SCOTTISH BOYS CHAMPIONSHIP - Ruben Lindsay secures national boys' title at Blairgowrie

2019 Scottish Boys Champion
Ruben Lindsay (Ayr Belleisle)

Ruben Lindsay (Ayr Belleisle) secured the most important victory of his golfing career to date on Sunday 21^st July when he won the Scottish Boys Championship at Blairgowrie Golf Club.

15 year old Lindsay, a Scottish boys’ internationalist, became the ninth winner of the national boys title from Ayrshire since the event was first played in 1935.

In the semi finals on Sunday morning, Lindsay played Andrew Thornton (Muckhart) in a very exciting match which was decided on the second extra hole, after a superb fightback by Lindsay to square the match at the eighteenth.

Three  birdies in the first six holes by Thornton, against one for Lindsay, saw Ruben fall two behind early on, and when he bogeyed the seventh to three behind Ruben was up against it as the semi final match turned for home.

In the inward half the players matched each other, with only a solitary birdie from Lindsay at the twelfth allowing him to reduce the deficit to two down with two to play. Lindsay fought on regardless and a birdie par finish to the round was good enough for him to take both holes to square the match and proceed to extra holes.

At the first extra hole, a 490 yard par five, the players both birdied in fours to take the match to the 20^th and they then returned to the first tee again to play the 20^th hole of the match, which Lindsay won with an eagle three against a birdie four, to progress to the final.

In the final on Sunday afternoon Ruben Lindsay faced Cameron Gallagher (Longniddry), and the final tie also proved to be a very closely contested affair.

The first hole was halved in birdie fours but Lindsay went behind when he bogeyed the second. A birdie two at the fifth and a birdie four at the eighth from Lindsay, coupled with a bogey five by Gallagher at the seventh saw Lindsay turn the early deficit into a two hole lead which was only tempered by a birdie two from Gallagher at the ninth which saw the match reach the turn with Lindsay one ahead.

Further birdies at the twelfth and fourteenth from Gallagher saw him edge one ahead with four holes to play but again Lindsay showed his mettle with successive birdie threes at the fifteenth and sixteenth to turn the deficit back into a one hole lead with two to play.

An eagle three at the penultimate hole saw Gallagher again square the match as the final progressed to the last regulation hole but it was Lindsay who held his nerve to record a winning par four against Gallagher’s double bogey six to win the match and secure the Scottish Boys Championship title with a single hole victory.

In winning he title this year, Ruben Lindsay joins a select list of Ayrshire golfers who have previously won the Scottish Boys Championship including Andrew Miller (1950), Kelvin Thomson (1961), Bill Lockie (1964) Andrew McQueen (1985), Alan Tait (1986), Alan Reid (1992), Michael Stewart (2008) and David Wilson (2011).