Gareth Wright staved off a spirited late thrust from Gavin Hay to win the Tartan Tour’s Northern Open at Nairn Dunbar.
Wright, who led by five shots heading into the final 36-holes, posted closing day rounds of 72 and 71 for a 12-under aggregate of 276 and pipped playing partner Hay by a single shot.
Wright had watched his healthy halfway lead cut to just one shot by defending champion Paul O’Hara in round three but it was Hay who mounted a charge in round four as he birdied the 12th, 13th and 16th before making an eagle on the final hole in a battling 68. Wright’s birdie on the 18th, however, was enough to stave off Hay’s menacing advances and give the former Scottish PGA champion another of the Tartan Tour's major titles.
“It’s been a brilliant week," admitted Wright, a former PGA Cup player. “I played just as well today as the opening two rounds but holed absolutely nothing for two rounds.
“Apart from the 15th this afternoon, I hit the ball really nicely for four rounds. That was the key. For four rounds my golf was impeccable."
Hay had no complaints about being pipped for glory by Wright, having earlier carded two eagles and five birdies but also eight bogeys in his third-round 71.
“Towards the end of that final round I just felt that Gareth gave me a couple of chances coming in after I picked up birdies on 12 and 13 and he dropped shots on 14 and 15," said the runner-up.
“But he made a great up-and-down at the 16th out of a bunker to get his birdie-4, and although I eagled the last for the third round in a row, it just wasn’t quite enough.”
O'Hara, who'd been a wire-to-wire winner at Moray Golf Club in Lossiemouth 12 months ago, reckoned he'd been unable to convert a good a chance to retain the title after closing the gap to just one after a third-round 67.
“It was really disappointing, that’s the only word for it," he said "Silly shots at the par-5s, especially on the back, nine cost me.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here