David Law makes mockery of Walker Cup snub

DAVID Law may not have been considered good enough to earn one of ten spots in the Great Britain and Ireland team for next week's Walker Cup at Royal Aberdeen but, with a perfect sense of timing, he left a field of seasoned professionals trailing in his wake to become the first amateur to win the Aberdeen Asset Management Northern Open in more than 40 years.Emulating his Hazlehead clubmate Sandy Pirie's feat at Cruden Bay in 1970, the 20-year-old Aberdonian spreadeagled the field with a stunning eight-under-par 62 - the best-ever score shot at this excellent venue but not a course record due to preferre d lies being in operation - to take a three-stroke lead into the final round of a fascinating event in the north-east.

And, though he was overtaken briefly by Hayston's Stephen Gray over that closing circuit, Law closed with a 68 for a 14-under-par total of 266, winning by two shots from Gray, who closed with two 67s, with Dunbar's Neil Fenwick two shots further back in third after he signed off with a brace of 68s.

The consolation for 37-year-old Gray was that he picked up the top prize of £4,000 and, in doing so, has moved to the top of both the Tartan Tour order of merit and money list heading into this weekend's 36-hole pro-am at Dumfries and Galloway.

But the day undoubtedly belonged to the likeable Law, though he refused to gloat about his undoubted good form as the GB&I team he was controversially left out of a fortnight ago were in St Andrews today to prepare for the biennial clash with the Americans.

"The timing of this is more important to other people than it is to me," said the Paul Lawrie protege, who had revealed earlier in the week that he'd been given the perfect escape from Aberdeen next week after receiving an invitation to play in the KLM Open at Hilversum.

Eyebrows had already been raised after Law was overlooked by captain Nigel Edwards and the other GB&I selectors following his impressive performance in winning the Scottish Amateur Championship for a second time in three years at the end of July by picking up four points out of six in the Home Internationals at Rosses Point in Ireland last month.

That decision now looks even more bizarre on the back of a last-day display here that was oozing with class from start to finish. Three off the lead at the start, he bagged eight birdies in a flawless morning round, an effort made all the more impressive given that a few of the tees had been moved back from earlier in the week.

An "edgy" start to the final round saw him three-putt the second from 12 feet and, after a birdie at the fifth, he dropped another shot at the seventh.

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