Scottish Boys - Champion for East Lothian !

Many congratulations to Grant Forrest of Craigielaw who won the Scottish Boys on Saturday . An excellent performance and a fantastic boost for East Lothian junior golf

Here is the Press from the SGU website

 
A jubilant Grant Forrest holds the trophy aloft (PHOTO: ANDY FORMAN) 
Forrest clinches the victory (PHOTO: ANDY FORMAN)

Craigielaw’s Grant Forrest is the 2010 Scottish Boys Champion after claiming an impressive 3&2 victory over Scotland team-mate Ian Redford this afternoon at West Kilbride.

Forrest, who won the firstpointusa.com Scottish Boys U16s Championship last year at Largs, continued his love affair with the Ayrshire coast by collecting Scottish golf’s flagship junior event. The East Lothian star becomes only the second player to achieve the national U16s and Scottish Boys Championship double, more than 20 years after Colin Fraser’s feat in 1987-88.

“I’m thrilled to win,” said 16-year-old Forrest. “It’s been a long, hard week, playing nine rounds of golf and it’s still sinking in. I hadn’t really been thinking about the double but it’s a nice achievement to have. I had great support from the Craigielaw members who were out in force today, as well as my family”.

“We actually stayed in the same hotel in Largs that we used when I won last year so that brought back some good memories last night. My goal at the start of the week was to win and when I reached the quarter-finals I knew I had a really good chance. It’s great to be the Scottish Boys Champion.” he added.

The match was evenly balanced for most of the morning, with Redford seizing the initiative early on by going up at the fourth, but his lead lasted only until the eighth, when a bogey brought the match back to all square. A birdie at the 11th put Forrest in the lead and the consecutive birdies on 13 and 14 – a repeat of his semi-final yesterday – gave him a two-hole lead at the halfway stage.

Redford could not get his putter going in the afternoon, missing several chances and Forrest’s superb iron play kept the match in his favour. He went three up at the 23rd with a par and despite losing the 28th after he pulled his tee-shot out of bounds, bounced back to take the 31st and 33rd holes, sandwiched by a Redford birdie three at the 32nd. A half in pars at the 34th was good enough to give Forrest the win, another national championship for the Craigielaw club.

A disappointed Redford said:

“My putting and my iron play let me down today as I drove the ball great. The ball just would not drop in the hole for me. I managed to hole a couple of good ones at the end of the morning round which I thought would get me going, but it wasn’t to be the case.”

“I can take a lot of positives from the week however. It’s the best I’ve played in match play and I’ve improved year on year every time I’ve played the Boys Championship. Grant played the better golf on the day. He’s a great lad and an excellent golfer.”

Scottish Golf Union Events Manager Euan Mordaunt paid tribute to the host club:

“West Kilbride Golf Club have been superb hosts this week. The course stood up fantastically well despite all the rain and was in excellent condition. We would like to thank all the staff and members for looking after us and looking forward to returning for the next Championship.”