BENJAMIN WESCOE WINS BOYD QUAICH MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT

REPORT FROM ST ANDREWS BY THOMAS MARR 
Benjamin Wescoe (University of Cambridge) won the 2011 Boyd Quaich Memorial Tournament after holding off the challenge from Sean Fotheringhame (St Andrews). Wescoe led by one stroke after 54 holes and at one stage in the final round he had a commanding five-shot advantage but a determined display from Fotheringhame meant that the final result came down the last two putts.
In the end both winner and runner-up scored 71 over the Old course and Wescoe’s winning total of five-under-par 281 is a new scoring record for this event, first played in 1946.
The first two rounds of the event were played in heavy showers which made scoring difficult. The 36-hole cut to identify the top-30 players was 10-over par (153) and at that stage the leaders were three ahead of Ian O’Rouke (Cork) in third position. The remainder of the field were up to nine shots behind Fotheringhame at the top of the leaderboard.
In Round 3, Wescoe (67) and Fotheringhame (70) played together and managed to put a sizeable distance between themselves and the rest of the field. In third place was Daniel Sommerville (Dundee) who scored 69 to move up to 3rd. Graeme Robertson (Stirling was another who managed to break par and his 69 moved him up from 28th to a tie for 9th with one round to play.
At this stage it was already looking as if it might be a shoot-out between Wescoe and Fotheringhame and that is what happened during the last 18 holes played over the Old Course.
Wescoe started the fourth round with two pars and two birdies to increase his lead from one to three shots. Blustery conditions made par golf a challenge but Wescoe hit a rich vein of form as others floundered. He added birdies on the 5th, 6th and 7th too to be out in 31 strokes and when he birdied the 10th he was six-under for his round.
Fotheringhame was only able to make one birdie in reply and so the lead was stretched to five shots. Sommerville, the third player in the group, made several mistakes and struggled to the turn in 41 to be 15 shots behind Wescoe which is testament to the high standard of play.
The neutral would be forgiven that thinking that the tournament was effectively over at that point. However, with the back nine playing into the wind it was not to be plain sailing for Wescoe. He stumbled to bogeys on 11, 13, 14, and 16 while Fotheringhame was managing par golf and so with two holes to play the lead was just one shot again.
In the end both Fotheringhame and Wescoe could only manage matching bogey 5s on the famous 17th or Road Hole and so when both players hit the 18th green in two and left themselves similar 15 foot putts for birdie, the result was still in doubt.
Wescoe putted first and missed which meant that Fotheringhame had a putt for the title – had he holed he would have tied Wescoe’s 72-hole total but he would have won by virtue of the lower final round score.
When he missed, both players tapped-in for par and Wescoe was champion by the narrowest of margins. The final 36 holes were tremendously close and both players produced golf of the highest calibre as they moved themselves fully eight shots clear of the nearest challenger.
The Boyd Quaich is organised and run by the Athletic Union of the University of St Andrews, and receives significant grant aid from the Royal and Ancient Golf Club with support from the St Andrews Links Trust.
Without this financial help it would not be possible for many of these young golfers, especially from overseas, to be able to play in this prestigious WAGR-counting event.
FINAL TOTALS
(Order of rounds: New Course, Old Course, New, Old)
Par 286 (2x72, 2x71)
281 Benjamin Wescoe (Cambridge) 73 70 67 71.
282 Sean Fotheringhame (St Andrews) 70 71 70 71.
290 Steven Smith (Heriot Watt) 75 74 71 70, Ian O’Rouke (Cork) 74 70 72 74.
292 Bobby Rushford (Stirling) 69 77 71 75.
293 Daniel Sommerville (Dundee) 73 73 69 78.
295 Graeme Robertson (Stirling0 76 77 69 73.
298 Clark Nelson (Clayton State) 76 73 74 75, Karl Ochse (Stellenbosch) 74 76 73 75.
300 Peter Reilly (US Naval Academy) 74 77 74 75, Claudio Consul (Oxford) 78 75 72 75.
301 Sebastian Backlund (Francis Marion) 79 71 75 76, Gerard Kelly (UC Dublin) 78 69 66 66, Jonathan Corke (St Andrews) 76 72 71 82.
302 Stefan Rall (Pretoria) 74 74 75 69, Christopher McManus (Clayton State) 78 72 72 80.
303 David Calder (Edinbu8rgh) 79 71 77 76, Declan King 9Cork) 74 72 79 78, Ryan Cribben (Ulster) 74 74 72 83.
304 Andy Weir (Francis Mario) 76 74 74 80.
305 Stephen Walsh (UC Dublin) 75 77 75 78.
307 Laurie Potter (Exeter) 76 76 80 75.
308 Paul Reavey (Ulster)( 74 76 80 78, Daniel Bishop (Bournemouth) 79 74 77 78, James Billingham (Bournemouth) 76 75 76 81, Jean-Samuel Rancourt (Waterloo) 76 73 74 85.
310 Malcolm Pennycott (Heriot Watt) 76 72 80 82, Tai Yasuda (Loughborough) 74 76 77 83.
316 Conor Finlay (Dundee) 79 73 84 80.
324 Davey Clarke (Aberystwyth) 75 77 79 93.