Dollar Golf Club


COUNTY NOTES
(By Hugh Hunter)

Clackmannan County Golf Union

CCGU Fixture List 2010
Boys & Juniors 2010
Trophies & Winners
Alloa Golf Club
Alva Golf Club
Braehead Golf Club
Dollar Golf Club
Tillicoultry Golf Club
Tulliallan Golf Club

CCGU EXECUTIVE - OFFICE BEARERS
Honorary President
J.F.W. Hamilton
President
W. Abernethy
Vice President
G. Kay
Past President
S. Kinnaird
Secretary/Treasurer
T.H. Johnson

COUNTY BOYS GOLF TEAM MISS OUT AT LETHAM GRANGE
With two of the top County boys missing for their own reasons, the Clackmannan Boys were always going to be faced with a difficult task in the annual Gary Harvey Trophy event played at Letham Grange last weekend. The other three Area proved too strong on the day and their best result was against home area Angus when they almost achieved a drawn match. On the second day against Perth & Kinross and Fife teams, the boys fell to a 6-2 defeat in both matches. Best performances came from Alva’s Lawrence Allan who won all three of his matches closely followed by Tillicoultry’s Scott Baird who recorded two wins and a halved match.
Match Results

  • Day One: Clackmanan 3½ ~ Angus 4½
  • Day Two: Clackmanan 2 ~ Fife 6; Clackmanan 2 ~ Perth & Kinross 6
    Perth & Kinross were unbeaten and retained the Gary Harvey Trophy for 2010.


    MORE HONOURS FOR LAWRENCE
    Alva’s Lawrence Allan continues to make his presence felt on the Scottish Junior golfing scene - he has been selected to play for the Scottish Schools team this weekend in the annual International against English Schools over the Fairhaven course in Lancashire. In October he will be representing Scotland in the Under 16’s international against England at Dinsdale Golf Club near Darlington.

    MIDLANDS TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP
    The Annual Stroke Play Championship is being held over Balbirnie Golf course in Fife and Clackmannan have a strong team as follows:
    Michael Robertson & Steve McIvor (Alva), Darren Hulston & Scott Borrowman (Dollar), Alan Watson & Scott Moffat (Braehead), Jamie Aitken (Alloa).

    MIDLAND ALLIANCE
    In the recent competition held over Muckhart golf course locals continue to feature in the top scores. Tulliallan’s Bob Stewart finished 4th with a 73 and Alloa’s Kenny Thomson with a net 70 took 3rd place in the handicap section.

    TOUGH TIME FOR CALLUM
    Tulliallan’s Callum Macaulay is still looking for consistent form on the professional golf scene - he just missed the cut in the last two events. In the Johnnie Walker event at Gleneagles he made good progress on the outward nine of his second round but dropped shots on the second nine took him to the wrong side of the cut line. This week Callum is in the field for the Kazakhstan Open — way over in Asia. Hopefully his luck will change.

    Hugh Hunter 6th September 2010

    • AUTUMN MEETING FINISH
    The last of the main Clackmannan County Golf competitions took place at Tulliallan last Saturday when a small entry of 64 contested the Autumn Meeting. In tricky golf scoring conditions - there were 18 no returns - the scratch score of the day went up to 71. However this did not deter the locals who took the top two handicap prizes - Michael Quinn led the way with a net 64 followed by G McKinven with 66. Best scratch score of the day went to Alloa’s David Abernethy with a fine score of 70 followed by local Bob Stewart on 71.

    MIDLAND ALLIANCE TEES OFF
    While most Golf Clubs are approaching the end of their golf season, the Midland Alliance has just started its 2010/2011 season with the first meeting at Thornton. With about 30 events scheduled, the calendar stretches to March of 2011 and includes stroke play, team and pro-am events. One of the meetings is due to be played over Schawpark Golf course on the 14th September — hopefully there will be a good turnout. The demand for membership is high with a substantial waiting list for membership - quite a difference from many golf clubs these days. Local members are always making their presence felt — at Thornton Tulliallan’s Bob Stewart with a 76 was in the top ten scratch scores and in the handicap section, Alloa’s Kenny Thomson with a 73 finished 5th.

    COUNTY LEAGUES
    While the Boys League has still to be finalised, there is no doubt about the Men’s League - its Alva who have taken the 2010 title - Played 5 and won 5 leaving Alloa and Dollar to challenge for the runners up spot.

    RESULTS IN BRIEF
    At Junior level, Alva’s Lawrence Allan took the Dollar Open title recently with a fine score of 65 making up for his disappointment at the British Boys event. In the North District event Dollar’s Scott Borrowman started with couple of reasonable rounds at Inverness scoring 72 and 79 to lie 7 shots behind the leader but fell away in the third round finishing with an aggregate of 305 (72,77,82,74).
    On the professional side Tulliallan’s Callum Macaulay played in the Ecco Challenge Tour event in Germany last week, making the cut but finishing down the field with an aggregate of 295 (75,72,74,74). However the good news is that Callum will be playing in the Johnnie Walker at Gleneagles this week - after a few weeks on the reserve list he now is in the starting field and hopefully there will be plenty of local support to give him some encouragement.

    Hugh Hunter 23rd August 2010

    LOCAL BOYS MISS OUT AT THE BRITISH
    Over the Kilmarnock Barassie and Dundonald courses in Ayrshire the three local hopefuls could not find a golf game to master either the difficult conditions or the high class field of 252 boys to take them through to the final stages of the competition. There was a one hour rain delay on the first day and strengthening winds in the afternoons made golf shots very difficult to judge - reflected in the competition scratch scores which went up to 75 and 76. Best of the locals was Alloa’s John Salmond - he looked to be heading for a good score of 76 on the first day but dropped 6 shots over the last three holes on the Dundonald Course. Lawrence Allan (Alva) struggled to a 77 over the Barassie course finding putting on the links greens a bit on the difficult side. Dollar’s Gary Chalmers finished badly in his first round and disappointingly scratched from the event on Day 2. Both John’s aggregate of 163 and Lawrence with 164 were a number of shots behind the Qualifying score of 154 to make the top 64 and the Match Play stages - only 5 Scots out of 40 made it to the last 64 - all part of the learning process.

    BETTER FOR BOB AT WALTON HEATH
    In the Seniors Open Amateur Championship at Walton Heath last week Tulliallan’s Bob Stewart turned in quite a good performance - one of his better results this year, always nice to do it in a top class event. Starting with a two over par 74 put Bob at 22nd equal place and with two further rounds of 76 and 77 he held on to that place to be near the top of the Scots contingent with his aggregate of 227. Considering half the field above Bob were Americans his performance was very good and must put him in the frame for the upcoming Scottish team selections.

    LOCAL CLUBS MISS OUT AS WELL
    In the Belhaven Best qualifier held at Stirling for the Scottish Club Handicap event none of the three local Clubs entered made it to the top ten and a place in the Grand Final to be held over the Duke’s course at St Andrews. Best of the local Clubs was Braehead finishing in 18th position with a par score from the team of Andy Cunningham and David Brown. Tulliallan (Thomas McInroy, Brian Allardyce) were a good bit further back with a three over par score and the Dollar team (David Hawkes, William Hamilton) a bit behind that.

    GOLFING BRIEFS
    Alloa’s Graeme Rennie seems to be the only local loyal supporter of the Eden Tournament. The event had strong Scottish support from top players in the past but now there is a large entry from outwith Scotland. Graeme started well on the New course with a 76 but fell back over the Eden course and his aggregate of 158 was outside the qualifying score for the Match Play stages.
    In the North East District 72 hole event, counting for the Scottish Golf Union Order of Merit, Scott Borrowman (Dollar) finished with and aggregate of 303 (77,69,78,79) a bit behind the winning score of 281.

    Hugh Hunter 15th August 2010

    COUNTY GOLF RESULTS ROUND UP
    Best result of last week had to be Alva’s Lawrence Allan in a local qualifying competition for the Paul Lawrie Junior Jug. Over the par 68 Kingsfield Golf Course near Linlithgow, Lawrence carded a one under par 67 to lead the qualifiers for the final of the competition to be held over the Newmachar course on the 2nd October.

    In the British Boys Championship being held this week at Kilmarnock Barassie, it is good to see Dollar’s Gary Chalmers coming into the field as a late replacement and joining the other two local boys - Alva’s Lawrence Allan and Alloa’s John Salmond. This surely is a record entry for Clackmannanshire boys in the top Boys’ event in the world.

    In the Scottish Golf Union Order of Merit events Dollar’s Scott Borrowman, with a much improved performance, finished in seventeenth place with a level par aggregate of 284 (73,69,69,73) - still considerably behind the winner Scott Larkin from Banchory on 269. Darren Hulston, also Dollar, failed to make the 36 hole cut in the same event. Scott Borrowman and Scott Moffat are in the starting list this weekend for the 72 hole North East Championship held at Cruden Bay.

    On the Seniors front it was Tulliallan’s Phil Dempsey who shared the runners up spot at the South of Scotland Seniors Championship held over the Dumfries and County Golf course. His aggregate of 140 (69,71) was just one shot behind the winner.

    Finally in the latest Amateur Golf World rankings, Scott Borrowman is at 1140, Lawrence Allan at 2866 and Jamie Aitken at 3462. It all sounds a bit better when these are changed to Scottish rankings only - Scott is at 45, Lawrence at 88 and Jamie at 98 - making three Clackmannanshire golfers in the top 100 in Scotland.

    Hugh Hunter 8th August 2010

    WEE COUNTY WOE AT THE SCOTTISH AMATEUR
    In the Scottish Amateur Golf Championship played over Gullane No 1 course last week the four local golfers lost in the early rounds - first round casualties were Alloa’s Scott Moffat losing at the 19th and Dollar’s Darren Hulston at the 23rd - both regretting that a winning position slipped away. Scott Borrowman had an easy first round win but failed to take chances against James Byrne the number one seed in the second round, eventually losing by 2/1. Best performance came from Alloa’s Jamie Aitken who started with a fine win against Peter Latimer (New Club) by 4/2. Jamie’s sub par performance was more than enough to win against the 4th placed Scottish Order of Merit golfer. Jamie continued the good work in round 2 against Malcolm Campbell winning 2/1 but in round 3 he slipped to a 4 hole deficit on the outward nine against John Duff (Newmachar) which proved too much to overcome and he lost on the 16th green by 3/2.

    MORE TEE-OFFS FOR COUNTY GOLFERS
    Once again County golfers are trying their luck in National events. Alva’s Lawrence Allan and Alloa’s John Salmond are in the field for the prestigious British Boys Championship to be held at Kilmarnock Barassie. Over 200 competitors drawn from all over the world will play 36 holes stroke play over Kilmarnock Barassie and nearby Dundonald links on the 10th and 11th August - with the top 64 scores qualifying for match play.
    In the same week, Tulliallan’s Bob Stewart will make the long trip to Walton Heath to compete in the Seniors Open Amateur Championship. A field of 144 includes 9 from Scotland and 34 from the USA.
    Dollar golfers Scott Borrowman and Darren Hulston are in the field for the 72 hole Leven Gold Medal this weekend.

