Stonehaven’s Sam Locke has made the decision to turn professional on the back of winning the silver medal at the 147th Open Championship at Carnoustie.
Locke carded rounds of 72, 73, 70 and 78 to finish as the highest-ranking amateur and Scot, prompting him to make the decision on the back of his best career performance.
The 19-year-old, who works part-time in the coffee shop at the Paul Lawrie golf centre in Aberdeen, finished ahead of Russell Knox, Sandy Lyle, Scott Jamieson and Grant Forrest at Carnoustie, who all missed the cut.
Locke said: “The decision to move in to the professional ranks is always something I’ve wanted to do. It’s been a genuine goal of mine to play golf for a living for some time now.
Wow! What a week! Cannot thank everyone enough for the support during the event, organisation of everything during the week, and all of the messages of congrats! Massive thanks to… https://t.co/Ep3u7xar29
— Sam Locke (@samlockegolf) July 23, 2018
“My dad, Andrew, who caddied for me this week is a PGA professional at The Paul Lawrie Golf Centre and obviously I have close ties to Paul Lawrie, so have an understanding of what it takes to be successful in the pro game.
“My experiences over the last week or so, since I won the Open qualifier at Renaissance and throughout last week have allowed me to see things from a different perspective.”
