BRIAN WATSON succeeded where his boss failed in reaching the last eight of the Forth Engineering Lothians Championship at sun-kissed Longniddry last night.
As his employer, Gary Corrigan, was making his exit from the event, Watson bridged a 15-year gap by making it back into the quarter-finals.
A useful player in his younger days – he beat the likes of Raymond Russell to win the now-defunct Lothia
ns Youths' Championship – Watson clinched victory in style against Ally Ritchie of Bruntsfield Links.
One up with two holes to play, the 39-year-old almost holed his 4-iron approach at the 17th, sinking a three-footer to win by 2 and 1.
"Now I've got to hope that Gary isn't too sore at getting beaten himself and gives me some time off to come and play in the next round," joked Watson as he savoured his success.
His opponent in tonight's quarter-finals will be Chris Orr, who moved a step closer to lifting the title at the first attempt with a 3 and 1 success over his Craigielaw clubmate, Martin Stein.
Admitting he'd felt dizzy for most of the round – "I've been struggling to find time to eat my dinner this week" – Orr, 25, hit just about every green in regulation as he turned in another polished display.
After halving the short 16th in birdie-2s, Orr, who raised an eyebrow or two among the Lothians officials when he sported a Lanarkshire top earlier in the week, shut the door on Stein with a majestic approach from the right rough at the 17th.
In the other tie at the bottom half of the draw, Keith Nicholson, the top dog in East Lothian golf for a number of years, takes on Oliver Huish, one of the Garden County's rising stars. Bidding to repeat his success over the same course seven years ago, Nicholson admitted he played "pretty steady" in accounting for Ricky Moffat of Dundas Park by 3 and 1.
Moffat must have thought he'd got off to a flying start when he hit his approach stiff at the first only for Nicholson to hole from ten feet for a half.
Three up at the turn, the Haddington star only lost one hole, the 12th, thereafter, though he'll probably need to be firing on all cylinders when he faces up to 17-year-old Huish.
With dad David again employed as caddie for the night, Huish beat Broomieknowe's Scott Reid by 4 and 2, reckoning he'd have been round in 67 with a 4-4 finish and that included a lost ball.
Looking forward to his clash with Nicholson, the youngster said: "It will be exciting to play Keith and anything can happen in matchplay."
Broomieknowe's interest in this year's event came to an end as Reid was followed out of the exit door by both Kevin Hastings and Jamie McIntosh.
Back at the scene of his victory in the event in 1989, Hastings produced another fine display but, in the end, went down by 3 and 2 to Marriott Dalmahoy's David Marshall.
Winning three holes in a row from the 14th to secure his victory, Marshall is now hoping to erase the pain he suffered when losing to Neil Shillinglaw at the 23rd the last time he reached this stage of the tournament.
As expected, McIntosh found Steven Armstrong, the 2004 winner, too hot to handle, though the Turnhouse star reckons he'll need to do better when he faces Marshall in the last eight.
"I need to swing better than that, though hopefully I can get better as the tournament progresses," he said after a 3 and 2 win.
In the remaining tie tonight, Duddingston's David Miller will face John Hall of Royal Musselburgh. Miller recovered from being two down with seven to play to beat Musselburgh's Stuart Menzies, while Hall also did it the hard way as he moved a step closer to a semi-final spot for the second year running.
The 42-year-old lost the opening two holes to pars against the aforementioned Corrigan before settling down and, helped by back-to-back birdies at the tenth and 11th, he eventually secured a 3 and 2 victory.
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