    GRANT DOWIE ORDER OF MERIT
    Clackmannan County Golf Union’s Boys Order of Merit for the Grant Dowie trophy is in its final stages and will be decided on the results of the Alva Boys Open on the 7th August. Leading the field is Tillicoultry’s Kevin Ross with 270 points followed by John Salmond (Alloa) on 235 points then Lawrence Allan (Alva) 200 points. County Junior Convenor Sam Kinnaird explained, “It’s a pity some Boys Opens have been cancelled but there are still 17 boys in the list and hopefully they will be inspired to improve their golf games”.

    HARROWER TROPHY 2010
    With two events completed out of three, the leaders from the County Spring and Summer meetings are as follows

  • 1st     Scott Moffat (Alloa) 139 (69,70)
  • 2nd=  Michael Robertson (Alva) 144 (73,71)
                 John Maxwell (Tulliallan) 144 (75, 69)
  • 4th=  Darren Hulston (Dollar) 146 (73,73)
                 Alan Aitken (Alva) 146 (75,71)
                 Mike Rust (Braehead) 146 (74,72)
    The final counting round will be the County Autumn Meting to be held on the 21st August at Tulliallan. Entry forms are in the local golf clubs at present.

    Hugh Hunter 31st July 2010

    • JOHN AND GARY JUST MISS OUT
    In the Scottish Boys Stroke Play Championship last week held over the par 71 Craigielaw course in East Lothian, Alloa’s John Salmond and Dollar’s Gary Chalmers just missed the cut at the half way stage. Over the tricky course where distance judgement is absolutely essential to hit the greens - many are like upturned saucers leaving very little margin for error - Gary scored a nine over par aggregate of 151 (75,76) with John two shots back on 153 (77,76). The cut came at a six over par 148. However both picked up tips for improvement - especially how double bogeys are score wrecking!
    John has been showing good form in local boys open events with wins at Linlithgow and Dunfermline recently - he must be very pleased that his handicap has gone down to scratch.

    MODERATE RESULT FOR LAWRENCE
    Alva’s Lawrence Allan missed out on the Boys Stroke Play event because of a clash with the European Young Masters Championship held in Hungary last week. In the under-16’s event he finished with the lowest three round score of the Scots contingent of two boys and two girls. In difficult conditions, especially on the last day, Lawrence returned a three round aggregate of 237 (76, 78, and 83) to finish in 22nd equal position out of more than 100 players. His second round could have been very good. It contained six birdies showing considerable class but these were neutralised by a few double bogeys. In the last round only 15 players broke 80 with high scores returned by many of the higher handicap players - one player scored 12 on the first hole!!
    In the Nations Cup the Scottish team finished in 19th position on 734 - the winning team from Finland scored 676.
    In the World Amateur Golf Rankings Lawrence has moved up again - almost 150 places - actually thanks to some points from the English under-16’s event

    COUNTY SENIOR GOLFERS IN ACTION
    Tulliallan’s Bob Stewart, now 9th in the senior Order of Merit, qualified quite comfortably for the Scottish Seniors Match Play Championship at Kinross last week with Scores of 77 and 81. In the first round Bob had a good win over Derek Murphy by 6/5 but could not sustain it in the second round where he lost to Colin Christy by 2/1. The event was won by Tony Stafford (Gleneagles) - a former Clackmannanshire golfer.
    Seniors action moves to Stirling this week with the first “Super Seniors” event for the over 65’s - decided over 36 holes on Thursday and Friday. It is pleasing to see a number of local golfers supporting the event.

    COUNTY GOLF LEAGUES
    County Golf Leagues co-ordinator Sam Kinnaird is having a difficult time with both the boys' and men’s league matches. Sam remarks, “Matches are cancelled at the last minute, even in good weather, plus there is a delay in reporting some of the results — all this makes it difficult to work out accurate team positions”.
    Sam’s latest assessment is as follows:

    Boys League:
    Braehead and Alva are leading with 6 points from 4 matches; Alloa (6 matches) and Tillicoultry (3 matches) both have 4 points.
    Last Sunday’s matches did not resolve the position, only one match was played between Alloa and Tillicoultry which resulted in a draw – the Alloa team were one man short.
    Match Results:
    Alloa 3 - Tillicoultry 3 (Alloa names first)

  • John Salmond beat Steven Watson 4/3;
  • Calum Boyd lost to Kevin Ross 4/3;
  • Grant Ross lost to Scott Baird 3/2;
  • Jack Dowie beat Ryan Millar 1 hole;
  • Angus Boyd beat Calum Reid 6/5;
  • Jonathan Clark (Tillicoultry) won on a walkover.

    Men’s League:
    Alloa leads with 6 points from 3 matches; Tulliallan are in second place with 4 points also from 3 matches. The remaining clubs have still to score points in their matches.

    Hugh Hunter 25th July 2010

    • STEVEN TRIUMPHS IN COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP
    Home player Steven Horne added another title to the Horne family collection when he won the Clackmannan County Stroke Play Championship over the par 69 Tulliallan golf course. In tricky, windy conditions Steven took the title by two shots from Braehead’s Mike Rust. In the first round, Steven held a narrow one shot lead from Mike when he completed the course in a level par 69 - helped by birdie threes at the last two holes. He went one better in the afternoon round also with a two birdie finish - indeed that was where the difference lay between the two players - Mike was 5 shots worse over the same two holes. County Match Play Champion Michael Robertson finished in 3rd place but was awarded the prize for the best handicap aggregate. Steven last won the County title in 1998 and will take his place in the 2011 Scottish Champion of Champions event.
    The entry of around 30 players was disappointing to County Secretary Tommy Johnson, “The event clashes with the Open and the county Executive will be looking at the date for future years”.
    Leading Scores (36 hole totals)

  • 137 S Horne (Tulliallan)
  • 139 M Rust (Braehead)
  • 140 S Moffat (Alloa)
  • 141 M Robertson (Alva)
  • 144 G Chalmers (Dollar)
  • 145 I Ross (Alloa)
  • 146 A G Miller (Tulliallan)
  • 147 M Crichton (Tulliallan)
  • 147 A H Horne (Tulliallan)

    Pictured (L-R): Tommy Johnson (County Secretary), Steven Horne (Tulliallan - County Strokeplay Champion), Mike Rust (Braehead - runner up). Back row: Dave Hedgecock (Match Secretary Tulliallan Golf Club), Scott Moffat (Alloa).

    2010 SCOTTISH CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP
    The County Championship is used to decide the Clackmannan representative in the Scottish Club Championship to be held at Fortrose and Rosemarkie Golf Club to the north of Inverness on the 26th September.
    Only three Clubs could provide the three players needed to compete for the qualifier. The results are as follows with the best two scores from three to count in each round

  • 1. Tulliallan - 279 (S Horne 69,68; M Crichton78,69; R Lyons 73,76)
  • 2. Braehead - 289 (M Rust 70,69; P Macleod 73,77; A Watson 76, NR)
  • 3. Alloa - 295 (I Ross 72,73; I Guthrie 78,78; D Milloy 76,74)
    Tulliallan will be keen to try and repeat past successes where they won the Scottish final and progressed to the European Club Championship to be held this year at the Estela Golf Club in Portugal from 21-23rd October.

    MIXED NEWS FOR LAWRENCE
    With two rounds of 77, Alva’s Lawrence Allan just missed the cut by 3 shots at the English Under 16's Championship held in difficult conditions over Princes Golf course in Kent.
    The good news was that thanks to his fine performance in the Scottish Under 16’s event his R&A world ranking has improved by 599 places to 3285 and overtakes Alloa’s Jamie Aitken at 3301. Scott Borrowman at 1145 is still looking for some good form in National events

    SCOTTISH AMATEUR GOLF CHAMPIONSHIP
    The draw for the Scottish Amateur Golf Championship at Gullane has not really been kind to the four Clackmannan players entered.
    Dollar’s Scott Borrowman is first in action against S McKechnie (Greenburn) at 7.17 on the first day - Monday 26th - with the winner of the match probably meeting the top seed James Byrne in the second round. Later on, at 11.41, Alloa’s Jamie Aitken plays Peter Latimer (New Club) who recently won the East of Scotland Championship and, at 12.37, Scott Moffat plays Michael Grunwell (Powfoot). Dollar’s Darren Hulston has an early start on the Tuesday against Munro Ferries (Tain).

    Hugh Hunter 18th July 2010

    • HONOURS EVEN IN LOCAL DERBY GOLF
    In the annual match against Stirlingshire the Clackmannan team fought well to secure a halved match at 5 games each in 10 a-side singles. It was a very good result away from home in difficult windy conditions over the flat Falkirk Tryst golf course where distances are difficult to judge for visitors.
    Top Clackmannan performance came from Dollar’s Gary Chalmers with a two under par score for a win on the 14th green. In another high quality match, Jamie Aitken (Alloa) held on to a two hole lead at the turn to win on the 17th and there were further narrow wins from the other two Alloa players - David Milloy who turned round a one hole deficit after nine to win on the last green and John Salmond who held on to a narrow lead all the way. Tulliallan’s John Maxwell squared his game at the 15th with a long putt for a birdie 2 and also held on for a one hole win. Team Captain John Gullen was pleased, “The team have only lost one match this season and hopefully the County can add some good new players to its teams". Although losing on the last hole Braehead’s Alan Watson can be pleased that he took Jamie Lynch - local player and Scottish Boys semi-finalist - to the last green in his first match for Clackmannan County. In fact Jamie had to call on all his reserves to square the match at the 17th with a good putt followed by an iron hit very close at the 18th to win by one hole”
    Match results (Clackmannan names first)

  • 1. Jamie Aitken (Alloa) beat Mark Hislop (Glenbervie) 2/1
  • 2. Ross Benvie (Braehead) lost to Steven Ferguson (Falkirk Tryst) 6/5
  • 3. Scott Moffat (Alloa) lost to James Donaldson (Falkirk Tryst) 2/1
  • 4. Alan Watson (Braehead) lost to Jamie Lynch (Falkirk Tryst) 1 hole
  • 5. John Maxwell (Tulliallan) beat Stuart Haddow (Falkirk) 1 hole
  • 6. David Milloy (Alloa) beat George McNairney (Falkirk Tryst) 1 hole
  • 7. Scott Baird (Tillicoultry) lost to Ryan Campbell (Grangemouth) 8/7
  • 8. John Salmond (Alloa) beat Trevor Kelly (Bridge of Allan) 1 hole
  • 9. Gary Chalmers (Dollar) beat Mark Cox (Falkirk) 5/4
  • 10. John Gullen (Tillicoultry) lost to Tommy Wilson (Glenbervie) 1 hole
         Result: Clackmannan 5 - Stirling 5

    ANOTHER TOP PERFORMANCE FOR LAWRENCE
    Alva’s Lawrence Allan continues to improve and produce good scores. His latest effort was at the Scottish Under-16’s event held at Auchterarder last week. Lawrence made the cut easily by 7 shots with two rounds of 71 and 72. In the final round, played in difficult conditions, he scored 72 to finish a highly creditable seventh equal position and third equal Scot in the field of around 50. His three round aggregate of 215 was 8 over par and 7 shots behind the winner Remo Fueg from Switzerland. .
    Lawrence will be piling up the air miles over the next two weeks - first he is in the south east England this week as part of the Scottish squad competing in the English Under 16’s at the Princes golf course. Within a week he is then off to Hungary to represent Scotland in the European Junior Masters for under-16’s. Each country entered is represented by a team of four — two girls and two boys - competing for a team trophy as well as the individual event. County Junior Convenor Sam Kinnaird is very pleased, “The County, and especially Alva Golf Club where he is well supported, hopes he does well and produces some good scores". The event is played over 54 holes at the Royal Balatan Golf and Yacht Club - now that’s an interesting picture.


