Kelly lands Scottish PGA title

Chris Kelly bridged a 13-year gap to become the Scottish PGA Professional champion for the second time at Gleneagles.

The 37-year-old holed a 15-foot eagle putt on the first extra hole to beat Paul McKechnie in a play-off after the pair had tied in a rain-shortened event on 139.

“This is massive,” said Kelly as he celebrated regaining the title he first won at the Perthshire venue in 2003.

“I’ve worked so hard for the last month. Up to that point, I’d been working for three weeks here with the greenkeepers and working in a bar. I wasn’t playing golf, that’s for sure.

“Over the last month I’ve practised for 80 hours plus a week for every week. More than I have ever practised in my life.

“I’ve started to lose weight by trying to eat a bit better and I felt that if I could do that I reckoned I’d be in a better position. This is an early pay-off.”

After Sunday’s washout, Kelly played 36 holes on Monday, when he followed an opening 73 with a 66 to set the clubhouse target.

The Team SSE Scottish Hydro player was at home when McKechnie then joined him on three-under after returning to finish his second round on Tuesday morning.

As the weather then deteriorated again, play was abandoned and a decision made to reduce the event to 36 holes for the first time since 1966.

Of those returning on Wednesday morning, only Paul Lawrie has a chance of catching the leaders but the Aberdonian started with a four-putt double-bogey 6 and fell four short of the target on 143.

In the play-off, McKechnie looked to be the favourite after hitting his approach to around eight feet at the par-5 18th on the King’s Course.

But, from double that distance, Kelly’s eagle putt just toppled in before watching his title rival miss in his attempt to keep the shoot-out alive.

“Would I like to have played another round? Of course I would, but there is really nothing you can do about the weather,” added Kelly, who picked up a cheque for £6,000.

“There’s no doubt that Paul and I got the better side of the draw, but you still have to go out and hit the shots to take advantage of it.”

West Linton’s Gareth Wright, the defending champion, finished third on 140, one better than Jonathan Lomas (Caprington) and David Orr (Eastwood).

Lawrie, who ended up in a tie for ninth, reckoned he missed six putts from about 18 inches over the two rounds.

“Tee to green this week was magnificent,” he said. “The best I’ve hit for a long, long time so there are huge positives with the striking, and I’ve been working hard at that.

“I felt as though I stroked it better with the putter, but you can’t tell for sure because the greens are so early season.

“I’m encouraged for the spell ahead and looking forward to playing three weeks in a row on the European Tour as I haven’t done that since the Middle East. It should be good.”