Bruce on top as Scottish Am match play begins

PERTH, Scotland (Aug. 1, 2018) –Callum Bruce finished as the top qualifier at the Scottish Men’s Amateur Championship on Wednesday after carding a second-round 66 on Blairgowrie’s Rosemount Course to finish with an impressive total of 7-under par.

Sandy Scott returned the lowest round of the day on the Lansdowne Course, a 5-under 67, to go into Thursday’s match-play stages as the No. 2 seed after finishing at 6 under.

Jamie Stewart produced a blemish-free 65 in the second round to finish qualifying with a share of the third spot. Euan McIntosh and Michael Brodie are also at 5 under with Stewart.

“I played well over the two days, the main difference between today and yesterday was that I finished my round stronger, with three birdies instead of bogeys,” top seed Bruce said. “The Rosemount is going to be a great course for the match-play stages. A lot of holes could be tied with birdies, however if you hit if off-line you could be staring at a bogey. It’s going to be an exciting few days of golf.”

Overnight leader Eric McIntosh, who tied the Rosemount Course record in Round 1 with 8-under 66, carded a 4-over 76 Wednesday but is safely through to the match-play stages after finishing in a share of sixth place.

“Yesterday I took advantage of the par 5s, played solid and holed some good putts,” McIntosh said. “Today was a bit more of a struggle. I hit the ball well but wasn’t so good on the greens.

“When you come into the week the first goal is to get into the match-play draw, so that is done and in match play anything can happen. All you can do is take one match at a time, enjoy it and see what happens.”

McIntosh laughed at his differing fortunes over the first two days.

“For sure, after my two rounds, it is definitely good news for me that the match-play stages are on the Rosemount Course,” he said.

The match-play cut fell at 2 over, with Scott Macpherson and Dan Lawrence agonizingly missing out on reaching the 64-man match-play stage on a count-back.