    Lawrence Allan (right) at the Scottish Under 16's Championship, Auchterarder, with playing partner Yannick Fuchs from Switzerland

    BOB AND CALLUM BOUNCE BACK
    It was good to see both Bob Stewart and Callum Macaulay come back from last week’s disappointing results. In the Scottish Seniors Society tournament at Lanark Bob finished in 4th equal position with rounds of 75 and 71 over the par 72 course. His aggregate of 146 was 4 shots behind the winner and his 71 was one of the lowest scores of the day. Phil Dempsey also from Tulliallan finished in 11th position 3 shots back with rounds of 75 and 74.
    On the professional side, Tulliallan’s Callum Macaulay finished well up in the Challenge Tour event held at Lyon. Saving the best till last, Callum scorched back in his final round with an inward nine of 31 containing 4 birdies. His four sub par rounds of 70,69,70,66, gave him a nine under par aggregate of 275, nine shots behind the winner, the second top Scot and a share of sixteenth place which will help him considerably in the rankings.

    JOHN CROWNED AT KING JAMES VI
    Not to be outdone by the seniors, Alloa’s John Salmond put in an excellent performance in the King James VI Junior Open held on the island course in Perth. John took the trophy with a three under par score of 67, winning by 5 shots. Braehead’s Jordan Struthers continued the good work with a second place in the handicap section with a score of 75-9=66.
    In the Clubgolf Junior Masters Regional finals, only one Club from the County will be represented. Alloa junior golfers Calum Boyd and Jack Dowie will be competing at Glencorse golf course near Edinburgh for a place in the National finals to be held at the Renaissance Club in East Lothian on the 3rd October. There are four Regional finals and around 80 Clubs are competing for about 50 places in the final, so there will be around 12 qualifiers at each venue.

    Hugh Hunter 11th July 2010

    • POOR SHOWING IN ALEXANDER TROPHY
    The Alexander Trophy dating from 1914 is a competition among Stirling and Clackmannan Golf Clubs — the best three scores from four over 18 holes decide the winning Club. Local clubs have enjoyed considerable success over the years - Alloa has won it 14 times and Tulliallan 8 times ……… 2010 is not one of the better years for Clackmannan Clubs, the best performance came from Dollar who finished in 6th position from the eleven competing teams over the Falkirk course. In difficult weather conditions with strong winds and rain, golf shot making became very difficult and proved a severe test for many competitors. Only two Clackmannan Clubs were represented - Dollar and Alloa, the Braehead team withdrew at the last minute. Alloa Team Captain Jamie Aitken recorded a good 75 but it was in vain with two other team members failing to return a score.
    LEADING SCORES: 1st Falkirk 228 (75,76,77): 2nd Stirling Junior and Youth Society 231: 3rd Falkirk Tryst 232.
    County Positions: 6th Dollar (245): 10th= Alloa.

    BOB AND CALLUM MISS OUT
    Tulliallan’s Callum Macaulay just missed out playing in the Open when he lost in a play-off at the Final Qualifying competition at Ladybank and missed the cut in the French Open a few days later - a pity since he played so well in the qualifying event.
    Scottish Senior Internationalist Bob Stewart (also Tulliallan) missed the cut in the 54 hole Scottish Seniors Championship held at Pollok. Although Bob improved in his second round, he had left himself with too much to do, finishing 5 shots behind the 36 hole cut with rounds of 79 and 76
    It’s tough at the top............

    COUNTY GOLF TEAM IN ACTION
    Local derby match against Stirlingshire takes place this Sunday over Falkirk Tryst Golf course and will be decided on ten singles matches for the first time — the foursomes element has been abandoned.
    Selected for the County are Ross Benvie, Alan Watson (Braehead); Scott Baird (Tillicoultry); Kevin Macfarlane, Lawrence Allan (Alva); John Maxwell (Tulliallan); John Salmond, Jamie Aitken David Milloy (Alloa); Gary Chalmers (Dollar)
    Team Captain John Gullen is reasonably confident, “With some regular team players unavailable, others have the chance to see what they can do”.
    The match starts at 11.00 am.

    COUNTY BOYS LEAGUE
    There was a prospect that the jostling for top spot would be clearly resolved last weekend. Alva had an emphatic win over Alloa at home, but the Tillicoultry v Braehead match was postponed. So at the minute, Alva boys are holding an overall lead in the competition.

    Hugh Hunter 4th July 2010

    TRIUMPH FOR ALLOA AT COUNTY MIXED FOURS
    The Alloa Mixed Fours team notched up an emphatic win by seven shots in the 2010 County mixed Foursomes Championship. County President Bill Abernethy was delighted that all six Clubs participated - helped by changing to a handicap format with three out of four scores counting. Star players of the day were Alloa Team Captain Ian Ross partnered by Joanne McIntosh with both the best scratch and net scores from the 24 couples.
    The winning net scores were as follows: Moira McRae/Scott Moffat 74; Tracey Anne Whitelaw/Andrew Whitelaw 69; Joanne McIntosh/Ian Ross 67; Hazel Hume/Robert Hume 74½ - best three scores 210
    Home Club Braehead finished runner up with 217½; Tillicoultry and Tulliallan on 220½; Alva 224; Dollar 235.
    Team Captain Ian Ross was pleased with the result, “It was good for Alloa Golf Club to add the Mixed Fours title to the County Fours title won last month by the Men’s team”.


    Ian Ross (left) accepting the Mixed Fours Trophy from Bill Abernethy (County President) together with the rest of the winning Alloa team.

    BOYS LEAGUE HOTS UP
    The 2010 County Boys League is shaping up to give an exciting finish. Four teams (Alloa, Braehead, Alva, Tillicoultry) are tied on 4 points each with Alloa holding a slight lead on game difference although the other three teams have a game in hand. Praise must go to the Dollar boys who are competing in the League but with a much less experienced team than the others - the true spirit of golf.

    BOB STEWART - BEST OF THE COUNTY SENIORS
    Tulliallan’s Bob Stewart is keeping up with the senior elite in Scotland this season. In the Scottish Senior Golfing Society events Bob finished in 5th position at Kinross with a 36 hole score of 153 (75,78). In the Central Scotland Seniors at Glenbervie, Bob started badly with an 80 but showed true form in the second round with a 69 - the only sub 70 round of the tournament - lifting him to 9th equal position. A bit further back were Phil Dempsey 156 (78,78) and George Kay 158 (78,80).
    In the Senior Order of Merit played over the par 71 Pollok Golf course there will be strong competition in the 134 strong field for both the 2010 title and places in the Seniors International team. This event is staged over three rounds with a cut after two leaving the top 40 to contest the title.

    WEE COUNTY GOLFERS SPREAD THEIR WINGS
    It is pleasing to note that local golfers are having a go at upcoming National events. Alloa’s Jamie Aitken and Scott Moffat will be joined by Dollar’s Darren Hulston in the Scottish Amateur Golf Championship at Gullane at the end of July - it's now almost two years since Callum Macaulay (Tulliallan) took the Amateur title at Carnoustie.
    Alloa’s John Salmond and Dollar’s Gary Chalmers are going for the Scottish boys Stroke Play title at Monifieth - unfortunately due to an International commitment, Alva’s Lawrence Allan misses the event - however Lawrence is in the field for the Scottish Under 16’s at Auchterarder next week and the week after that the Alva course record holder is making a long journey to Princes Golf course in Kent to compete in the English Under 16’s event. Maybe he should be brushing up on his language skills - he is drawn with a Swiss player at Auchterarder and a Spanish player at Princes!!

    TILLICOULTRY LADIES SHOW THE WAY
    Nice to have a good Ladies performance to report - in the Scottish Ladies Club Foursomes tournament, Tillicoultry have progressed to the last sixteen from the original entry of over 70 Clubs. Represented by Eileen Perry, Morag Jamieson and Marjorie Crichton, from which a foursomes pair is selected, the Ladies progressed to the second round with a local win against Braehead followed by a good away win by 2/1 at Grangemouth. They now have another away tie against Strathmore to be completed by the 23rd July.

    RETURN TO FORM BY CALLUM
    Friends and supporters of Tulliallan’s Callum Macaulay will be delighted to see his golfing form returning. In a qualifying round for the French Open, Callum returned a 36 hole score of 63,68 to snatch a place. In his brilliant 63, his inward nine contained four pars, four birdies and an eagle for a score of 30. The French Federation website reports about Callum, “... qualifie après 1 trou de play off contre Victor Riu” - maybe a slight dent in the ”Entente Cordiale” between France and Scotland. Callum can now look forward to the Open de France played at the French National Golf course, a 7,300 yards layout with a 607 par 5 hole, a prize fund of three million Euros and a top prize of half a million Euros.
    Last week, Callum took in a Challenge Tour event at Tecina Golf in the Canary Islands where he did well to finish in 11th position with a ten under par score of 274 (70,67,68,69). Hopefully the confidence is returning. Best of luck Callum!

