JAMES BYRNE WINS NORTHERN OPEN AGAIN- WITH A RECORD TOTAL

Alexander Culverwell (left) with the Bookless Cup as leading amateur, and James Byrne with the Northern Open championship trophy for the second year in a row at Meldrum House. Picture by 
                                            Cal Carson Golf Agency

By COLIN FARQUHARSON
Colin@scottishgolfview.com
Banchory's James Byrne set a Northern Open low scoring record aggregate and became the first player since the mid-1990s to win the title two years in a row at Meldrum House Golf Club, Oldmeldrum today.
Trailing the 2011 winner, David Law (Paul Lawrie Golf Centre) by five shots at the halfway stage, Byrne caught him over the morning third round with a 63 to Law's 68 and then finished a shot ahead of the Aberdonian - 65 to a 66 - after the afternoon 18 holes to take the £4,000 prize and the prestigious title, being contested for the 75th time.
Byrne burned up the par-70 parkland lay-out with scores of 67, 66, 63 and 65 for a 19-under-par total of 261. And yet he arrived so late from his Asian Tour travels that he did not have time for a practice round this week!
Last year Byrne's winning total was 268.
The previous lowest four-round winning Northern Open total was 264 by Peter Smith in 1992 at Murcar.
The last man to win the title two years in a row was Elgin's Kevin Stables in 1993-94.
"Hopefully, this will give me the springboard to get my pro career really going. I feel that if I could make it to the European Tour, I could hold my own there," said the 24-year-old Byrne whose next tournament is Stage 1 qualifying for the European Tour School.
If Byrne - who was 12 under par for the final 36 holes at Meldrum House - could carry over his Northern Open scoring exploits to the Q School, he would sail over the barriers between him and the "big time."
"I hit every green in regulation in the morning 63, in fact I thought at one stage I could shoot a 59, so that gave me a share of the lead with one round to go.
"I managed to get two ahead of David (Law) on the outward half of the last round and then got a birdie at the 10th and an eagle 3 at the 11th.
"I needed them in the end because I bogeyed the 13th and 15th as well as birdieing the 14th and 17th.
"People were congratulating me when I finished but I was not taking anything for granted. David Law is a great player and I knew he could close the gap over the closing holes. In the end he came up just one short."
In his winner's speech, Byrne said he was of the opinion that the Meldrum House greens were the best he had played on all year on his travels around the world. Law, winner of the title as an amateur in 2011, had rounds of 63, 65, 68 and 66 for a total of 262 - the second lowest 72-hole aggregate in the history of a tournament first played in 1933
This was the 75th staging of the event, and was sponsored by AVC Media.
"Nine pars on the final outward half really gave me too much ground to make up on James," said the 22 year old Law who was six under par for the final 36 holes, six more than Byrne.
"I bogeyed the 11th, got an eagle 3 at the 11th and birdied the 13th, 16th and 17th for 31 home but I would have had to come home in six-under 29, as I did in the first two rounds, to have won."
But Law did get close. Had he been able to hole a downhill 8ft birdie putt at the short 18th, then there would have been a play-off. It was as close as that.
Law, who earned £2,750 for his gallant Meldrum House effort, has won twice as a pro - in Morocco and Turkey on the EPD Tour - since he won the Northern Open as an amateur in 2011. He heads back to the EPD Tour in Germany next week. 
Here is a comparison of Byrne's and Law's final-day figures:
JAMES BYRNE
ROUND 3 
OUT - 3 4 3 4 4 3 4 4 4: 32
 IN - 3 4 3 4 4 3 3 4 3: 31
ROUND 4
OUT - 4 3 3 4 4 3 4 4 4: 33
 IN - 2 3 4 5 3 4 5 3 3: 32
DAVID LAW
ROUND 3
OUT - 4 4 3 4 4 3 4 4 4: 34
 IN - 3 5 5 4 3 3 4 4 3: 34
ROUND 4
OUT - 4 4 3 4 5 3 4 4 4: 35
 IN - 4 3 4 3 4 3 4 3 3: 31

