Race to Dunbar final brilliance from Gullane teenager
FORMAT: 18-hole stroke play
In its 10th playing Oliver Mukherjee recorded the best ever score in the Stephen Gallacher Foundation’s season-ending Race to Dunbar final yesterday.
The Scottish Amateur champion won by five shots and was in irresistible form despite the windy conditions. After 13 holes he was seven under before closing with a 66 (-5). The previous best in the final was a 68 by Craigmillar Park’s Emma Morrison in 2016.
The event was first played in 2012 and brings together the leading players in the Foundation’s Order of Merits plus there were invites for those at the top of the junior game in Scotland and Mukherjee certainly fits that bill.
The 16-year-old, who also shot a dazzling course-record 64 on his to victory at a Junior Tour Scotland event at Royal Dornoch in April, admitted lofty ambitions slightly got the better of him as he bogeyed 14 and 15 with victory assured.
“When I checked the scores after 13 holes I knew I was well clear and thought five more birdies would give me a 59,” said the 16-year-old, whose twin brother Samuel won the Race to Machrie final last week.
“That maybe wasn’t the best plan but you live and learn. Until that point everything I looked at went in. I drove the ball well, the iron game was good and I was putting really well so it was definitely a good day.”
Mukherjee reached the turn in just 32, setting a blistering pace that his brother Samuel came close to matching, He would turn in 33 but faded on the back nine before eventually finishing third, one shot back of runner-up Dominic McGlinchey (The Renaissance).
McGlinchey was also bogey free heading out before finishing level par while the soon-to-be champion racked up seven birdies in 13 holes, including the first and second, which are both par fives.
With the wind at his back the 475-yard opener was reduced to a drive a wedge and then he got up and down impressively at the next, draining a 15-footer.
Two pars followed before an excellent two at the long par three fifth was the scene of the next birdie, the Gullane junior knocking it in from 45 feet.
At seven his wedge did most of the work as he struck his 80-yard approach to three feet and at the next he got to five under as he drove just short of the green at the 370-yarder before getting up and down.
The start of the back nine was proving problematic for the field and Mukherjee needed all his short-game excellence to get up and down for a par having short-sided himself at 11 but then back-to-back birdies left him eyeing all kinds of personal records with victory assured.
First and foremost was the seven under he posted on the Struie course at Royal Dornoch in spring but the first bogey arrived at 14 as he caught a flier with his approach and could not get up and down from behind the green.
He then dropped back to five under at the next as he missed a short one for his par but victory was never in doubt and he claimed the title won by his Scottish Boys international colleague Connor Graham (Blairgowrie) last year.