    Hugh Hunter 27th June 2010

    THRILLING MATCH PLAY FINAL
    The small group of spectators and supporters at Tulliallan last Thursday were treated to a top class final in the 2010 Clackmannan County Golf Union Match Play Championship - both players being round in under par. The closely contested match between Michael Robertson (Alva) and Darren Hulston (Dollar) produced high quality golf shots ranging from powerful drives - Darren hit an uphill drive at the 14th (Muckle Clure) that was just short of 300 yards - to accurate irons and outstanding pitching and putting. Michael Robertson came out ahead, perhaps with just the more consistent play, giving Alva their first County Match Play Champion for a good number of years.
    On the outward nine, Michael held the advantage with a 2 hole lead at the turn thanks to birdies at the short 6th and 8th where a short iron over trees finished close. Darren held the deficit right to the closing holes with good short game play - just missing a putt on the last green which would have taken the match into extra holes.
    Michael held his nerve and resisted this charge - a particularly good shot was a pitch at the 15th judged perfectly to bounce off the bank and release on to the green close to the pin to ensure a half in par 3.
    Final: Michael Robertson (Alva) beat Darren Hulston (Dollar) by 1 hole.
    As a result of this fine performance Michael should get an invite to the 2011 Champion of Champions at Leven in April.


    Pictured (L-R) Darren Hulston (Dollar) - Runner-up - and Bill Abernethy (Clackmannan County President) presenting the County Matchplay Trophy to 2010 County Champion - Michael Robertson (Alva)

    WEE COUNTY WELL UP IN SCHOOLS CHAMPIONSHIPS
    In the 2010 Scottish Schools Golf Championships played at the Murrayshall courses, the Clackmannan representatives from Alva Academy put in a good performance finishing sixth in the team event out of 27 Local Authority areas. Top performer in the 36 hole event was Lawrence Allan with 148 (70,78) followed by Kevin Ross 152 (75,77) and Scott Baird (78,75). With all scores counting this gave a team total of 453 some way behind winners South District with a winning aggregate of 423.

    LAWRENCE KEEPS IN TOUCH
    Alva’s Lawrence Allan has had a busy week finishing with the 36 hole last Junior Tour event this year played at Kilmarnock Barassie on Sunday. In a field of 39 containing all the top Scottish boys, Lawrence finished 14th equal, ahead of several older and more experienced boy golfers.
    His aggregate of 152 (77,75) contained 5 birdies all at the par 5's and he must be reasonably confident for the Scottish Under 16’s event coming up at the beginning of July.

    BRAEHEAD BOYS LOOKING GOOD
    The County Boys League is underway and, following on from their success in the County Junior Boys Championship, the Braehead boys are making their presence felt — they had a good home win over Alloa last weekend by 4 matches to 1 with one half.


    The multi-coloured Braehead Boys Team - pictured (L-R) Grant Murray, Brian MacAdam, Steven Mitchell, Jordan Struthers, Scott Beattie, Rikky Alexander.

    SCOTTISH MID AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP
    The only Clackmannan County representative Phil Dempsey (Tulliallan) just missed out qualifying for the Match Play stages. His two round aggregate of 148 (71,77) over the East Renfrewshire course was two shots too many for a top sixteen place and a chance to win the 2010 title.

    CALLUM FINDS GOLFING FORM
    Tulliallan’s Callum Macaulay must have been pleased to find some golfing form returning in the Scottish Hydro Challenge last week. His closing round over the par 71, 7100 yard course was a 4 under par 67 and lifted him well up the field resulting in a four round score of 277 (72,68,70,67) and a share of 11th position. This good performance should also lift his Challenge Tour ranking considerably from his present 93rd position and much closer to where he needs to be at the end of the season. Callum is due to play in the rescheduled Moroccan Golf Classic this week.

    Hugh Hunter 13th June 2010

    HEROIC PERFORMANCE FROM THE COUNTY BOYS
    The County Boys Golf Team put in an outstanding performance in the afternoon singles round of the Scottish Boys Area Team Championships last weekend at Peebles to lift the team to fourth position out of sixteen teams. Over the par 70 layout the two foursomes pairings found themselves in ninth position at lunchtime with rounds of 74 and 79. It was a different story in the afternoon when all four boys reached the turn close to even par - John Salmond was one under, Scott Baird and Gary Chalmers were even and Lawrence Allan was one over. On the second nine it was Gary and Lawrence who took their scores below par, Lawrence finishing in 69 with birdies at 17 and 18 whilst Gary just missed out on a 68 when his putt just shaved the hole at the last. Team Captain Bill Hatley was highly pleased, “After some disappointment at the morning scores the boys came back strongly in the afternoon and were within two shots of taking the bronze medals. It was great to see a pair of 69s opposite Clackmannan names, and the best performance by a County Boys team since the Clackmannan win in the 1970s”.
    Results - Foursomes:

  • John Salmond (Alloa) & Scott Baird (Tillicoultry) - 74
  • Gary Chalmers (Dollar) & Lawrence Allan (Alva) - 79
    Singles:
  • Salmond 71; Allan 69; Chalmers 69; Baird 72.
    Team Total
    Foursomes 153 plus best three scores (209).
    Overall Team Totals: 1. Lothians 356; 2. Lanarkshire 360; 3. South 360; 4. Clackmannan 362.

    The 2010 County Boys Team at Peebles.
    Pictured (L-R): Lawrence Allan, John Salmond, Gary Chalmers, Scott Baird.

    COUNTY MATCH PLAY CHAMPIONSHIP
    The first two rounds of the County Match Play Championship were completed last week at Alloa and Dollar. In the first round Alloa’s Jamie Aitken, the holder, lost on the last green to Scott Moffat. A close all Alloa match went in David Milloy’s favour and the biggest win of the evening came from Alva’s Michael Robertson.
    In the second round, Michael Robertson continued on his winning ways with a fine win against Alloa’s Scott Moffat - from 1 up at the 7th Michael forged ahead to win on the 15th. Dollar specialist Darren Hulston was in fine form against David Milloy and Steven Horne turned his match around against Phil Dempsey.
    Results - Round 1

  • M Robertson (Alva) beat M Quinn (Tulliallan 7/6
  • S Moffat (Alloa) beat J Aitken (Alloa) 2 holes
  • J Muir (Braehead) beat A Watson (Braehead) 3/1
  • K Christie (Dollar) lost to J Todd (Braehead 4/3
  • S Horne (Tulliallan beat P Starkey (Braehead) 6/5
  • P Dempsey (Tulliallan) beat K McFarlane (Alva) 1 hole
  • D Milloy (Alloa) beat I Guthrie (Alloa) 1 hole
  • R Benvie (Braehead lost to D Hulston (Braehead) 2 holes
    Round 2
  • Robertson beat Moffat 4/3
  • Muir beat Todd 4/3
  • Horne beat Dempsey 2 holes
  • Hulston beat Milloy 6/4

    THE AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP
    Dollar’s Scott Borrowman will be hoping for success in the Amateur Championship next week at North Berwick and Muirfield. 288 competitors will play 36 holes over both courses on Monday and Tuesday and the leading 64 scores will play match play format Wednesday. Two years ago, Tulliallan’s Callum Macaulay had a very good run in the event reaching the semi-final stage. Scott tees off at 1.02 on North Berwick and 8.28 on Muirfield.

    Hugh Hunter 6th June 2010

    • CRACKING START FOR BOYS GOLF LEAGUE MATCHES
    With only one week and three matches the 2010 county Boys league is shaping up for exciting Sunday matches between 5 Clubs in the County - regrettably Tulliallan are unable to participate again. Last week only one match was played with Alva defeating Tillicoultry by 3½ matches to 2½ - the Dollar v Braehead match was unable to be played. Two matches were played at the weekend - Alloa defeated Alva by 4½ to 1½ and Tillicoultry defeated Braehead by 3½ to 2½.
    Top match at Schawpark was a halved game between low handicappers John Salmond and Lawrence Allan. The Boyd brothers provided another two wins along with Grant Ross and Calum Watson.

    Match details (Alloa names first)

  • John Salmond halved with Lawrence Allan
  • Calum Boyd beat Reyner Kennedy 4/3
  • Grant Ross beat Daniel Ashe 2/1
  • Calum Watson beat Calum Graham 2/1
  • Jack Dowie lost to Martin Hall 5/4
  • Angus Boyd beat Craig Comrie 4/3

    This week’s fixtures - Tillicoultry v Dollar and Braehead v Alloa.


    Pictured is the Alloa Team (THE RED, WHITE & BLUE!)
    (Front row L-R): Calum Boyd, John Salmond, Angus Boyd.
    (Back Row L-R): Calum Watson, Grant Ross, Jack Dowie and Drew Hunter (Reserve)

    SCOTTISH BOYS AREA TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP
    The top four County Boys will represent Clackmannanshire at Peebles this weekend in the 2010 Boys Team Championship - the Hillfoots golf clubs are well represented. Following a practice round on Saturday the event is decided by two foursomes scores on Sunday morning added to three out of four singles scores in the afternoon. Sam Kinnaird, the County Boys convenor, is reasonably confident, “We are hoping the team members can play near their handicaps to give Clackmannanshire a chance of a good team score in the event”.
    Clackmannan team: Lawrence Allan (Alva); Scott Baird (Tillicoultry); Gary Chalmers (Dollar); John Salmond (Alloa).

    GRANT DOWIE BOYS ORDER OF MERIT
    The County Golf Union are extremely grateful to the Dowie family for their generous gesture in presenting a trophy in memory of Grant. For 2010 the counting events for points will be the County Boys events and the Open boys competitions held at the six Clubs in the County. With the County events completed, the leading scores are as follows 1. Lawrence Allan 200; 2. John Salmond 150; 3. Kevin Ross 125; 4. Ryan Millar 100; 5 Scott Baird 90; 6. Gary Chalmers 80; 7. Grant Carmichael 70; 8.Martin Hall 50; 9. Steven Watson 25; 10. Calum Graham 10.
    The next counting event is the Dollar Boys open on the 6th June and with four top players missing, there is a chance for others to make up some ground.

    SCOTTISH STROKE PLAY CHAMPIONSHIP
    Top Dollar players Scott Borrowman and Darren Hulston missed the 36 hole cut at last weeks event held at Glasgow Gailes. Scott finished at 9 over (77,74) and Darren at 12 over (76, 78).
    The winner was French player Romain Wattel at nine under par for 72 holes.

    SCOTTISH SENIORS GOLF
    Clackmannanshire senior golfers are strong supporters of the Seniors Golfing Society and in the Spring meeting at Montrose the three County players returned quite respectable scores over the par 72 layout. Top scorer was Tulliallan’s Bob Stewart with 153 (76,77) followed by Phil Dempsey on 157 (82,75) and Michael Niven on 159 (79,80). There is a succession of top senior events over the summer — the next one is the East of Scotland seniors on the 10/11th June.

    CALLUM IN GOOD FORM
    Taking a break from the Challenge Tour events last week, Tulliallan’s Callum Macaulay played in the Tartan Tour Teddy Bear Foundation at the King’s course Gleneagles. Callum tied for the best score with three others on two under par 68. This week Callum is due to play in a Challenge Tour event in South Austria at the 7000 yards Klagenfurt–Settenheim layout.

