David Wilson had been told by his Troon Welbeck clubmate Michael Stewart prior to the Scottish Boys’ Championship to always believe and have confidence in himself, but he might have been the only person who retained those feelings 15 holes into Saturday’s final at Dunbar.
Had it been an 18-hole final, the 16-year-old would have already been in the clubhouse, beaten by Dumfries and County’s Liam Johnston by a handsome 7 and 5, but with still 21 holes of regulation remaining he was eight down.
The final had the feel of Stewart’s win over Paul Shields in 2008 or Scott Henry’s 12 and 11 win in 2004, with the favourite on form and the underdog just not doing himself justice.
Yet at lunch, and on the early holes of the afternoon round when he was still seven down, instead of Wilson’s heart being in his boots he was still full of belief that he could gain momentum for the biggest comeback in the history of the Boys’ Championship, which he completed with his remarkable victory at the second extra hole.
Not even at his lowest point did Wilson feel the task was beyond him.
“Once I got a couple of holes back at the end of the morning round I knew I had a chance,” he insisted.
“My putting finally came good and I managed to get some momentum going after that, but I always thought it was possible.”
Still, with 14 holes to play and still seven down, Wilson was maybe the only one who thought he had an earthly.
Instead, he backed up his belief with an outstanding stretch of four-under-par golf over the next nine holes which brought the margin back to a mere one-up.
Johnston had been a little shaky on the Dunbar back nine all week in previous ties and found one too many bunkers during that stretch, but it was the confident Wilson who claimed back the lost ground rather than the 18-year-old Scottish internationalist relinquishing it.
Still, Johnston appeared to have withstood the comeback when Wilson’s run ended with a bogey five at the 15th, but the real key was the 17th, where Johnston needed to two-putt from 20 feet to close out the match at long last but instead missed his second putt from all of three feet to keep Wilson’s hopes alive.
From there the momentum seemed unstoppable, Johnston’s bunkered drive on the final hole allowing Wilson to force extra holes, and the long-time leader’s last chance was a 12-foot eagle putt on the 37th which went by the hole.
Back into the breeze, he overcooked his approach at the 38th through the green and failed to get up and down, allowing Wilson to get his par to claim the lead for the first and only time in the final in the act of winning.
It was the first Boys’ final to go to extra holes since Andrew Coltart’s 1987 victory, also at Dunbar, and given it was also the biggest comeback on record, who is to say that Wilson who can defend his title next year at Murcar cannot follow in the footsteps of illustrious past winners.