A BUDDING young golfer has become the first Scot since 2015 to lift the Scottish Boys’ Under-14 Open Championship.

Despite torrential rain, which caused a three-hour delay in play on the morning of the second round, Cameron Mukherjee added a 70 to his opening 69 to clinch a two-shot victory on three-under-par 139 in Kirkcaldy.

The teenager, who lives at Craigielaw, claimed the third birdie of his round on the ninth to go out in one under par 34 and then came home with nine successive pars to follow in the footsteps of Pitreavie’s Connor McKinney, the last Scot to claim the title, at Glenbervie six years ago.

“It feels amazing to win,” said Mukherjee, who attends Loretto School, sponsors of the Scottish Boys’ Under-14 Championship, and whose older brothers Oliver and Samuel are playing in this week’s R&A Boys’ Amateur Championship at Royal Cinque Ports.

“I didn’t know where I was until I checked the leaderboard at 18.

“I was just playing my own game, playing against the course.

“The delay probably came at a good time for me.

“I hadn’t teed off, so it didn’t cause me too many problems. But I still had to stretch a bit before I teed off because we’d been sitting in the car for a while.

“My driving has been great the last two days and I holed a lot of clutch putts from about six-feet today which is always good.

“Winning this is right up there. It’s probably at the top.

“It’s the first time I’ve played Kirkcaldy. It’s a great course. There are some tough greens to hit into and some tight fairways. I like it a lot.”

Mukherjee’s nearest challenger was Englishman Edward Wade, from Harpenden Common in Hertfordshire, who carded rounds of 69 and 72 to finish on one-under-par 141.

He was right in the mix when he birdied the 16th but bogeyed the last to give Mukherjee breathing space.

It was also a great couple of days for Mukherjee’s Gullane club-mate Kiron Gribble, who carded rounds of 70 and 73 to finish third on one-over-par 143.

Fellow Gullane golfer Alexander Yuill finished tied for 19th after rounds of 74 and 81.

“It’s absolutely incredible,” said Mukherjee’s mother Angie.

“I’m really, really pleased for him, he’s worked so hard.

“He’s been working on being a bit more steely and I’ve never seen him so calm, collected and focussed.

“It’s amazing, he was in the zone the whole time. I’m really proud of him.

“He really wanted to win this trophy.

“He did quite well in the Reid Trophy (English Boys’ Under-14 Championship) last week.

“He finished seventh there and wanted to try to build on that.”