    Hugh Hunter 30th May 2010


    • COUNTY BOYS MATCH PLAY TITLE FOR LAWRENCE
    The postponed 2010 County Boys Match play final for the Ponton Shield was played last week at Tillicoultry between Kevin Ross (Tillicoultry) and Lawrence Allan (Alva). Home player Ross moved into a one hole lead on the outward nine, increasing it to two holes after 12. Lawrence fought back and the turning point came at the 15th (Brugglie Bank - Tillicoultry’s equivalent of the famous water hole at Sawgrass) where a misjudgement by Kevin allowed Lawrence to square the match. This must have given Allan some confidence because he took the next two to take the 2010 title by 2 and 1.
    (The picture shows Kevin Ross (Left) and Lawrence Allan - winner of Ponton Shield)

    SCOTTISH YOUTHS DEBUT FOR LAWRENCE
    Playing in an age group two levels above him, Alva’s Lawrence Allan must have been generally pleased with his performance in making the cut and finishing in 34th position in an experienced field. At the same time, however, he must have been a bit disappointed with his opening and closing rounds of 79. It’s all a valuable learning experience and his excellent third round of 71 must give him confidence for upcoming boys’ events - he plays in the Junior Tour event this weekend at Brunston Castle golf course in Ayrshire and is drawn with two other good under 16s golfers in a 39 strong field of the top Scottish boy golfers. In the Boys Order of Merit Lawrence is in 13th position, so a good finish at Brunston could move him up towards the top group of Scottish boys.

    TOP TEN FINISH FOR THE COUNTY GOLF TEAM
    In the Scottish Area Team Championship held last weekend at Kinross, the County 6 man team did some credit to themselves when they finished tenth out of the sixteen areas. In the first stroke play round (5 scores out of 6 to count) the team scored 378. In more difficult windy afternoon conditions the team slipped back to 389 and a total of 767 - out of the top four qualifiers, and a good way behind the top qualifier North East, who went on to win the match play event next day. Team Captain John Gullen said, “Some of the individual scores could have been a bit better but congratulations must go to Scott Borrowman for rounds of 67 and 72 to give the leading individual aggregate from the 96 players”.

    CHALLENGE TOUR GOLF FOR CALLUM
    Tulliallan’s Callum Macaulay continues his busy schedule on the European Challenge Tour. In the Mallorcan open, Callum made the cut with rounds of 74 and 70 but could not find an improvement in the last two rounds which he completed in 74 and 76. This week Callum moves to Italy for the Tuscany Open; his objective is to improve in the Challenge Tour events hopefully to get into the top twenty - this would give full playing rights on the European Tour next season.

    AND FINALLY… WEE COUNTY RULES AGAIN - OK
    The World Amateur Golf Rankings are published on a weekly basis (Wednesday at 12 noon) up to a position of just over 4000. This week, three local golfers feature - Scott Borrowman (Dollar) 886, Jamie Aitken (Alloa) 3028 and Lawrence Allan (Alva) 3637. Lawrence gained points for his Scottish Youths performance which boosted his ranking by no less than 472 places!! Comparing them with only Scottish players then their rankings become much better - Scott 28th, Jamie 90th and Lawrence 102nd. And that’s in a population of over 150,000 golfers.
    On the world stage our Wee County with six golf clubs has three world ranked players - Poland, Greece, Cyprus plus many other countries have none. Maybe Clackmannanshire should look for Nation status in golf!!

    Hugh Hunter 16th May 2010

    COUNTY FOURS EXCITEMENT CONTINUES
    The second week of the County Fours continued the keenly fought matches seen in the first week. The first semi-final between Alloa and Braehead saw Braehead hold a slight advantage by two holes at the half-way point. While the middle match stayed in Braehead’s favour, the first and last matches gained the necessary leads that took Alloa to the final by a single hole. In the other semi-final, it was the third Alva pairing that forged ahead on the second nine and Alva went through by 3 holes.

    Alloa v Braehead (Alloa names first)

  • 1. Ian Guthrie &Ian Ross beat Mike Rust & Sandy Douglas 2 up
  • 2. Scott Moffat & David Milloy lost to Jim Muir& Kevin Tainsh 3 up
  • 3. Jamie Aitken & John McLaren beat Ross Benvie & Andrew Borek 2 up
  • Alloa win 1 up

    Tillcoultry v Alva (Tillicoultry names first)

  • 1. John Gullen & James Malcolm lost to Steve McIvor & Lawrence Allan 5 up
  • 2. Scott Baird & Andrew Macpherson beat Michael Robertson & Alan Flannagan 4 up
  • 3. Kevin Ross & Keith Watson lost to Kevin McFarlane & Allan Aitken 2 up
  • Alva win 3 up

    The final between Alloa and Alva was keenly contested and it was only in the final stages of the match that Alloa took a commanding advantage. Ian Ross and Ian Guthrie quickly went 2 up after three and this proved decisive - Alloa held this margin right to the last hole. The other two matches were square after nine holes; the second pairing finished strongly leaving the last couple very little to do on the closing holes. Team Captain Jamie Aitken was delighted by the team performance, “The team played well to take the title for the first time since 1996 — the win makes up for the disappointment of last yeas loss”.
    Final - Alloa v Alva (Alloa names first)

  • 1. Ian Ross & Ian Guthrie beat Michael Robertson & Paul Davidson 2 holes
  • 2. Scott Moffat & David Milloy beat Steve McIvor & Lawrence Allan 2 up
  • 3. Jamie Aitken & John Salmond halved with Kevin McFarlane & Allan Aitken
  • Alloa win 4 up

    Pictured (front row L-R): Bill Abernethy (County President), Jamie Aitken (Team Captain with trophy), Ian Guthrie, Sheila Travers (Alloa Golf Club Captain). (Back Row L-R) Ian Ross, John Salmond, Scott Moffat, David Milloy

    SHOCKS GALORE IN THE BOYS MATCH PLAY
    The Boys Match Play events were held last week when the qualifiers from the Boys Championship played off over Braehead, Alva and Tillicoultry.
    In the Anderson Trophy for the under-14 boys, it was an all Braehead final with Rikky Alexander scraping through in a tense match at the 20th hole against the stylish Grant Murray. Rikky established a 1 hole lead after nine but Grant fought back to square the match twice, took a lead at 17 then lost the 18th.
    Semi-finals:

  • Grant Murray (Braehead) beat Angus Boyd (Alloa) 5/4
  • Rikky Alexander (Braehead) beat Scott Beattie (Braehead) 4/3
    Final: Alexander beat Murray at the 20th

    The final of the handicap Jubilee Trophy was an all Alloa affair and played on level terms with both Calums playing from 10 handicap. In the end it was Calum Boyd who won through against Calum Graham turning his one hole lead at the turn to a 5/4 win. In the semi-finals, Boyd beat Grant Ross (Alloa) and Graham beat Steven Watson (Tillicoultry).
    The senior boys’ match play event is still to be finished due to Lawrence Allan competing in the County Fours final. Allan will take on Tillicoultry’s Kevin Ross over Tillicoultry this week although losing to Lawrence Allan over Alva, Alloa’s Ryan Millar had a good tournament beating Dollar’s Gary Chalmers by one hole over Braehead then giving Lawrence a good game over Alva. Ryan was one up at the turn but Lawrence gradually took over on the inward nine, winning on the 16th green. Holder Scott Baird (Tillicoultry) lost in the first round to Alloa’s John Salmond who in turn lost to Kevin Ross over Alva. Ross was 3 up after 8, then John fought back to square the match by the 16th. Kevin won 17 and then 1 up and fired up he holed a good 5 ft putt on the last green to reach the final.
    Semi-finals:

  • Lawrence Allan (Alva) beat Ryan Millar (Alloa) 3/2
  • Kevin Ross (Tillicoultry) beat John Salmond (Alloa) 1 hole
    Final: Result to follow

    Pictured (front row L-R): Bill Abernethy (Clackmannan County President), Rikky Alexander (Anderson Trophy winner), Calum Boyd (Jubilee Trophy winner). (Back row L-R): Runners-up Calum Graham and Grant Murray

    2010 AREA TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP
    County Selectors have picked a strong team for the new format Area team Championship to be played over the Kinross golf courses this weekend. Each of the 16 Areas will field a team of six players who will play 36 holes stroke play on the Saturday with the best 4 areas qualifying for match play on the Sunday - semi-finals in the morning, final in the afternoon. Team Captain John Gullen is confident, “Our team is experienced and hopefully on the day they will produce some good scores comparable with the other Areas”.
    Selected for the County are Steven Horne, John Maxwell (both Tulliallan), Scott Moffat, Jamie Aitken (both Alloa) and Scott Borrowman, Darren Hulston (both Dollar).

    Hugh Hunter 8th May 2010

    • MORE DRAMA AT THE 2010 COUNTY FOURS
    Officially the tournament is the "County Club Foursomes Tournament” and has been run by Clackmannan County Golf Union for close on 80 years. The original scoring system has been retained - not liked by some - but usually guarantees well fought nail-biting matches. Each Club provides 3 couples to play foursomes and they play the full 18 holes. The aggregate of holes up and down decides the winning team - a true team game, not like most other golf matches which are the sum of individual performances. The closing stages can be a great test of nerve and so it was in both the first round ties last week played at Tillicoultry.
    The first match put Braehead against Tulliallan - after 9 holes all three matches were even, a few holes later Tulliallan held a clear advantage but the Braehead team fought back in such a spirited way that all three matches were square on the 18th tee. Braehead took match 2 by one hole, so it was left to Ross Benvie and Andrew Borek to secure a half which they duly did when Andrew holed a good 4 ft putt on the last green to take their team through to face Alloa in the semi-finals.
    In the other first round tie, holders Dollar looked to be in command after the first nine with a two hole lead. On the second nine Tillicoultry couple John Gullen and Jim Malcolm fought back from 3 down with an inward nine of 32 to take their game by one hole. Dollar’s second couple of Vic Allan and Charlie Murray produced a solid performance - 1 up at the turn and finishing 3 up. It was now advantage Dollar and again the third couple of talented junior Kevin Ross with experienced Keith Watson got the necessary half on the last green to finish 2 up and take the teams into a sudden death play off. John Gullen and Jim Malcolm took Tillicoultry through (to meet Alva in the semi-final) on the first extra hole when Dollar found some greenside trouble.
    Match Results
    ROUND 1: BRAEHEAD V TULLIALLAN (Braehead names first)

  • 1. Sandy Douglas/David Beaton all square with Phil Dempsey/Gordon Lyons
  • 2. Kevin Tainsh/Jim Muir 1 up on Neil McGeehan/Graham Miller
  • 3. Andrew Borek/Ross Benvie all square with Mark Crichton/Bob Stewart
  • BRAEHEAD WIN BY 1 HOLE
    ROUND 1: TILLICOULTRY V DOLLAR (Tillicoultry names first)
  • 1. John Gullen/Jim Malcolm 1 up on Darren Hulston/Scott Chalmers
  • 2. Scott Baird/Andrew McPherson 3 down to Vic Allan/Charlie Murray
  • 3. Kevin Ross/Keith Watson 2 up on Gary Chalmers/Steven McPherson
  • MATCH ALL SQUARE - TILLICOULTRY win 19th hole with a par four
    The semi-finals and final will be fully reported next week.

