AYRSHIRE BOYS MATCHPLAY CHAMPIONSHIP - Double celebration for Callum Beveridge

2011 Ayrshire Boys Matchplay Champion
Callum Beveridge

Callum Beveridge (Troon Welbeck) became the 2011 Ayrshire Boys Matchplay Champion on Thurday evening, 11th August, when he defeated the defending champion and clubmate David Wilson by 2 & 1 in the final at Prestwick Golf Club.

having won the Ayrshire Boys Championship just one week previously, Callum Beveridge became only the third player to win both the strokeplay and matchplay titles in the same year, after Hugh McKibbin in 1990 and Scott Brown in 2008, whilst also denying David Wilson the unique achievement of three successive titles.

Having endured terrible weather conditions in the semi finals on Wednesday, the players began in better, if not ideal, conditions in the final with light rain enduring off and on throughout the match.

Both players opened with pars at the first and second before David Wilson took the lead at the third with a birdie four, only to see the match squared again at the fourth when he could only manage a bogey five.

A par three at the Himalayas hole was sufficient for Wilson to restore his lead after five holes but again Beveridge levelled the match when Wilson double bogeyed the eighth hole and then took the lead for the first time when a par four was good enough to give hm the ninth hole.

Pars at the tenth and eleventh, where both players got up and down from greenside bunkers for their threes, kept Beveridge one hole ahead but he got into trouble at the twelfth and conceded the hole to Wilson to return the match to all square. A superb par four at the difficult thirteenth hole gave Beveridge the advantage again and with the fourteenth halved in par fours, the players entered the closing loop with Beveridge holding the slimmest of advantages.

At the fifteenth, Beveridge secured a regulation four whilst Wilson needed to hole a tricky five foot downhill putt to prevent falling two behind, which he did succesfully.

2011 Boys Matchplay finalists
Callum Beveridge & David Wilson

At the short par four sixteenth, Beveridge's tee shot pulled up just short of the green whilst Wilson's tee shot went right, finishing in heavy grass within the Cardinal bunker. To his credit, Wilson played his second just over the green and chipped up for a conceded par four, but Beveridge putted up to within a few inches of the hole and his birdie three was conceded, leaving him dormie two in the match.

At the 391 yard par four Alps hole, the penultimate hole of the course, both players found ideal position from the tee, and both played good second shots which found the putting surface within 20 feet of the hole.

Putting first, Wilson's effort for a birdie three just failed to drop and Callum Beveridge was left with the task of two putting for the championship. His birdie putt ran just past the hole but finished sufficiently close to ellicit a concession from David Wilson and Callum Beveridge became the new champion by a score of 2 & 1 in the final.

Ayrhsire Golf Association President David Miller (Kilmarnock Barassie) presented vouchers to both finalists at the conclusion of the match before handing the trophy and commemmorative medal over to the 2011 winner.