Kelly beats McKechnie in play-off for

Gleneagles Scottish pro championship

 Chris Kelly gets his hands on the Gleneagles Scottish professional championship trophy again after beating Paul McKechnie in a play-off this morning. Kelly previously won the championship in 2005. 

By COLIN FARQUHARSON
Chris Kelly regained the Gleneagles Scottish professional championship he won in 2005 when he holed a good putt for an eagle 3 at the first extra hole - the 18th - of a sudden-death play-off against Paul McKechnie (Braid Hills).
Both missed the fairway, Kelly on the right, McKechnie on the left.  McKechnie had the better approach shot, to within 8ft of the flagstick, compared with Kelly finishing up 15ft away.
 but could not missed the fairwayhole his putt for a half in birdies.
Kelly’s eagle putt just toppled in the front of the hole; McKechnie missed

Carnoustie's Keir McNicoll (Gullane), left, who finished in the top 20 overall on 144 (70-74), won the leading assistant award.

Making the most of the better weather on Monday night, Kelly (73-69) and McKechnie (70-69) put themselves out of reach on three-under-par 139 of the first-round leaders who were badly affected by chilling temperatures and very wet conditions when they played on Tuesday.
Twenty-eight players, including Greig Hutcheon, Gavin Hay and Paul Lawrie, completed their second rounds - the tournament having been reduced a second time, from 54 to 36 holes - earlier this morning with no change in the leading positions.
Kelly had covered a five-hole span, from the ninth to the 14th, in his second round in five under par while McKechnie birdied the 14th, 16th and 18th in his closing 69.
These sort of figures just were not possible for the leaders to attain as the rains returned.
Kelly won the £6,000 first prize and McKechnie the £4,000 runner-up cheque.
Defending champion Gareth Wright (West Linton) finished third  on 140.
You only have to look at the scores of Hutcheon (66-83) and Hay (67-83) to see what a huge difference playing in good and bad weather can have.
Paul Lawrie finished joint ninth on 143 with rounds of 70-73. 
It was the first time the Scottish professional championship had been decided over fewer than 72 holes since 1965 at Cruden Bay where John Panton and Eric Brown tied on 139 at the head of the leaderboard in a championship reduced to 36 holes. They did not have a play-off.
The last play-off in the tournament was in 2010 when Chris Doak won the championship in extra holes against Gareth Wright.
+Next year's Gleneagles Scottish professional championship will be the 100th and PGA in Scotland supremo Brian Mair will be hoping to attract a level of sponsorship worthy of such a landmark in Scottish pro golf.