    NO SUCCESS THIS WEEK FOR TOP COUNTY GOLFERS
    No headlines this week - Tulliallan’s Callum Macaulay missed the cut in the Turkish Airlines Challenge last week with rounds of 74 and 73. Looking for a better score, Callum will be playing in Brittany, France, this week in the Allianz Open.
    In the 36 hole Junior Tour event held at Forrester Park, Alva’s Lawrence Allan finished in 13th place in a field of 39 with rounds of 73 and 79 for an 8 over par finish, 7 shots behind the winner. Lawrence started brilliantly with a 2 under par outward nine of 34 in Round 1 but dropped 3 shots to par on the inward nine. This gave a 73 which he couldn’t repeat in the afternoon round, still a fairly good performance to earn more points in the Boys Order of Merit. Lawrence tackles the Monifieth course this week in the Scottish Youths Championship - a 72 hole event with a cut after 2 rounds.
    Also in action last week was Dollar’s Scott Borrowman and 2007 Youths Champion trying his luck in the Pro XL Tec professional tournament at Hilton Park. A two round aggregate of 151 left him well down the field and 18 shots behind the winner.

    Hugh Hunter 2nd May 2010

    • Why don’t you….. “GO GOLFING” at Alloa Golf Club"
    The well established “GO GOLFING” Junior Golf Development programme teed off for the 2010 golf season at 5.00 pm last Saturday at Alloa Golf Club. Developed some five years ago by the Junior Convenor at that time, Jim Fraser, its innovative features are perfectly suited to encourage young golf enthusiasts on their own golfing pathway of discovery. The programme is a natural progression for youngsters who have been involved with the First Clubgolf initiative; it is also ideal for those wanting to go directly to real golf on a real golf course.
    Alloa’s enthusiastic Junior Convenor for 2010 Ewan Boyd describes the programme, “New entrants start on the GO GOLFING programme played over seven short holes designed from existing golfing holes. Two long holes have been split creating two fairway greens (bunkerless - perhaps a wish for many established golfers!). The other five greens are the regular greens. The target score to reach is 43 and on achieving this, the young golfer can proceed to the GO GOLFING PLUS layout - much more challenging playing the first eight holes from normal front tees. The target score at this new level is 45; this would then entitle the golfer to obtain an official Golf Club handicap provided a Junior Membership of Alloa Golf Club was obtained”.
    The programme runs fortnightly from the end of April until the end of August on Saturday evenings when the golf course is quiet — safety and etiquette briefings are given to all participants and there is an insistence that all young golfers on the basic programme must be accompanied by an adult.
    With all this in mind, Ewan must have been highly encouraged when he welcomed 19 keen young golfers to the first session including youngest player Murray McEwan aged five - trying golf for the first time.
    The programme is designed to give young golfers their first opportunity to experience golf on a golf course. Throughout the programme they will be introduced gradually to the rules and etiquette of the game and have the opportunity to make some new friends. Hopefully this will stand them in good stead should they decide to progress in the game.
    Sheila Travers (Captain of Alloa Golf Club) is very supportive of the programme and adds, “The future of Golf Clubs is through the young taking an interest in the game from an early age and the Council of Alloa Golf Club are keen to encourage both boys and girls to take up the sport through Go Golfing. In my own case, I started at the age of 10 and as a girl found it great to be competing with lots of boys and only two other girls”.
    Anyone interested in being part of the programme should contact Ewan at Alloa Golf Club or pick up details from the Golf Club notice board.

      

    Pictured top left are brothers Jonathan Payne (left) and Alexander Payne (right) with Zara Gullen in the centre. Top right is Craig Wilson (left) and youngest golfer Murray McEwan - Murray is 5 years old and was about to try his first ever experience on a golf course. Below are the 13 young golfers about to tee off at Alloa Golf Club in the first session of Go Golfing.

    Hugh Hunter 2nd May 2010

    With the County golf clubs all seeking to increase their membership the Junior Sections become of increasing importance and it is encouraging to see this fine example set by Alloa which must be of benefit to all the County clubs in due course of time. Dollar, too, has initiated a junior programme this year with information on the website - click here for details.

    SMALL FIELD IN COUNTY BOYS GOLF
    The early wet conditions slowly gave way to much drier weather in the late morning for the 24 competitors — a much smaller entry than usual. In the Senior boys division (15-17yrs) lowest handicap John Salmond (Alloa) led the way with a one over par 69 to take the 2010 Boys title. Home player Scott Baird was 4 shots behind in the runner up spot. Top handicap prize went to Alva player Martin Hall with a 4 under par net 64.
    In the 14 and under section, it was Braehead all the way in the scratch prizes, taking all three. The 2010 Junior Champion Rikky Alexander (Braehead) had a comfortable 6 shot win over Scott Beattie with Grant Murray in third place. There was some comfort for the home players with Calum Reid scoring a net 60 to take the first handicap prize ahead of Brian McAdam (Alloa), Jordan Struthers (Braehead) and Angus Boyd (Alloa).

    Leading Results (Senior Boys):

  • 69 John Salmond (Alloa)
  • 72 Scott Baird (Tillicoultry)
  • 74 Gary Chalmers (Dollar)
  • 76 Grant Carmichael (Tillicoultry)
  • 77 Ryan Millar (Alloa) Lawrence Allan (Alva) Martin Hall (Alva).
    The draw for the Match Play Championship is as follows:-
    Millar v Chalmers; Allan v Hall; Carmichael v Ross; Salmond v Baird.

    Leading Results (Junior Boys):

  • 82 Rikky Alexander (Braehead)
  • 88 Scott Beattie (Braehead); Calum Reid (Tillicoultry)
  • 89 Grant Murray (Braehead).
    The draw for the Junior Match Play Championship is as follows:-
    Boyd (bye); Murray v McAdam; Alexander v Reid; Beattie v Struthers.

      

    Pictured left are the Senior Prizewinners - front row left to right: Sam Kinnaird (Clackmannan County Golf Union), John Salmond (1st Scratch and Senior Boys Champion) and Martin Hall (1st Handicap).
    Pictured right are the Junior Prizewinners - front row left to right: Sam Kinnaird, Rikky Alexander (1st Scratch and Junior Boys Champion) and Calum Reid (1st Handicap prize).

    BOYS ORDER OF MERIT
    County Junior Convenor Sam Kinnaird was very pleased to accept a new trophy for the County Boys - the Grant Dowie Memorial Quaich presented by his father. Said Sam, “This is a magnificent trophy which will be a fitting memorial to Grant — points will be awarded for County Boys events and also the Boys Open competitions held at the six Clubs in the County. We are obviously very grateful to Kenny for this very kind and thoughtful gesture”.

    CLACKMANNAN COUNTY GOLF SPRING MEETINGS
    In good weather conditions, the County Meetings attracted an entry of around 200 competitors in the first big event of the County Golf calendar. The A Division was contested over the Tulliallan Golf course and there was some controversy and some disappointment at the cored and sanded greens which caused some difficulty with short putts. Sensibly the County Golf Union declared the event to be non-qualifying for handicap purposes - however this did not stop some fine scoring with Steve McIvor (Alva) 70-1=69, George Kay (Alloa) 75-6=69 and R Birrell (Alva) 80-10=70 being among the top scores. In the Second Division at Alloa Golf Club, the home players took the leading three places - Jim B Miller 82-14=68; Martin Jones 81-13=68 and Jim Kerr 83-14=69.

    FORTH VALLEY SCHOOLS GOLF CHAMPIONSHIPS
    Top golfers with handicaps 10 or better from schools in Clackmannanshire, Stirlingshire and Falkirk competed for the 2010 title in chilly conditions at Alloa Golf Club. The winner from the field of 42 was Jamie Lynch (Larbert HS) with a two round total of 151. He did have a great start - driving the first hole and holing a short putt for an eagle 2! Runner up was Euan Douglas (Dunblane HS) with 152, followed by Lawrence Allan (Alva Academy) with 153. Dunblane High School took the team trophy with Alva Academy (Lawrence Allan, Scott Baird) taking the runner up spot.
    In the girls event played over one round, best scratch was Eilidh Watson (Dollar Academy) with 84 winning by 4 shots. Echoes of Dad Bobby Watson winning the Scottish Boys title back in the seventies!
    The leading players will now go forward to the Scottish Schools Championships to be held at Murrayshall at the beginning of June.

    WORLD AMATEUR GOLF RANKINGS
    You had to be sharp eyed to notice this - thanks to a quarter final appearance at the Scottish Boys Championship; Alva’s Lawrence Allan was awarded one world ranking point for amateur golf - that was enough to propel him to 3,976th position in the rankings! However, even although he will keep his point for 12 months, his position has dropped below 4000 meaning it no longer appears on the list. The answer is of course to try to win more points. Putting the rankings in a Scottish context gives the following positions - 25th Scott Borrowman (Dollar); 81st Jamie Aitken (Alloa) and 104th Lawrence Allan (Alva) - meaning half the Wee County Golf Clubs are represented.
    In the Boys’ rankings, Lawrence is well established in 13th position - pity he missed the Junior Tour event at Newmachar due to the flight groundings.

    MIDLAND ALLIANCE
    The 2009/2010 season of competitions came to an end with the Scotscraig Pr-Am last Monday. It was the turn of the local golf professionals to show their golfing skills - Alloa’s David Herd took third place with a scratch 1 over par 72 with Gregor Abel 2 shots behind. Gregor’s Alloa team of Messrs Niven, Glass and Hunter just missed out on a prize when they were pipped by the Paul Brookes (Pitreavie) team containing Kenny Thomson also of Alloa.

    CALLUM ON TURKEY TRAVELS
    Tulliallan’s Callum Macaulay was disappointed to miss the Moroccan Open recently, another casualty of the Icelandic volcanic ash. This week he will be at the Turkish Airlines Challenge to be held over the 7178 yard par 72 Carya Golf course near Antalya. Ten Scots are in the field for the event - the course is described as a heathland layout with an extra one million heather plants being planted on the course.

    EDWARD TROPHY
    Dollar’s Scott Borrowman finished a creditable seventeenth equal in the 72 hole Order of Merit event played over Glasgow Gailes. Scott scored a 5 over par 293 (71,74,73,75) to lie 11 shots behind the winner Philip McLean (Peterhead).

