O’Hara maintains focus to win Cawder Order of Merit title

Paul O’Hara, one of the dominant forces on the Tartan Tour, has been used to savouring the winning feeling over the years but his latest victory in the Cawder 36-hole Challenge will rank as one of his more surreal successes.

In the opening Order of Merit event of the 2025 campaign, O’Hara reeled off a pair of four-under 66s for an eight-under aggregate of 132 and won the £1,550 top prize by a shot from East Renfrewshire’s Gavin Hay.

It was a fine effort from O’Hara as he maintained his golfing focus while awaiting news about the imminent arrival of his second child. You could say it was a triumph on tenterhooks.

“My fiancée, Kim, is due to give birth any day,” said O’Hara, who has a new playing attachment with Hamilton Golf Club. 

“Basically, I was on call. I’d entered the event but thought I probably wouldn’t be able to play.

“In the second round, I was on the fourth hole, and I got my phone out to enter my scores. There was a missed call from Kim and I was like ‘oh God, she never phones me’.

“I phoned her straight back thinking we were needing to get to the hospital, and she said, ‘sorry, I pressed your number by mistake’. It was a strange situation to be in.

“I was waking up each morning not knowing what to expect. I’ve just been playing it by ear so obviously I’m delighted to get the win at the end of it all.”

One off the pace after his opening four-under card, O’Hara launched a purposeful assault on the back-nine of his second round to advance to the top.

One-over for the day after 10 holes, the former Tartan Tour No 1, who won The PGA Play-offs back in March, made a birdie on the 11^th then upped the ante with an eagle on the par-five 12^th.

A brace of decisive birdies at the 14^th and 17^th pushed O’Hara over the winning line.

“I’ve not played a lot of golf on courses recently, it’s been more driving range stuff,” he added.

“Trying to judge the bounces and distances was tricky. But over the last eight holes, I checked the leaderboard and thought ‘I need to do something here’ and thankfully I managed to do that.”

Hay also signed off with a 66 to grab second place while Murrayfield’s Alastair Thurlow closed with a 66 of his own to finish in third on six-under.

Click here for the Cawder leaderboard.