Scottish Golf View - Golf News from Around the World: BANCHORY'S SAM LOCKE FINISHES TOP SCOT BEHIND FIRST FRENCH WINNER OF SCOTTISH UNDER-16 BOYS' TITLE

Matthieu Caron driving off from the first in his final round at Portlethen. He is the first French boy ever to win the Scottish Under-16s title. Picture by Cal Carson Golf Agency.

By COLIN FARQUHARSON
Colin@scottishgolfview.com
Matthieu Caron, one of 17 French players in the field, won the Scottish Under-16 boys' open amateur stroke-play championship by a single shot from one of his compatriots, Edgar Catherine and Italy's Guido Migliozzi at Portlethen Golf Club today (Friday).

Caron, pictured with the trophy by Cal Carson Golf Agency, the first French lad to win this tournament, was perhaps destined to be a leader - he comes from Charles de Gaulle's birthplace of Lille, a town on France's northern border with Belgium.
But the gap between the Bondues Golf Club member, who does not hold any French junior titles and is 613th in the European Golf Rankings, and the field was steadily reduced over the final round.
Thirteen-year-old compatriot Antoine Kuoch, was the tournament leader at halfway by one stroke from Caron but he dropped out of contention for the title with a third-round 78. In contract, Caron showed no signs of slackening off with a morning 70 for a six-under par tally of 210.
That saw him lead by three strokes from Migliozzi (69-213) on a very hot afternoon when the temperature was up in the 20s.
Whether the heat got to Caron, who will have his 15th birthday on July 15, is debatable but his final round of three-over-par 75 for a total of three-under 285 was by far his worst of the three days.
After an eagle 3 at the second he bogeyed the sixth, eighth, ninth, 10th and 13th, pulling out of his nosedive just in time with a birdie at the 14th and four straight pars to hold the fast-finishing Catherine and Migliozzi at bay.
Catherine took too long to warm up with rounds of 74 and 75, which was only two shots inside the halfway cut. But he had the best last-day 36-hyole tally of 137 (68-69) which saw him make up six of the seven shots by which he trailed leader Matthieu at the start of the final day.
Catherine birdied the 13th, 15th and 18th in an inward 33.
On his long journey home from North-east Scotland, Catherine will be reflecting on bogeys at the eighth and ninth, which, in the final analysis, meant the difference between victory and finishing joint runner-up

Banchory Golf Club junior Sam Locke, pictured on the first tee this afternoon by Cal Carson Golf Agency, finished the top Scot in joint fifth place with two last-day rounds of 71 for level par 288. His final round was steadiness personified with 15 pars, two birdies (long fourth and long 18th) and one bogey (short 12th).
Locke birdied the long fourth in every one of his rounds and birdied the long 18th in the second, third and fourth rounds.
Stonehaven-based Sam is the14-year-old stepson of Andrew Locke, who as a youngster played interntional golf and football for Scotland, but is better known now as one of the busiest coaches on the Paul Lawrie Golf Centre staff at Ardoe and a swing expert highly rated by Lawrie himself.
"Sam deserves all the credit for his high finish against very good opposition. I keep him right but he works hard on his game and his handicap has come down from 10 to two since the start of the year," said Andrew who stayed in the vicinity of the clubhouse rather than put added pressure on the youngster by following him round.
"We decided we would not change anything for the last round and I had not gone round with him previously. We are all very proud of him."
In all there were three Scots in the top 10, not a bad performance at all, given the strength of the international opposition. Calum Fyfe (Cardross), the first-round leader with a 67 (the lowest score of the tournament), finished tied seventh on 289 (the same mark has halfway front runner Kuoch who signed off with a 72) and Murray Naysmith (Marriott Dalmahoy) was 10th on 290, signing off with a 69, his best round of the four.
In joint 12th position on 292 were Cameron Black (Cardross) and Niall McMullen (Lundin).
The leading English boy was Nathan Longley from Worthing, Sussex, joint fifth with Locke on 288. There were no other boys from England in the leading 12.

FINAL TOTALS
Par 288 (4x72) CSS 72 72 72 72 Yardage: 6,663
285 Matthieu Caron (France) 68 72 70 75
286 Edgar Catherine (France) 74 75 68 69, Guida Miglozzi (Italy) 75 69 69 73.
287 Daniel Hebenstreit (Austria) 73 69 76 69
288 Sam Locke (Banchory) 74 72 71 71, Nathan Longley (Worthing) 68 76 73 71.
289 Calum Fyfe (Cawder) 67 77 71 74, Giovanni Tadiotto (Italy) 73 73 71 72, Antoine Kuoch (France) 69 70 78 72.
290 Murray Naysmith (Marriott Dalmahoy) 74 73 74 69
291 Alberto Castagnara (Italy) 75 73 71 72.
292 Cameron Black (Cardross) 72 75 73 72, Niall McMullen (Lundin) 71 71 75 75.
293 Thomas Jordan (Langley Park) 74 75 72 72.
294 David Ravetto (France) 76 75 73 70, Jeong-weon Ko (France) 71 78 75 70, Alex Chalk (Dumfries and Galloway) 73 74 71 76, Adonis Asikian (Fra) 75 75 70 74, Thomas Murray (Moor Allerton) 73 74 72 75, Robert Watson (Muckhart) 77 71 70 76.
295 Leo Mathard (France) 75 71 75 74.
296 Christopher Curran (Harburn) 74 74 74 74, Glen Burrett (Haggs Castle) 74 74 74 74
298 Valentin Darthout (France) 76 75 78 69, Duncan McNeill (Powfoot) 74 69 78 77, Theophile Perrod (France) 76 74 70 78, Victor Morrison-Courderc (France) 77 72 73 76, Robbie Kemsley (Balmore) 69 75 80 74.
299 Patrick Brennan (Belvoir Park) 74 75 76 74, Lewis Reid (Tantallon) 74 76 75 74
300 Thomas Thurloway (Mannings Heath) 75 74 79 72, Conor Toal (Old Ranfurly) 75 76 75 74
301 Joseph Bryce (Bathgate) 74 77 78 72.
302 Peter Kerr (Royal Portrush) 73 78 75 76, Diego Manzoni (Italy) 76 72 79 75
303 Aran Sinclair (Bearsden) 76 72 75 80
304 Sandy Scott (Nairn) 75 74 81 74, Chris Finnie (Lockerbie) 74 76 78 76.
305 Marc Boucher (Carton House) 75 76 77 77, Nino Clavuot (Swi) 75 75 75 80
307 Julien Hausweiler (Germany) 77 74 77 70
309 Nikolaj Dahl (Denmark) 74 75 86 74, Andrew Thomson (Lanark) 77 74 76 82, Brad Bannerman (Strathmore) 78 73 78 80, Sam Britton (North Foreland) 74 74 78 83.
310 John-Paul Ralph (Royal Liverpoool) 79 72 82 77.

Murray Naysmith in action at Portlethen on his way to a 10th place finish. Picture by Cal Carson Golf Agency.

Editor apologises to Calum Fyfe (the second highest Scottish finisher) for not displaying a picture of him ... sadly the ones he took at Portlethen of Calum were not good enough for reproduction.