Calum Ross’ mother and brother Liam are enjoying 80 degree warmth on spring break in Florida this week but the 15-year-old wouldn’t be anywhere else than with Dad Bob at chilly Murcar for the Scottish Boys Championship.
The Atlanta-based schoolboy, playing off a handicap of plus one, looks like a dangerous floater in the draw for the Boys’ this year despite not quite expecting this level of chill in Aberdeen.
Bob, originally from Glasgow, is a partner with Pricewaterhouse Cooper now based in the US but has schooled his eldest son in links on regular trips home to play St Andrews and North Berwick.
Mum balked at a holiday in Scotland last year to prevent Calum from making his Boys’ debut at Dunbar, but yesterday he started superbly with a 7 and 5 victory over John McGowan (Shotts).
“I didn’t know that Aberdeen was so far north, and that the wind chill off the sea would have the temperature down to 30 degrees (fahrenheit),” said the shivering teenager. “But I’m pretty used to playing links from trips over here and have a pretty low ball flight anyway.
“The course is pretty wet and there’s not that amount of run in it, so the adjustment has been pretty easy.”
Starting birdie-par to go two-up, Calum was well in control at five-up at the turn, closing it out in one-over figures. He started playing almost as soon as he could stand upright, making his first par at age four and breaking 70 for the first time at 11, when the family lived in Chicago.
Dad has made sure Calum, who was born in Hong Kong, knows his Scottish roots and Bob played in the championship himself as far back as 1975 “but without any success at all.”
Calum’s aim is to go to college to play golf, but while still at High School he can’t be approached by interested college coaches until he’s in his penultimate year, which is still 18 months away.
He’s in the same part of the draw as seed Rory Franssen, who came through his first round match against Ewan Milligan, the son of former Walker Cup player Jim, but has never got beyond the second round before. Also down in this section of the draw are two Fifers, Lundin’s Stewart Philp and Ben Caton of the New Club, who both came through first round ties yesterday.
It was another good day for the Scott family as No 1 seed Sandy breezed through his second round game against Kyle Harker but his diminutive young brother Calum, just 12, won his first game.
The youngest remaining player in the championship, playing off seven, defeated Blairgowrie’s Campbell Gibson 2 and 1, for an encouraging debut. Dwarfed by even the practice ground signs at Murcar, he’s got a lot of growing to do.
His brother, before going out for his second round game, watched for a few holes and admitted to being “far more nervous than I’ve been for any of my games”.
There’s not much chance of the brothers meeting in opposite ends of the draw, but there’s every chance that Scott could meet up with Michael Lawrie, the younger son of Paul, on Thursday if both continue to make progress.
There’s been no surprises so far in the draw with the Midlands’ only seed, Muckhart’s Robert Watson, enjoying a 3 and 2 win over Stuart Goodfellow (Hayston).
Boys’ cap Jamie Stewart was a possible upset playing scratch player Graeme Greer from Carluke, but the national Under-16s captain, the third seed, won through in impressive fashion 5 and 4.