Andrew Davidson’s four-year wait for a major amateur title came to an end at Lundin where the Scottish international won the East of Scotland Championship by four shots.
FORMAT: 72-hole stroke play
The 29-year-old has been close on numerous occasions since 2019, not least in this competition. Last year he was second to Lachlan Reynolds and before that recorded seventh and fourth placed finishes.
This time around it was his time, coming from three back in the final round last night to finish on four under while last week’s Tennant Cup champion James Morgan maintained his fine run to finish second.
“It was nice to get one over the line, especially having played it so many times and been so close so often,” said the Crail Golfing Society player.
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Davidson, along with the the other leading groups – he was in the penultimate two-ball alongside Carnoustie’s Scott Mann – had to cope with driving rain throughout the back nine. That after the first four holes were played into a strong wind.
The champion added: “It started to get really heavy after we played the eighth and I knew if I could play the back nine in level par I would go close.”
Davidson’s guestimate proved to be on the money as he came home in 32 (-3), rounding things off with a spectacular birdie at the last. Having found the front of the narrow green, he rolled one straight up the hill and into the hole to close with a 69 (see video below).
Davidson said: “I found out on 16 I was two ahead but knew the group behind had chances on 16 and 17…holes I went on to par. However when that went in on 18 it removed all doubt.”
Before that came a birdie on 15 where he knocked in a 35-footer and at the par three 12th he flushed a seven iron to four feet.
However his most crucial birdie came at eight, when he sunk a 25-footer from just off the green. At the previous hole Davidson’s lay-up off the tee bounced out of bounds and he had to hole a six footer for his double at the short par four.
“After I hit my second ball I checked the scores and saw that I was level. So I knew walking off I was two behind and still in the competition.”
Morgan, playing in the final group alongside Mitchell Cowie, started bogey, bogey and was not able to recover enough ground after finding himself four over for his round after 10.
The 54-hole leader (Cowie) endured a nightnare run on the front nine of his closing effort and a triple bogey seven on the seventh effectively ended his challenge although he held on to finish third.