Day 3 Report: Bell Tops Three-Way Playoff to win Scottish Senior Men’s Open Championship
21, JUNE 2019
Downfield’s Graham Bell has been crowned 2019 Scottish Senior Men’s Open Champion in brutal conditions at Luffness New Golf Club.
For the second year in a row, the title was decided by a three-man play-off after Bell, Ian Attoe and Robert Smith finished tied on eight-over par.
Bell’s chances of victory looked to have ended at the 14thin the final round when he made a double-bogey seven, but a birdie at the 16thhole followed by pars at 17 and 18, saw him claim a spot in the playoff with a five-over par final round of 75.
Attoe and Smith joined Bell in the playoff after closing rounds of 75 and 77 as the blustery conditions made scoring extremely tough in East Lothian.
On the first extra hole, Bell and Smith both made par, but Englishman Attoe made bogey to end his chances of adding the Scottish title to his recent English Men’s Senior Open victory.
Smith, who had led by two going into today’s final round, could only make bogey on the second playoff hole, meaning Bell’s second par in a row was enough to see him crowned 2019 Scottish Senior Men’s Open Champion.
Speaking to Scottish Golf after winning the three-man playoff, a delighted Bell said, “Playoffs are always difficult so it’s good to come out a victor! It’s been a hard week and you’re playing against a lot of great players.”
On the 1stplayoff hole, Bell decided to be bold and hit driver for the first time this week.
Talking about the brave move, Bell said, “I just thought I would take it on. I’ve been getting bogeys out of laying up short this week, so I just thought I would try and put the guys under pressure by taking on the driver and it worked this time.
“Play-offs are always difficult to work out what’s going to happen, but you’ve just got to be on the front foot and try your best to take the opportunity.
Finally, on this week’s extremely tough conditions, the 2019 Champion said, “It’s been hard. You know you’re going to have bad holes, but the good thing is you know everyone else is going to have bad holes as well. You need to really knuckle down and make the best of it. You’ve just got to work hard and try and keep in contention.”
The round of the day belonged to Moray’s Graham Murray who only made the cut by one yesterday but propelled himself up the leaderboard early this morning with a one-over par round of 71.
When Murray finished his round, he was 10 shots back from the lead, but the tough conditions meant that his round of 71 saw him finish only three back in a tie for eighth. 2018 winner Ronnie Clark battled hard as he looked to defend his title, but a closing round of 77 meant he had to settle for tied-16th.
The over-65 prize for this week’s Championship went to Tulliallan’s Robert Stewart who finished on 18-over for the week after a final round of 79.
For a full list of results from this year’s Scottish Senior Men’s Open Championship, please click the link below:
- View the scores from the 2019 Scottish Senior Men’s Open Championship here
posted by Colin | See story on its own page | Tuesday, June 25, 2019
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