FINAL TOTALS
Sunday's first round and Wednesday's final round cancelled
 Par 142 (2x71)
139 Chris Kelly (unatt) 73 66 (£6,000), Paul McKechnie (Braid Hills) 70 69 (£4,000). Kelly won play-off.
140 Gareth Wright (West Linton) 71 69 (£3,000)
141 Jonathan Lomas (Caprington) 71 70, David Orr (Eastwood) 67 74 (£1,930 each)
142  Andrew Oldcorn (Kings Acre) 71 71, Graham Fox (Clydeway Golf) 69 73, Christopher Currie (Caldwell) 66 76 (£1,300 each)
143  Mark Hillson (Tandridge) 75 68, Greg McBain (Paul Lawrie GC) 73 70, Craig Sutherland (Cherry Lodge) 70 73, P Lawrie (Carnegie Club) 70 73,  Paul Robinson (Largs) 71 72, G Brown (Montrose Links) 72 71 (£880 each)
144 Mark Kerr (Marriott Dalmahoy) 72 72, Sam Binning (Mearns Castle) 67 77, K McNicoll (Gullane) 70 74, C Ronald (Carluke) 71 73 (£660 each).
145 Steven Taylor (Bothwell Castle) 73 72 (£560)
146 Ross Drummond (unatt) 77 69, Anthony Mackrell (Playsport Golf) 76 70, Alan Duncan (Golf Moray) 71 75, Stuart Williamson (Clydeway Golf) 72 74, Colin Robinson (Elie Links) 72 74, Stephen Gray (Hayston) 72 74, S Henderson (Kings Links) 71 75 (£462 each)
147 M Loftus (Mearns Castle) 71 76, R Dixon (Renaissance) 72 75 (£410 each)
148 Alasdair Good (Gullane) 72 76, Kenny Hutton (Downfield) 72 76, Gary Dingwall (Royal Dornoch) 72  76, Paul Shields (Kirkhill) 74 74, Brian Marchbank (unatt) 74 74, Paul Wardell (North Berwick) 74 74, S Caitlin (unatt) 73 75 (£363 each)
149 Scott Herald (St Andrews Links GA) 77 72, Craig Everett (Caldwell) 74 75, Stewart Savage (Dalmuir) 74 75, Louis Gaughan (Bathgate) 76 73, Stephen McAllister) 72 77, Jason McCreadie (Largs) 71 78, C Matheson (Falkirk Tryst) 75 74, G Hutcheon (Paul Lawrie GC) 66 83 (£269 each)
150 Ian Taylor (Drumpellier) 76 74, Christopher Robinson (Portpatrick Dunskey) 70 80, Fraser Dunlop (Gleneagles) 71 79, Cameron Farrell (Cardross) 70 80, G Hay (Nairn Dunbar) 67 83, N Fenwick (Dunbar) 71 79 (£213 each).
151 Michael Patterson (Kilmacolm) 73 79. Daniel Wood (Hirsel) 76 75, Michael Mackenzie (Edzell) 74 77
152 Heather MacRae (Gleneagles) 79 73, Fraser Cromarty (Nairn) 77 75, Lee Vannet (Craibstone) 77 75, Robert Arnott (Bishopbriggs) 70 82. G Hardy (Ayr Belleisle) 76 76, S Morrison (Tain) 75 77
153 Andrew Hutchison (Douglas Park) 76 77, Steven Rettie (Callaway) 78 75, Garry Forrester (St Andrews GS) 75 78, D Laing (Craigielaw) 77 76.
154 Ken Campbell (Machrihanish) 81 73, Joel Hopwood (Royal Aberdeen) 76 78, Andrew Cooper (Newmachar) 76 78
155 Terry Mathieson (Murcar Links) 75 80, Greg Paxton (Ralston) 76 79, Sam McLaren (Blairgowrie) 77 78, Malcolm Isaacs (Newmachar) 76 79
156 Stephen Speirs (unatt) 80 76, James Dick (Duddingstn) 76 80, Patrick Walker (Ballumbie Castle) 76 80, Jonathan Sharp (Carrick on Loch Lomond) 77 79, Ian Anderson (Colville Park) 75 81, G NIven (Ping) 77 80   
157 Fraser Robertson (Lundin) 81 76, Christopher Tierney (Bishopbriggs) 75 82, Martyn Huish (North Berwick) 74 83, Matthew Burt (Helensburgh) 74 83, Rory Tinker (Piperdam) 79 78, D Stein (Ranfurly Castle) 77 80, C McMaster (Panmure) 77 80
158 Russell McIntyre (Whitekirk) 81 77
159 Ross McConnachie (Peterculter) 79 80, Ross Neil (Drumpellier) 77 82, Alasdair McDonald (Dunnikier Park) 80 79, G Hillson (Dunbar) 78 81
160 Gavin Cook (Elie Links) 78 82
161 Jonathan Porteous (Craigielaw) 78 83, Graham Mackay (Melville GR) 82 79, Derek Ramsay (Moray) 78 83.
162 Alan McCandlish (Kingsbarns) 81 81, Nigel Scott-Smith (Palacerigg) 82 80, Kamran Zeynalov (Portlethen) 79 83, Andrew Jowett (Gleneagles) 80 82, Fraser Cramb (Crieff) 82 80, Neil Cameron (Blairgowrie) 81 81,
163 Andrew McHardy (Noah's Ark GC) 78 85, Fraser Rummins (Canmore) 80 83.
164 Murray Patterson (Cruden Bay) 80 84, Ricky Gray (American Golf) 81 83
165 Paul Wytrazek (Burntisland) 86 79, Calum Lawson (Elmwood) 85 80
166 Sean Fay (Royal Dornoch) 85 81
168 Nichola Ferguson (American Golf) 83 85
169 Scott Smith (Scotscraig) 81 88, Ewan Macpherson (Auchterarder) 82 87, B Mason (Callaway) 88 81
170 Cameron Adam (Linlithgow) 83 87, Scott Costello (Strathaven) 87 83.