GREAT SCOTT! HENDERSON PIPS HUTCHEON FOR PGA CUP PLACE

        SCOTT HENDERSON ... First PGA Cup team selection after 20 ye  as a professional

   IMAGE BY CAL CARSON GOLF AGENCY 

By COLIN FARQUHARSON
Colin@scottishgolfview.com
The North-east will have a representative in next year's GB and I team for the PGA Cup match against the United States at Slaley Hall, Northumberland next September - but it won't be, as expected, Tartan Tour supremo Greig Hutcheon from Banchory.
Sitting pretty in third place in the PGA play-offs at Antalya Golf Club, Turkey, with only one hole to play in weather-shortened 54-hole tournament, Hutcheon needed only a par or even a bogey to clinch automatic selection for a  first PGA Cup place alongwith tournament winner Richard Wallis from England and Ireland's David Higgins.
But Hutcheon double-bogeyed the last hole for a one-over 72 and fell back into a tie for third place on three-under 210 with Scott Henderson (Kings Links Golf Centre) and Glenmuir club professional champion Gareth Wright (West Linton).
Henderson, 43-year-old Aberdeen-born former Northern Open champion and one-time European Tour Rookie of the Year, had come surging through the field over the second and third rounds after a moderate start.
He kept up the momentum from a closing four-under-par 67 for with a birdie 3 after a great wedge shot to within 4ft of the flagstick at the first play-off hole against Hutcheon and Wright, which gave "Scotty" a first-time PGA Cup team berth and also a place in next spring's BMW PGA championship at Wentworth.
Wallis, from Walmer and Kingsdown Golf Club, won the Titleist PGA Play-offs title for a second year in a row, this time by the comfortable margin of four strokes from Higgins. Wallis closed with a 70 for eight-under 205 to collect the £2,000 first prize.
Higgins hopes of landing the title evaporated with five bogeys in his closing nine holes, eventually signing for a 73 for 209 but he was delighted to finish second and secure further tour starts to add to those gained through his European Tour qualifying school success two weeks ago.
Also celebrating his place in the PGA Cup team after w0 years as a professional was Henderson, whose painstaking hours on the range in search of a swing thought finally paid off with a brilliant 67 to win
“I was playing so badly coming in this week. Three days before I came here I was down at the range trying to find some sort of swing and the first day I must have tried six or seven different techniques,” he said.
“The first day I was still hitting it poorly but then just stuck with something simple and it seems to have worked and I haven’t dropped a shot since the first hole of the second round.
“After leaving myself so far back after the first round, the main objective was to get a place in the PGA championship final at Wentworth, and I had resigned myself that that was all I was going to get but the wind was tricky and some of the boys flagged a bit coming in so one man’s loss is another’s gain and it’s an honour to be able to play in the PGA Cup.”
Early in their pro careers Henderson and Paul Lawrie were stablemates at the Kings Links Golf Centre, Aberdeen.
Paul Girvan, a former Walker Cup player who is Director of Golf at Kings Links Golf Centre, said:

"We're all delighted for Scott to gain PGA Cup team honours. It is fantastic to see all his hard work and dedication paying off. He really deserves this and will be a fantastic addition to the GB and I team in the match against the Americans."

 

FINAL TOTALS 
Par 213 (3x71)
205 Richard Wallis (Walmer and Kingsdown) 67 68 70 (£2,000)
209 David Higgins  (Waterville) 66 70 73 (£1,500)
210 Scott Henderson (Kings Links) 75 68 67, Gareth Wright (West Linton) 70 69 71, Greig Hutcheon        (Banchory) 71 67 72 (£1,016 each).
213 James Whatley (Morley Hayes) 70 74 69,Paul Streeter (Lincoln) 70 71 72, Barrie Trainor (Ireland)    70 71 72, Thomas Fleming (Frilford Heath) 71 69 73.
214 Jason Levermore (Clacton) 73 69 72
215 Adrian Ambler (Low Laithes) 73 73 69, Matthew Cort (Rothley Park) 71 71 73.
216 Paul Hendriksen (Dinnaton) 74 73 69
217 Matthew Dearden (Vale Hotel) 70 75 72
218 Craig Shave (Whetstone) 72 74 72, Lee Clarke   (Beeston Fields) 76 69 73
219 David Orr (Mearns Castle) 77 71 71, Mark Hooper (Rayleigh) 71 74 74
221 Andrew Butterfield (Sundridge Park) 70 82 69
222 Barry Taylor (Houghwood) 78 75 69
223 Steve Parry (North West GA) 75 77 71
224 Lee Thompson (Dudsbury) 75 79 70, David Ryan (Cahir Park) 78 70 76
225 Phil Abbott (John O’Gaunt) 78 73 74.