Gareth pulls off second success at Gleneagles
Gareth Wright is the Scottish PGA champion for the second time in three years after winning the event’s 100th staging in style at Gleneagles
The 34-year-old West Linton professional eagled the par five 18th on the King’s Course from six feet to beat Paul O’Hara in a playoff after the pair had tied on 16 under-par in the £50,000 M&H Logistics-sponsored event.
With closing 68s for 268 totals, Wright and O’Hara finished five shots clear of the field in Perthshire, where Louis Gaughan birdied the last to tie for third place with Greig Hutcheon and Graham Fox after they’d both signed off with stirring 65s.
The victory in the Tartan Tour’s flagship tournament earned Wright a £9,000 pay-day while, in addition to a runners-up cheque for £6,500, O’Hara secured a place in the PGA Play-Offs in Devon along with Hutcheon and Fox.
Locked together at the start of the day, Wright and O’Hara fought out an enthralling battle in the final round and came to the 72nd hole still sharing the lead.
It was advantage Wright after the pair had hit their approaches but 30-year-old O’Hara, who is based at Lochview Golf Centre in Coatbridge through an attachment to North Lanarkshire Leisure, got down in two putts from 120ft to make a birdie, which his title rival matched.
Returning to the same hole for the playoff, O’Hara was a lot closer in two and made birdie once more despite racing his first putt six feet past, but Wright had hit a six-iron from 201 yards to six feet and rolled it in for a title-winning eagle.
