Junior Match Play Championships with ease by beating Kent Smith 11 and 10 in the final at Ocean View.

Haunted by memories of his loss to Steve Carruthers in last year's final at Riddell's Bay, the 14-year-old Saltus student gained a commanding four hole lead at the half-way mark and then wrapped it up early on the 26th to finish with a superb two-over-par on the day.

Smith, his 17-year-old opponent, who also attends Saltus, had a decent round of 76 in the morning but saw his game fall apart in the afternoon and his chances of making inroads quickly vanished.

With Smith clearly rattled by the large gallery, it did not take long for Spurling to put the victory completely out of reach.

"I putted well and hit the ball pretty good in the morning to go four holes up while Kent had a good round in the morning only to sort of fall apart in the afternoon,'' said Spurling.

"Things continued to go my way when we started the second 18 in the afternoon. My overall performance was pretty good, but Kent played well also, he just had a rough final round.'' A keen admirer of pro golfer Nick Faldo, Spurling attributes his success in golf to Janice Simons and Kim Swan who have both helped him at St. George's Golf Club.

Smith, who also credits Swan for helping to develop his game, was satisfied with his morning play but admitted to becoming unnerved by the crowd.

"I thought I could get much closer to him once play started in the afternoon, but I got nervous and was somewhat thrown off. My chipping was always too short, leaving me with longer putts to make,'' he said.

The first flight final saw Ricky Carruthers beat Ian Smith six and five while in the second flight final Chris Smith edged Jenifer Spurling two and one.

ROBBIE SPURLING -- Easy winner over Kent Smith at Ocean View yesterday.