Paul Lawrie beats Greg McBain  in play-off 

for Scottish Par 3 title

MICHAEL MACDOUGALL REPORTS

Paul Lawrie catapulted himself to the top of the leaderboard of the inaugural Paul Lawrie Golf Centre Scottish Par 3 Championship after an impressive, eight-under par, second -ound score of 46.

The tournament host started the day six shots adrift of overnight leaders Michael Stewart and Stephen Gray, following his first round 55 (plus 1) at the Paul Lawrie Golf Centre Devenick Course but went on the attack early on day two as he surged to three under after three holes.  

A further two birdies at holes 7 and 9 saw Lawrie reach the turn in 22 (-5).  After picking-up another five shots to par on the back 9 (holes 10th, 12th, 14th, 15th & 16th), he stood on the 17th tee at -10 and proceeded to drop a shot at each of his closing two holes.  

Lawrie's seven-under total of 101 set the clubhouse target.
Greg McBain, one of several Foundation -upported professionals in the field, added to his first round effort (-2) by carding a second round score of five-under, to tie Paul's total.  

Neither Michael Stewart nor Stephen Gray managed better than par and finished in a tie for third place on 103 (-5), alongside 16 year old amateur and Foundation player Sam Locke.  

Locke's impressive rounds of 53 and 50 saw the youngster win the leading amateur prize but more importantly gave Sam some great experience playing alongside seasoned tournament professionals like Alastair Forsyth, Michael Stewart and Neil Fenwick, over the course of the 36 hole event.
The play-off between Lawrie and McBain on the ninth was decided at the second time of asking, after they halved in par the first time around.  

On the second play-off hole, Lawrie hit his tee shot to 7ft and holed for a 2 after McBain failed to find the putting surface from the tee, chipped and missed his return putt.
John Duff and Graham Fox each achieved a hole-in-one and received £1,000 apiece.  John's came at the 7th hole of his second round and Graham's on his 36th hole of the Championship.

LEADING FINAL TOTALS

Par 108 (2x54)

101 Paul Lawrie 55 46, Greg McBain 55 46 (Lawrie won play-off at second extra hole).

103 Sam Locke (am) 53 50, Stephen Gray 49 54, Michael Stewart 49 54

105 Sally Watson 57 48, John Duff 55 50, Neil Fenwick 54 51, Sam Kiloh 54 51, Ross Kellett 51 54

106 Sean Lawrie (am) 56 50

107 Ross Cameron 55 52, Chris Currie 52 55, Greig Hutcheon 52 55, Jordan Findlay 51 56.

108 Graham Fox 57 51, Alastair Forsyth 55 53, Jason McCreadie 54 54

109 Craig Lawrie 57 72, David Law 51 58, Craig Ronald 51 58, Scott Henderson 50 59

110 Kris Nicol 56 54, Reece Mitchell 56 54, Alan Stuart 53 57

111 Gavin Hay 54 57

113 Paul Shields 56 57

114 Michael Lawrie (am) 57 57, Paul McKechnie 52 62.

116 Shannon McWilliam (am) 64 52

117 Heather MacRae 55 62

118 Kelsey MacDonald 66 52, Ian Dudman 57 61.

125 David Thomson 64 61, David Kenny 58 67.