David Law became the first home winner of the SSE Scottish Hydro Challenge hosted by Macdonald Hotels and Resorts for eight years after carding a four under par final round of 67 to claim his maiden European Challenge Tour title.
The 27 year old started the final day at Macdonald Spey Valley Golf Club one shot behind overnight co-leaders Stuart Manley and Pedro Figueiredo, and after carding two birdies and a bogey over his front nine he remained one adrift of the lead.
As others faltered around him Law held his nerve, bagging further gains at the par four 11thand the par five 13thbefore holing a 15-foot birdie putt on the par three 16thto leave himself with a two-shot advantage over Denmark’s Joachim B Hansen as he walked onto the 18thgreen.
After rolling in a tricky five-foot par putt in front of a delighted home crowd the man from Aberdeen was left speechless after becoming the first Scottish player since George Murray in 2010 to win the Aviemore event.
“I’m lost for words,” he said. “It was good, really good. On the last they had just changed the board and I knew Hansen had gone to nine under so I knew I needed to hole that.
Well played @DavidLawGolf 👏
— Challenge Tour (@Challenge_Tour) June 24, 2018
After holing this putt for a 67 he takes the #SSEHydroChallenge clubhouse lead @JB_Hansen1 needs to eagle the 18th to force a play-off pic.twitter.com/kpt6HjQX2s
“Up until then I would’ve been happy to three-putt it but I knew I needed to hole it to guarantee the win – and to do that was amazing.
“I said to myself when I holed that birdie on the 16ththat I’m going to lay it up on 17 and play for par – just play smart. If I make four then I make four and that’s a bonus but a par five is a good score.
“This is the best. In five years out here I’ve never won and I’ve never been close to winning to be honest. I had a couple of chances down the years but to do it here with everybody here is just amazing.
“There’s more pressure this week as it’s your home event but there’s also more support and that’s huge. Everyone was rooting me on and I felt that carrying me through.”
With victory in Aviemore Law moves up 69 places to sit in tenth place on the Road to Ras Al Khaimah with 50, 160 points. Hansen, who birdied three of his last seven holes to sign for a two under par round of 69, finished two shots behind Law in second place – a result which takes him up to second in the Rankings with 102,150 points.
