Gareth Wright wins £4,500 as runner-up at 

Mar Hall EuroPro Tour 36-hole event 

NEWS RELEASE BY NICK TEALE

Jonathan Thomson from Rotherham  won the HotelPlanner.com PGA EuroPro Tour’s Glenfarclas Open at Mar Hall, Bishopton near Glasgow -  his first professional victory four weeks after leaving the amateur ranks. He earned the £10,000 top prize

The 20-year-old carded a final-round 69 - one under par - to finish eight under, two clear of Craig Farrelly (TPS; 68, 66) and Gareth Wright (West Linton Golf Club; 66, 68), who shared second. They earned £4,500 each.

The tournament had been reduced to 36 holes after Thursday’s play was abandoned due to heavy and persistent rain. That meant 18-hole leader Thomson (Rotherham) began the final round with a two-shot lead.

He dropped two shots early on with bogeyss at the second and fourth holes but returned to seven under with birdies at the sixth and ninth. A solid back nine of eight pars and a birdie 4 at the par-five 15^th in tough conditions was enough for the Yorkshireman to earn the victory.

“It feels great to get the first professional win,” said Thomson, who takes home £10,000 along with a brand new Motocaddy S1 Lithium trolley, Bushnell Tour X Range Finder and Bolle Sunglasses.

“I don’t know if it has quite sunk in yet but it is great to have got the job done today. It wasn’t easy and I had a bit of a frustrating start but I dug in well and I kept going.

“I told myself that it is tough for everybody, not just myself so I stayed patient. I was hitting good putts that did not go in but I stayed focused and the putts started to drop.

“It was tough, the greens were difficult to read – you want to allow for a little more break when you know really it won’t break that much, and I did over-borrow a few on the back nine.”

Among the six players who shared fourth place on five under par was Billy Hemstock (Teignmouth), who moves up one place to third on the Race To Desert Springs Order of Merit, from which the top five at the end of the season earn a Challenge Tour card in 2017.

Dunbar's Neil Fenwick finished as the top Scot with scores of 67 and 68 for joint fourth place and a £1,475 cheque.
Ryan Campbell (Falkirk) and John Henry (Clydebank and District) tied for 10th place on 136 which earned them £862 each.

Highlights of the Glenfarclas Open will be broadcast on Sky Sports on Tuesday, September 20. The next HotelPlanner.com PGA EuroPro Tour event is the Clipper Logistics Championship at Moor Allerton Golf Club, which commences on Wednesday, September 21. The tournament will be the last of the season before the top 60 players are invited to play the Matchroom Sport Tour Championship at Desert Springs Resort in Spain.
 LEADING TOTALS AND PRIZEMONEY
Par 140 (2x70)
132 J Thomson (Eng) 63 69 (£10,000).
134 C Farrelly (Eng) 68 66, G Wright (West Linton) 66 68 (£4,500 each).

SCOTS' SCORES
135 N Fenwick (Dunbar) 67 65 (T4) (£1,475)
136 R Campbell (Falkirk) 69 67, J Henry (Clydebank and Dist) 68 68 (T10) (£862 each).
139 Z Saltman (Archerfield) 69 70, J McColl (Kingsbarns PA) 68 71, Elliot Saltman (Archerfield) (£26) (£402 each)
140 J Steven (Clydeway Golf) 70 70 (T36) (£365)
141 M Patterson (Kilmacolm) 67 74 (T40) (£340).
142 W Booth (Eastwood) 70 72 (T48) (£315)
144 A Culverwell (Dunbar) 70 74, G Forbes (Mar Hall) 70 74 (T54) (£282 each)
149 C Sutherland (Lynx Golf) 69 80 (61st) (£255)
154 S Borrowman (Dollar) 67 87 (62nd) (£250)

 The full leaderboard can be found here: https://europro.bluegolf.com/bluegolf/europro16/event/europro1615/contest/1/leaderboard.htm