Closing birdies net Hay Tomatin title

Nairn Dunbar's Gavin Hay capped a breakthrough season - he won the Scottish young professionals' title earlier - by winning the lucrative Tomatin Single Malt 54-hole pro-am over the classic links of Royal Dornoch, Nairn and Castle Stuart.

A five-under par total of 208 with a three-under 68 at Nairn, a four-under 68 at Castle Stuart  and a one-over 71 to close at windy Royal Dornoch earned the 23-year-old victory by one shot and with it a £6,000 prize.

Hay's glory run actually began in the second round on Wednesday when he covered the last nine holes at Castle Stuart in 31 shots.

Conditions were much more difficult at all three venues for the final round but Hay, who hails from Grantown on Spey, kept calm under mounting pressure.

Joint runners-up Neil Fenwick (Dunbar) and Stephen Gray (Hayston), winner of the tournament for the past two years, had already posted their totals of five-under-par 208 while Hay was birdieing the fifth, sixth and ninth to be out in 33 at Royal Dornoch.

Then came a potentially catastrophic triple bogey seven at the 11th followed by bogeys at the 13th and 16th. Hay probably did not know it at the time but that put him one shot behind Fenwick and Gray, needing a birdie-birdie finish to leapfrog of them.

Which is precisely what he did to win by a shot.

Fenwick and Gray had the consolation of earning £4,500 for their good, but not quite good enough efforts.

Dutchman Wouter de Vries and the High Clay team of four-handicapper Edwin Clave, Bastiaan Geurtsen (10) and Roy Van Vessen (18) won the three-round pro-am with 258 Stableford points. That earned de Vries £600

They won by a shot from Lloyd Saltman and the Sectorwide Security trio of Gordon Gilhooley (3), David Hill (7) and Graham Hillan (4). Saltman earned £500, his team's better inward half earning them second place ahead of Guy Shoesmith's West Hill, Surrey trio who also totalled 257.