    Hugh Hunter 25th April 2010

    • PROVAN SALVER TRIUMPH FOR COUNTY GOLFERS
    The County Golf Team made a good start to the 2010 season with a win in the Provan Salver team event contested by the Midland Counties, although it has to be said that after winning at Dollar by 5 matches to 3, Fife did Clackmannanshire a favour by beating Angus County by the same margin over Drumoig Golf course. Stars of the day were the three Alloa Golf Club team members who all won their matches plus fine performances from home based players - Darren Hulston was 6 under par for the first nine holes in his win; junior Gary Chalmers (playing in his first County Match) was even for some time until he won 4 holes in a row and never looked back in a 5 and 4 win.
    Team captain John Gullen was pleased with the team performance, “This was just what we needed to boost confidence for the Scottish Area Team Championship at Kinross in May when we will be competing with the best in Scotland”.
    For the record, Clackmannan won quite clearly with two match wins out of three. Angus and Perth & Kinross tied for second place with one and a half matches, then Fife with one match win.
    Match Details (Clackmannan names first)

  • Scott Borrowman (Dollar) lost to Nicky Barr (Craigie Hill) 4/3
  • Steven Horne (Tulliallan) lost to Stuart Graham (Blairgowrie) 3/2
  • Darren Hulston (Dollar) beat Scott Michie (Kinross) 3/2
  • Jamie Aitken (Alloa) beat George Brass (Blairgowrie) 3/2
  • Scott Moffat (Alloa) beat Craig Stephen (King James VI) 5/4
  • John Maxwell (Tulliallan) lost to Stuart McKendrick (Dunkeld & Birnam) 1 hole
  • Ian Ross (Alloa) beat Malcolm Davidson (Craigie Hill) 2/1
  • Gary Chalmers (Dollar) beat Eric Lindsay (Blairgowrie) 5/4
    Match result: CLACKMANNAN 5 - PERTH & KINROSS 3

    LAWRENCE ON INTERNATIONAL DUTY
    In the Under 16 Quadrangular Golf Matches held in Holland last week, Alva’s junior star continued the good work from the Scottish Boys Championship. Playing at number one in the foursomes matches and number two in the singles, Lawrence had a pretty good tournament considering it was his first International event in Europe. On the first day, partnered by Euan Scott (St Andrews) they lost out to the top Dutch pairing by 3/2. He then narrowly lost by one hole his singles in the afternoon - however, he bounced back on days 2 and three with halved matches and is clearly among the top Scottish Under 16 golfers.
    Regrettably the Scottish team were held up in Holland due to the grounded flights such that they missed the 72 hole Junior tour event at Newmachar last weekend.
    Thanks to a withdrawal, Lawrence is now in the field for the Scottish Youths Championship at Monifieth from the 7th till 9th May - he was on the reserve list for a few days due to his handicap of 1.7 being right on the limit.

    2010 COUNTY GOLF SEASON TEES OFF
    Three big events of the Clackmannan County Golf season will be contested this weekend and next week. The SPRING MEETING is taking place over Tulliallan (Division 1) and Alloa (Division 2) golf courses this weekend. County Secretary Tommy Johnson is highly pleased, ”There is an excellent entry of 135 in the first division and 93 in the second division - this is a very good proportion of the golf club members in Clackmannanshire and helps to fulfil one of the main objectives of Clackmannan County - to promote golf among the six member golf clubs”. Draws have been posted in the Golf Clubs.
    The BOYS CHAMPIONSHIP goes to Tillicoultry on Sunday 25th April. Boys Convenor Sam Kinnaird is a bit disappointed, “There is a lower than normal entry but we hope to get a few late entries for both the Senior and Junior boys events”. At present, the Junior boys event has only attracted 8 entrants with 5 of them from Braehead. Low handicaps Grant Murray and Ricky Alexander playing off 10 must be favourites for the Junior title and as things stand all 8 will qualify for the Junior Match-play title. The senior boys event has attracted 16 entrants (7 from Alloa, 4 Tillicoultry, 2 Alva, 2 Braehead and 1 Dollar). The 2010 titles will probably go to the “Big Three” in County Boys golf - Lawrence Allan (Alva), Gary Chalmers (Dollar) and John Salmond (Alloa) - the lowest handicaps in the field.
    The first two ties in the COUNTY FOURSOMES TEAM TOURNAMENT will be held at the start of next week with Dollar hoping to retain their title from 2009.

    NATIONAL GOLF EVENTS
    County President Bill Abernethy is hoping that more County golfers will test their skills in the bigger Scottish competitions - in the recent Craigmillar Park 72 hole event locals Scott Borrowman and Darren Hulston (both Dollar) took part. Scott was lying second equal after the first days play with two rounds of 65. Darren scored 76,73 just missing the cut. In the final two rounds Scott could not sustain the good work and finished on 281 (65, 65, 74, 77) and finished in 29th equal position.
    This weekend, Scott plays in the Edward Trophy 72 hole event over Glasgow Gailes - in a field of 72 he is one of the higher handicaps (they are all plus) - there are 4 players off plus three and 22 off plus two, such is the standard of golf these days.

    MIDLAND ALLIANCE
    Local golfers continue on their winning ways!! In the event held at Monifieth last week, Bob Stewart (Tulliallan) took second equal scratch prize while the team of Paul Brookes (Pitreavie), Kenny Thomson and Chris Westland (both Alloa) with a net 60, tied for first in the team event.

    FORTH VALLEY SCHOOLS GOLF CHAMPIONSHIPS
    Top golfers from schools in Clackmannan, Stirling and Falkirk will be contesting the local schools Championships this Thursday at Alloa Golf Club. The leading golfers on the day will be given the chance to represent these areas in the Scottish Schools Championships to be held at Murrayshall on the 7th June.

    TV DEBUT FOR LOCAL GOLF ADMINISTRATOR
    The BBC Sport website contains a short 5 minute video of the 2010 Scottish Boys Championship final. While there might be limited local interest in the two finalists, there might be more interest in the brief appearances of Kenneth Ellacott (Dollar) who refereed the final. Sharp eyed viewers will spot him at various points during the final, and his voice is recognisable announcing the result. The video can be reached through the Scottish Golf Union web site.

    Hugh Hunter 18th April 2010

    • GOOD PERFORMANCES FROM COUNTY BOYS
    The two top County boy golfers, Lawrence Allan (Alva) and Gary Chalmers (Dollar), had a good week in West Kilbride at the Scottish Boys Golf Championship. In difficult golfing conditions at the start of the week, Gary won two matches before losing in Round 3; Lawrence went considerably further, winning 5 matches before losing at the quarter final stage - the best performance in this event since Ross Benvie (Braehead) reached the semi-final several years back.
    Gary (pictured on the right) was first off - in round 1 his match against Jordan Milne (Elgin) was close for the first few holes before Gary forged ahead, 3 up at the turn he maintained the lead winning by 3/1. It was a different story in Round 2 when he lost a three hole lead in the closing holes and only took his match against Peter Sangster (Thurso) on the 19th with a par 4. In the 3rd round against big hitting Angus Carrick, Gary took an early lead only to be pulled back, eventually losing on the 16th green.
    Lawrence (pictured on the left) had a succession of close matches, all of them going to the last few holes, recording some fine wins, including the Scottish Schools Champion. In his quarter final match against Jamie Lynch (Falkirk Tryst), he found himself 2 down after a par, birdie eagle start. 4 down at the turn, he made a tremendous fight back with a sub par run. However there was too much to do and he lost on the 18th green.
    It was a top class performance by the 15year old and with two years left at boys level, he must feel that his confidence is increasing and also that he can compete at a high level. He must be a strong contender for a Scottish team place in the years ahead after these fine performances at the Under 16 level. At present he is in Holland playing in a quadrangular match, returning at the end of the week to play in the second Junior tour event at Newmachar Golf club as part of the 30 strong field. He has been drawn with the new 2010 Scottish Boys Champion - Grant Forrest (Craigielaw) - and he must be looking forward to comparing his golfing skills with the best in Scotland. Well done Lawrence from all the Wee County golfers! Both you and Gary are a credit to your clubs and Clackmannanshire and your on course attitude and behaviour are great models for others.

    CLACKMANNAN COUNTY GOLF DINNER
    The Annual dinner postponed from march due to bad weather conditions was held last week at Tulliallan Golf Club and around sixty golf enthusiasts enjoyed and evening of witty stories, good food, and good company. County President Bill Abernethy (Braehead) presented the 2009 awards to Clubs and individual golfers. Ian Ross (Alloa) picked up the Harrower Trophy and Order of merit titles with Jamie Aitken picking up the Match Play title - pictured below.

    WORLD AMATEUR GOLF RANKINGS
    There was a new entry in the charts last week - but not the top twenty! Thanks to a fine performance by Jamie Aitken in the Champion of Champions, he gained ranking points making him the first Alloa golfer to appear in the World Amateur Golf rankings. OK, it’s fairly well down at position 2905 out of around 4000 golfers throughout the world, but still a fine achievement and hopefully an incentive to try his golf at other ranking events. Points last for 12 months so his name will feature and his ranking will change on a weekly basis. Tulliallan’s Callum Macaulay moved well up the rankings as an amateur and Scott Borrowman (Dollar) has featured for the past few years.

    LAST CHANCE FOR COUNTY GOLF TEAM
    The County Golf Team have their last chance of winning the Provan Salver this weekend when they take on a Perth and Kinross team over Dollar golf course. Team Captain John Gullen set out the task, ”To win the event the team needs a good win which is highly possible but are also dependent on Fife (with no wins so far) beating Angus County — rather a long shot”. Selected for the County are Jamie Aitken, Ian Ross, and Scott Moffat (all Alloa); Darren Hulston, Gary Chalmers (both Dollar); John Maxwell, Steven Horne (both Tulliallan); Mike Rust (Braehead).

    MIDLAND ALLIANCE
    The Midland Alliance golf fixtures for 2009/2010 are drawing to a close with their Annual Championship fixture. The JTC Exteriors Express Championship was contested over the Montrose links in fine weather. The Wee County was well represented - especially Alloa Golf Club with five entrants. Best scores over 36 holes came from Gregor Abel (Professional at Alloa) who took the 4th equal scratch prize and Hugh Hunter who took the second handicap aggregate with 144 two shots behind Gary Tough (Edzell). Gary was awarded the more valuable second scratch award, leaving Hugh the top handicap prize. The event was won by Kenny Hutton (Downfield) - with a 65 and69 - who covered the inward nine in his first round in an amazing 29 shots.
    There are still two events to be completed having been postponed due to severe winter conditions.

    NO JOY FOR CALLUM IN MADEIRA
    Tulliallan’s Callum Macaulay could not repeat his fine performance of 2009 in the Madeira Open when he finished runner up. Over the par 72, 7000 yards Porto Santo course, he recorded scores of 72, 68, 75 and 71 for an aggregate of 286 and 44th placing. However, he did have a memorable moment with a holed a 4 iron at the 220 yard 9th hole. He will be hoping for better luck in the forthcoming 2010 events on the Challenge Tour, it certainly is a tough life on the professional golf circuit.

