This year 19 boys travelled to Newton Stewart on Thursday 10 July to compete in the South of Scotland Boys Championships. This was the hottest day of the year so far and the difficult conditions of weather and hard fast fairways and greens provided a stern test for all the players. They all said they played well but the greens and approaches proved difficult. They all soon learned that they had to manufacture shots with the iron clubs and not always play their favourite lob wedge. A good lesson, particularly for the younger boys. In the morning round Fraser Hughes (Newton Stewart) had a fine 76 closely followed on 78 by Robert Hughan (Newton Stewart), Finlay Copland (D&G), Rowan Marchbank (D&G) and Nathan Watson (Kirkcudbright). In the afternoon Robert Hughan returned a magnificent 72 due to some magical chipping and putting. This gave him a total of 150 which none of the other boys could beat and he was duly crowned Champion for 2014. Good scores after lunch were returned by Conor Harkness (D&G) 75, Fraser Hughes (Newton Stewart) 78, Chris Shearman (Lochmaben) 78, Cameron Gray (Kirkcudbright), 79 and Angus Bendall (Castle Douglas) 79.

Results

150    Robert Hughan (Newton Stewart), 78,72

154    Fraser Hughes (Newton Stewart), 76, 78

155    Conor Harkness (D&G), 79, 75

160    Chris Shearman (Lochmaben) 82, 78

163    Andrew Kennedy (D&G), 81,82

            Rowan Marchbank (D&G) 78, 85

164    Cameron Gray (Kirkcudbright) 85, 79

            Nathan Watson (Kirkcudbright) 78, 86

            Angus Bendall (Castle Douglas), 85, 79

165     Graeme Hoodless (Newton Stewart), 80,85

167     Duncan Samson (Lochmaben) 83, 84

168    Callan Harkness (Lochmaben) 87, 81

175    Sam Solley (D&G), 88, 87

181    Robbie Smith (Wigtown & Bladnoch) 81, 100

183    Corey Brown (D&C) 89, 94

188    Jamie Marchbank (D&G) 90, 98

NR    Finlay Copland (D&G)

           William Squires (Kirkcudbright)

           R Barbour (D&G)

The CSS in the morning was 72 (reduction only) and in the afternoon 72

The boys return to Newton Stewart on Thursday 17 and Friday 18 July for the match play. The draw is:-

9.30      Robert Hughan v Jamie Marchbank

9.40      Angus Bendall v Nathan Watson

9.50      Andrew Kennedy v Callan Harkness

10.00    Sam Solley v Chris Shearman

10.10    Conor Harkness v Robbie Smith

10.20    Duncan Samson v Rowan Marchbank

10.30    Cameron Gray v Graeme Hoodless

10.40    Corey Brown v Fraser Hughes