The recent victory in the Scottish Boys Area team Championship, at Dullatur Golf Club, was just the third occasion that the title has been claimed by Ayrshire since the event began in 1977.
With both foursomes scores in the morning and three of the
four afternoon singles scores combining towards the team total, a good score in
the morning format by both pairings is vital and in this year’s championship
the pairings of Connor Wills (Royal Troon) and Harvey Broadfoot (Troon Welbeck)
and Jack Allan (Ballochmyle) and Max Barclay (Ayr Belleisle), with scores of 75
and 77 respectively, delivered the goods to jointly lead after the morning
foursomes, along with The North, on 152.
In the afternoon singles, Harvey (70), Max (71), Jack (78)
and Connor (82) combined to establish a team total of 371, which ultimately
gave them the title by a clear six shots from the runners up from The Lothians.
The victory in 2021 came fourteen years after Ayrshire last
won the title, at Forres Golf Club, when the team of Michael Stewart (Troon
Welbeck), Cameron Gray (West Kilbride), David Currie (Kilmarnock Barassie) and
Euan Brown (Kilmarnock Barassie) came back from fourth place after the
foursomes, and overturned a five shot deficit to again edge The Lothians into
second place with victory by two shots, with a team total of 339.
The Ayrshire players produced some spectacular scoring in
the afternoon singles that year, with three of the team posting scores under
par which left the best three scores from the four singles totalling 198, 12
under par.
Pride of place that
year went to Cameron Gray, his brilliant five under par round of 65 securing him
the Niagra Cup for the best individual score of the championship, one ahead of
Michael Stewart and two better than Euan Brown. This was the second occasion
that an Ayrshire player had secured the individual trophy, after Graeme Fox (West Kilbride) won it in 1995 at Milngavie, and is a feat which has only
been matched once since, when Marc Smith did so at Peebles in 2010.
Of the four members of the winning team in 2007, Michael
Stewart went on to enjoy an outstanding amateur career before turning
professional. Amongst his achievements in the years following the Boys Area
team Championship win, Michael secured the Scottish Amateur title in 2010 at
Gullane and the South African Amateur Championship in 2011, and was a member of
the victorious Great Britain & Ireland Walker Cup team in 2011 at Royal
Aberdeen.
The distinction of being the first Ayrshire team to win the
Area Boys team Championship fell to the team of Steven Wallace (Prestwick St Cuthbert),
Neil Lockie (Kilmarnock Barassie), Gary Holland (Ballochmyle) and Gordon Fraser
(Troon St Meddans), who triumphed at Cowglen Golf Club in Glasgow in 1998.
The victory came just weeks after Gary Holland, who later
progressed to the professional ranks before being reinstated to the amateur
game, had won the Scottish Boys Open Amateur Strokeplay championship at
Burntisland, with Scottish representative honours at boys level following on
from his win. Neil Lockie also later turned to the professional game and is now
a well respected professional and coach in the USA. Like Neil, Gordon Fraser, who won the Ayrshire Boys Championship in 1999, also
later moved from Ayrshire to the United States. Like Gary Holland, Steven
Wallace went on to represent Scotland at boys level and the following year was
a bronze medallist in the Scottish Amateur Championships, beating the defending
champion Graeme Rankin en route to the last four, and has established a successful
amateur career and reputation in the West of Scotland in the intervening years.
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