateur whose family home is at Markinch, was a winner on the US college golf circuit during his four years at Guillford College, Greensboro in North Carolina, and he played for Scotland in the 2009 Home Internationals.
He reached the quarter-finals of the Scottish amateur championship at Royal Troon in 2009 and won the East of Scotland open amateur stroke-play at Lundin GC, Fife in 2010 by seven strokes with a brilliant 14-under-par aggregate of 270.
"I couldn't afford to remain a full-time amateur and I couldn't afford to become a tour pro so becoming a PGA-trained pro seemed the best option," said Peter.
Earlier this week Andrew Coltart went on record as saying too many Scottish amateurs turned professional with a view to making a living from tournament golf - but they were not good enough.
Before Latimer took the plunge into PGA training, another former Scotland amateur Keir Nicoll from Carnoustie who had been struggling to make any headway as a tour pro decided to enrol for PGA training and he is now under the wing of Alasdair Good, the Gullane pro.
Nicoll too has since become a winner as a professional - in the Edinburgh and East of Scotland Alliance competitions.