The quality which lifted Scott Watson on to the European Tour ten years ago resurfaced at Barton-on-Sea yesterday and carried him to glory in the Meachers Masters Championship - the last big event in the Hampshire PGA calendar.

On a day when hardly a breath of wind brushed the lovely seaside links course, 38-year-old Watson produced two masterly rounds of 66 and 67 for an 11 under par total and an emphatic four-shot victory.

It was the tenth year of the popular Meachers Masters but it was 15 years ago when Watson last won a Hampshire PGA major.

That was the Strokeplay Championship and he won by ten shots. All those years ago he showed the kind of promise which eventually earned him a place in European golf and a victory on the Challenge Tour.

But after losing his card, golf hasn't been enough to earn the man from Basingstoke a living. He now works for a health and safety consultancy in Basingstoke and golf has been put on the back burner.

He doesn't play as much as he likes despite an attachment to his local Dummer club. "Golf-wise it's been a pretty ropy year," said Watson. "This is the best I've played for a long time and it's whetted my appetite for the game again."

Watson briefly led the British Open when it was last held at Carnoustie in 1999 and he reproduced some of the old magic at Barton where nine birdies helped fashion a first-round 66 which left him in a tie for first place with Lee-on-the-Solent left-hander James Ablett.

There was a big queue waiting in the wings with another former Challenge Tour player, Mark Treleaven, just a shot back and David Porter, Steve Cowle, Kevin Saunders and the recently crowned Hampshire Strokeplay champion Eddie Rawlings in a tie for fourth place with 68s.

None of the chasers, though, managed a big move in the second round when Watson, with eagles at the seventh and 17th holes and four more birdies, pulled away for what proved a comfortable victory.

He set up the first eagle with a drive and a three iron, finished off with a 15 feet putt. With the wind starting to freshen and the temperatures starting to plunge in the late afternoon, he struck the final blow at the penultimate hole - a high-class rescue iron to within nine feet of the pin and a coolly converted putt.

Watson's reward was a £640 first prize, while Mark Williamson from Paultons came from nowhere to join Treleaven in a tie for second place with a fine second round of 67 - five under par.

Leaderboard

133 S Watson (Dummer) 66, 67. 137 M Treleaven (Hayling) 67, 70, M Williamson (Paultons) 70, 67. 138 D Porter (East Horton) 68, 70. 139 R Ap Iolo (Alresford) 70, 69, J Ablett (Lee-on-the-Solent) 66, 73. 140 K Saunders (Dibden) 68, 72, K Brochocki (unattached) 69, 71. 141 E Rawlings (ER Golf School) 68, 73, R Edwards (Lee-on-the-Solent) 70, 71.