DUNCAN STEWART WINS ANOTHER £10,000 FIRST PRIZE ON EUROPRO TOUR

NEWS RELEASE FROM THE EUROPRO TOUR

Duncan Stewart has won a £10,000 first prize for the second time on the PGA EuroPro Tour.

He repeated last season's feat by finishing two under par for the 54 holes of the Sweetspot Classic after a blustery three days at Longhirst Golf Club, Morpeth in Northumberland.

The Grantown-on-Spey man, who sold 150 shares in himself at £100 a time to finance his travels in 2012, moves up to second on the 888poker.com PGA EuroPro Tour Order of Merit with just one tournament left before the season-ending Tour Championship.

It was a testing competition for the EuroPro Tour golfers, with winds close to 30mph recorded on the opening day. Though they dropped slightly for the second round, the final 18 holes were again a struggle with winds sweeping across the Lakes Course.

Stewart, who played for four years on the US college circuit alongside Inverness-born Russell Knox (now a USPGA Tour player), when they were both students at Jacksonville University, shot a level-par final round to capitalise on leader James Ruth’s five-over-par 75, which saw him let slip a two-shot overnight lead to finish level par and second in the tournament.

Ruth started with three bogeys on his first four holes and a bogey at eight, coupled with a double at nine, saw him turn home one shot over par. He got back on track with birdies at 11, 12 and 14 but bogeys at 15 and 17 saw him lose the lead again. 

By the time Ruth reached 18 he needed an eagle to force a play-off but was only able to par the last, handing a two-shot victory to Stewart.

The Scot began the day three shots behind Ruth and fell further behind when he bogeyed two and three. But birdies at seven and 11 took him level for the day and another bogey at 12 was quickly cancelled out by a three at the par-four 13th.

A bogey four at 15 saw him drop to one under par and a final birdie, on the 18th, took him two shots ahead of the field.

“I have been playing well and have had some good finishes so it is nice to get that win,” said Stewart.

“I made birdie at 13 to go back to two under and felt I had a real chance then. When I holed the putt on the last I knew that meant James Ruth needed an eagle to finish, but stranger things have happened so I was relieved when he made par!

“I had a really nice little putt for a birdie on the seventh and I had a bit of luck on the 11th for another birdie, so that was sort of a turning point.

“The wind made it difficult but my mentality from the start of the week was to get my head down and accept that a loose shot would probably end up in the water, but that would be the same for everybody. I just got my head down and accepted it would be a difficult week and a bit of a battle but I wanted to make sure I had the right attitude.”

James Watts (The Sports Academy) and Nick James (Wenvoe Castle Golf Club) finished tied third on one over par.

The final event of the main tour season takes place at Hunley Hall in Yorkshire and begins on Wednesday, September 12. 
LEADING FINAL TOTALS
Par 210 (3x70)
208 Duncan Stewart (Grantown on Spey) 66 72 70 (£10,000).
210 James Ruth (St Mellion) 67 68 65 (£5,000)
211 James Watts (East Herts) 72 70 69, Nick James (Wenvoe Castle) 67 74 70 (£2,000 each).

OTHER SCOTS' TOTALS
216 Shaun McAllister (Craigielaw) 72 65 79 (T16) (£446).
217 Elliot Saltman (Archerfield Links) 75 69 73 (T20) (£365)
218 John Gallagher (Turnhouse) 71 71 76 (T28) (£294)
221 Wallace Booth (Comrie) 76 68 65 (T47) (£212)