The par of the course is:
OUT - 4 4 3 4 5 3 4 4 4: 35
 IN - 3 5 4 4 4 3 5 4 3: 34
 
Graham Fox (Clydeway Golf) collected the £2,000 prize for finishing third on 265. His third-round 63 put him in the picture but he needed another score of that quality to challenge the leaders - and it did not happen. Graham closed with a 68.
Scottish amateur champion Alexander Culverwell won the Bookless Cup as the leading amateur.
The 25-year-old Dunbar man (he will be 26 next week), who still has a year to go in his studies at Stirling University, matched the third round lowest score of seven-under-63 and finished in joint ninth place overall on nine under par 271 - two shots ahead of the only other amateur to survive the halfway cut, 19 year old professional's son, Jamie Savage (Cawder).
Savage, winner of the recent East of Scotland Open 72-hole SGU Order of Merit event at Lundin links, staged a grandstand finish with a 64 for 273.
A second-round 73, which included 37 putts, made all the difference, in a negative way, for young Savage.   

 FINAL TOTALS
Par 280 (4x70)
261 James Byrne (Banchory) 67 66 63 65 (£4,000)
262 David Law (Paul Lawrie Golf Centre) 63 65 68 66 (£2,750)
265 Graham Fox (Clydeway Golf) 64 70 63 68 (£2,000)
267 Greig Hutcheon (Banchory) 69 65 68 65 (£1,600)
268 Scott Henderson (Kings Links) 62 69 69 68 (£1,200)
269 Greg McBain (Gamola Golf) 68 67 67 67 (£1,000)
270 Christopher Currie (Caldwell) 68 67 67 68, Chris Kelly (Cawder) 69 65 69 67 (£850 each)
271 Robert Arnott (Bishopbriggs) 65 69 69 68 (£700), Alexander Culverwell (Dunbar) (am) 71 67 63 70
272 Andrew Crerar (Panmure) 65 68 68 71 (£600)
273 Kenny Hutton (Downfield) 68 70 65 70, David Patrick (Kingsfield) 66 71 66 70, David Orr (Mearns Castle) 69 68 68 68 (£475 each), Jamie Savage (Cawder) (am) 66 73 70 64
275 Paul Wardell (Whitekirk) 72 67 68 68, Mark Loftus (Mearns Castle) 70 67 70 68, Jonathan Cliff (Murrayfield) 68 72 67 68, Craig Matheson (Falkirk Tryst) 69 71 67 68, Paul O'Hara (Clydeway Golf) 71 69 68 67 (£393 each)
276 Stephen Gray (Hayston) 71 65 67 73, Jonathan Lomas (Caprington) 67 67 72 70 (£355 each)
279 Stephen Lamb (Macdonald Cardrona) 72 66 68 73, Jason McCreadie (Buchanan Castle) 72 69 71 67, Mark King (Kingsfield) 70 70 69 70 (£330 each)
280 Craig Ronald (Carluke) 69 70 71 70 (£305)
282 James McKinnon (Irvine) 71 70 71 70, Philip McLean (Paul Lawrie Golf Centre) 69 72 70 71, Greg Paxton (Ralston) 70 69 71 72 (£280 each)
283 Christopher Russell (RAW golf course design)70 70 74 69, Malcolm Isaacs (Paul Lawrie Golf Centre) 68 71 74 70 (£255 each).
285 Fraser Mann (Musselburgh) 69 70 74 72, Patrick Walker (Ballumbie Castle) 71 68 72 74 (£235 each)
286 Ross Dixon (Renaissance) 70 71 73 72, Iain Donaldson (Meldrum House) 71 70 73 72 (£217 each)
287 Graeme Brown (Montrose Links) 70 69 79 69 (£210)
290 Terry Mathieson (Murcar Links) 67 74 70 79 (£205)
294 Calum Lawson (Wellsgreen) 71 70 81 72 (£200).