The Lothians Championship is the Lothians Golf Association's flagship event and was first held in 1947 when the local evening newspaper presented the magnificent Evening News Championship Trophy, one of the most impressive trophies in golf. The Evening News sponsored the event for almost 50 years.

The original Championship trophy has now been retired so the winner will have their name etched on the new trophy this year. The new Trophy is based on a replica and is half the size of the old one.

The Stuart Cup, which was first used for individual winners in the Team Tournament, has, since 1965, been used as the trophy for the leading qualifying score in the Amateur Championship.

The history of the event and a list of winners can be seen by clicking the 'History of the Championship' heading at the bottom of the list at the left hand side of this page.

2025

It was a privilege to return to the Duddingston for the Lothians Championship and we are indebted to the club for hosting the 2025 event. This testing parkland course, set out on what used to be a deer park by Willie Park Junior in the 1895, has been the scene of many Lothians events over the years. This course has many interesting features including the strategically positioned Braid Burn, the Temple and some magnificent trees. The clubhouse matches the quality of the course and players and supporters received a warm welcome.

This will be the ninth time that Championship will have been contested for at Duddingston. It lists Joe Kyle, Alistair Low, A G G Miller, Sandy Stephen, Stuart Smith (twice), Brian Smith and Alan Anderson as past winners.

82 players took part in the 36 hole qualifying event when Craig Davidson (Longniddry) won the Stuart Cup as leading qualifier on a 6 under par score of 138 (69 + 69) narrowly winning on a countback from Barry Lewis (West Lothian) (67 +71) George Sampson (Royal Burgess GS) and Georgie Jackson (Turnhouse) were close behind on 139. Georgie had the lowest individual round score of 66 in the morning. 

The cut for the match play stages fell at an impressive 1 under par with 16 players going forward to play.

The quality of play in the first round was outstanding. Scott McCandless (Bathgate) won at the 19th against Connor McWatt (Silverknowes) and Jack Collingswood (Tantallon), Andrew Benson (West Lothian), Micheal Bacigalupo (Royal Musselburgh) and Mark Napier (Dundas Parks) all won by 1 hole on the 18th green squeezing out Lee Morgan (Dunbar), Barry Lewis (West Lothian), Georgie Jackson (Turnhouse) and Jake Johnston (Kingsfield) by the narrowest margin in matches strewn with birdies and with never more than 2 holes in it. The Stuart Cup holder Craig Davidson (Longniddry) was beaten 2 & 1 by fellow club member Lewis Cheetham and local hero, and former winner, David Miller was seen off 4 & 3 by Callum Kenneally (Dunbar) who is back home for the summer after his first year at an American University. Spare a thought for the ever-green Graham Robertson (Silverknowes) who was 2 under par when beaten 6 & 5 by Jamie Duguid (Dunbar) who had 8 birdies in the 13 holes played!!!!! The standard was indeed high.

On a glorious evening at Duddingston the four quarter-finals seemed evenly contested. In the first match Scott McCandless (Bathgate) beat Lewis Cheetham 2&1. Callum Keneally (Dunbar) against Jack Collingwood (Tantallon) was the second quarter-final and again no quarter was given. Callum eventually held a two hole lead with 2 holes to play.  Jack won both these holes to take the match down the 19th hole. An eagle three by Jack proved decisive as he progressed into the final. In the other matches Jamie Duguid beat Andrew Benson 2&1 and Michael Bacigalupo beat Mark Napier 4&3.

Scott McCandless proved too strong for Jack Collingswood in the first semi-final. Scott was 2 up at the turn and with birdies at 12 and 13 he went on to a convincing 5&4 victory. Jamie Duguid claimed the other final spot after beating Michael Bacigalupo 3&1 in a much closer match, the standard having been set at the first where they both had eagle threes.

in the final Jamie quickly established a lead with another eagle at the first followed by a birdie at the second a lead that Scott never managed to pull back despite some valiant attempts. Jamie’s score of two over threes for the six holes played on the back nine confirmed his superiority on the day. Jamie lifted the new trophy and ensured that his name is first on that trophy.