    Jamie Aitken (left) and Ian Ross (right) recieve their 2009 trophies from County President Bill Abernethy.

    Hugh Hunter 12th April 2010

    COUNTY GOLF TEAM BACK IN THE GROOVE
    The County Golf team quickly recovered from last weekend’s defeat with a good win against Fife at Braehead on Sunday by 5 matches to 3. This was the second match of the Provan Salver series and the final matches on the 18th April will decide the trophy. Clackmannan play Perth and Kinross over Dollar and will be hoping for a large win. Team Captain John Gullen was pleased with the win at Braehead, “Two of our top players were unavailable, being in the Champion of Champions; the stars of the day were undoubtedly Steven Horne and Ross Benvie who demolished their opponents when both raced to the turn in 5 under par 30.
    Team member Scott Moffat just missed out on another long driving title at the Scottish Golf show recently - by seven yards or so. It was still a massive swipe of almost 390 yards as measured on the simulator, and recalled his two wins in recent years.

    Match Results (Clackmannan names first) Clackmannan 5 - Fife 3

  • Ian Ross (Alloa) lost to Gary Sharp (St Andrews) 2/1;
  • Steven Horne (Tulliallan) beat Darren Gould (Ladybank) 7/5;
  • Scott Moffat (Alloa) beat Liam McGowan (New Club) 2/1;
  • John Maxwell (Tulliallan) lost to Chris Bradley (Pitreavie) 2 holes;
  • Darren Hulston (Dollar) beat Colin Steffen (Dunnikier Park) 3/1;
  • Ross Benvie (Braehead)Beat Kevin Blyth (Lundin) 7/6;
  • Mike Rust (Braehead) beat Michael Main (Thornton) 5/4;
  • Lawrence Allan (Alva) lost to Stewart Elder (Kirkcaldy) 5/4.


    CHAMPION OF CHAMPIONS
    The two Clackmannan representatives put in a good performance at Leven last weekend in the Scottish Champion of Champions event. In a field of 48, Alloa’s Jamie Aitken (left) finished a highly creditable 13 equal with a three over par score of 287 (75, 70, 68, 74). Indeed after the third round where he scored a very good 3 under par 68, Jamie was in the top ten in the company of several Scottish Internationalists - hopefully he will be competing in more of the National 72 hole events in 2010.
    Scott Borrowman (Dollar), who finished 6th last year, was well up the field after three rounds, but faded to a 79 in his last round and a 24th placing.

    MIDLAND ALLIANCE
    My thanks go to Michael Niven who pointed out that the Midland Alliance was a regular visitor to Alloa Golf Club from 1965 until 1975, so its return to Alloa in September is long overdue. The competition last week due at Monifieth was cancelled due to more bad weather and will be rescheduled for the 12th April.

    BUSY WEEKS FOR LAWRENCE
    Fifteen year old Lawrence Allan (Alva) will be busy over the next two weeks - he takes in the Boys Championship at West Kilbride this week and then is off to the Under 16s Boys Quadrangular in Holland next week playing three matches of foursomes and singles. On his return he will be off to his second Junior Tour event to be played at the Newmachar courses to the north of Aberdeen. In a field of 30 players, he tees off at 8.18 with top Scottish boys Liam Johnston (Dumfries and County) and Grant Forrest (Craigielaw).

    COUNTY GOLF MEETINGS
    Entries close next week for the County Spring Meetings ('A' Division — Tulliallan; B Division - 'Alloa') and also the County Boys Championship to be held at Tillicoultry. The top scores in both events qualify for County Match Play competitions. County Junior Convenor Sam Kinnaird is keen to see a good entry for the Boys’ event, “Our Championships are always enjoyed by the Juniors and Clackmannan County are always on the lookout for talented junior golfers to represent the County in team events”.

    Hugh Hunter 4th April 2010

    • COUNTY GOLFERS CRASH AT MONTROSE
    In the first match of the Provan Salver for 2010, the County team suffered a heavy defeat by 7 matches to 1 against a strong Angus team over the Montrose Golf links. The only crumb of comfort for Team Captain John Gullen was Scott Borrowman’s win by one hole - 2 down with three to play, Scott snatched the 16th short hole when his opponent missed the green, then squaring the match at the next followed by a closing winning birdie thanks to a 12 ft putt, good enough to record a one hole win. Many of the other games showed the importance of the opening holes in a match - that is, not allowing your opponent to move ahead - fighting back from behind is always difficult.

    Match Results Clackmannan 1 Angus 7 (Clackmannan names first)

  • Scott Borrowman (Dollar) beat Ross Coull (Edzell 1 hole;
  • Jamie Aitken (Alloa) lost to Gary Duncan (Carnoustie) 5/4;
  • Scott Moffat (Alloa) lost to William Bremner (Edzell) 2/1;
  • John Maxwell (Tulliallan) lost to Alistair Serrels (Montrose) 2/1;
  • Darren Hulston (Dollar) lost to Gary Tough (Edzell) 2/1;
  • John Salmond (Alloa) lost to Maurice Lindsay (Broughty) 6/5;
  • Mike Rust (Braehead) lost to Stewart Smith (Downfield) 2/1;
  • Ian Ross lost to Kris Harper (Carnoustie) 5/4
    The County team will be hoping for better luck on Sunday when they take on Fife in the second match at Braehead. Selected for the County are S Horne, J Maxwell (Tulliallan); Darren Hulston (Dollar), Lawrence Allan (Alva), Mike Rust, Ross Benvie (Braehead) Ian Ross, Scott Moffat (Alloa).


    BRITISH COLLEGE GOLF CHAMPIONSHIPS
    There was success for Alloa Junior John Salmond (left) in the Championships held at the Fairmont golf courses near St Andrews on the 16th and 17th March. With 129 golfers from 23 colleges throughout the country, John took second place in the individual event with rounds of 72 over the Kittocks course and 77 over the Torrance course. His aggregate of 149 was 5 shots behind the winner Connor Wilson from Truro. John helped his team Elmwood 'B' to second equal place in the team even with a team total of 456, just one shot behind the winners Elmwood 'A' team.
    John has one more year at junior level and hopes to play in some of the National events including the Scottish Youths Championship and British Boys Championship.

    CHAMPION OF CHAMPIONS
    The well established opening 72 hole event of the golfing season takes place at Leven Links this weekend when National and Area Champions compete for the 2010 title. Representing Clackmannanshire will be Stroke-play Champion Scott Borrowman and Match-play Champion Jamie Aitken. The event dates back to 1970 - County golfers had early success with Sandy Horne (Tulliallan) winning the 1970 inaugural event followed by Michael Niven who took the title in 1974. The format was different then with 36 hole stroke-play and the best four scores playing off in match play. Michael had particularly satisfying wins culminating with a win in the final against Tom Melville a Scottish Internationalist by 2/1.

    SOME MONEY FOR MACAULAY
    Tulliallan’s Callum Macaulay gained a little confidence with a four round 3 over par total of 287 in the Kenya Open last week. Callum started with a four under first round of 67, putting him in second place, fell away in the second round with a 76, finally recovering slightly in the last two rounds. While he really wants to be back in the full European Tour events, the best way is through some good results on the Challenge tour, although the odd invitation to the main tour means a chance to force himself on to the European Tour with an outright win - extremely difficult.
    The good news is that Callum is in the field for the Madeira Open to be played at Porto Santo Golf Club from the 8th till 11th April. The Madeira Open as many will remember was Callum’s best result in 2009 where he finished in second place being denied a play off when the eventual winner holed a putt on the last green. His team of loyal supporters will be following his progress with great interest.

    MIDLAND ALLIANCE
    The recent success of Wee County golfers in Midland alliance events came to a halt last week on the island course of King James VI in Perth. With two events left, senior golfer Bob Stewart (Tulliallan) leads the voucher winners, Michael Niven (Alloa) is in 5th Place, Chris Westland 9th equal; Ray Barton, Hugh Hunter (both Alloa) 30th equal; Kenny Thomson (Alloa) 46th equal.
    There is good news for local Alliance members in the 2010/2011 fixture list with one event scheduled to be played at Schawpark (Alloa Golf Club) in September - probably the first visit there unless anyone knows differently.

    LAWRENCE MOVES UP THE GOLF LADDER

    Rising golf star 15 years old Lawrence Allan (Alva) took another step up the golfing ladder last weekend when he joined a select invited group of elite Scottish junior golfers. There were 30 invites to the first Junior Tour event of 2010, and they played 36 holes over Monifieth Links. In Round one he went to the turn in one over par 37, but dropped shots on the inward nine to give a 5 over par score of 76, 5 shots behind the leaders. In the second round, a succession of bogeys on the outward nine caused him to slip down the field and although he recovered slightly on his final nine, the score of 78 gave him an aggregate of 154 and a share of 22nd place. There are more Junior Tour events coming up in the months ahead and last weekend’s result must give him some encouragement for the Scottish Boys Championships next week.
    (The picture shows (centre) Lawrence Allan (Alva) about to tee off at Monifieth in his first Junior Tour event with (left) Anthony Blaney (Liberton) and Craig Howie (Peebles).

    Hugh Hunter 28 March 2010

    • EARLY MATCHES FOR THE COUNTY GOLF TEAM
    The first matches in the well established Provan Salver competition take place this weekend and the Clackmannan team are in action against Angus on the golf links at Montrose. Team Captain John Gullen is hopeful of some good performances and has already had a team get-together. Playing for the County will be Scott Borrowman, Darren Hulston (both Dollar); Ian Ross, Jamie Aitken, Scott Moffat and John Salmond (all Alloa), and Mike Rust (Braehead). Junior John Salmond will be making his first appearance for the Senior team, having had an outstanding 2009 season.
    John will be looking at the results of these early matches to select a Clackmannan team for the Area Team Championship to be held at Kinross on the 17th and 18th May. The format of this event has changed - for the worse in the opinion of many. Preliminary rounds used to be played over three weekends involving the 16 Areas in four groups of quality Match play games. All that has been swept away and the Championship will be decided over one weekend with a 36 hole stroke play qualifying on the Saturday with only four Areas going forward to smaller match play games - an arrangement which disadvantages the smaller Areas (like Clackmannanshire) - and since there is a commitment to a central venue, the more remote Areas will always have “away” matches.

    COUNTY JUNIORS IN ACTION
    County Junior Champions Gary Chalmers (Dollar) and Scott Baird (Tillicoultry) were in action last weekend at the Junior Champion of Champions held over the Dukes Course, St Andrews. In the field of 34, Gary struggled on the outward nine but found his game on the last nine holes to record an 81 and finish in 23rd position. Scott finished further down the field and is hoping for some College golf when he starts his Chemical Engineering course later in the year. The Boys’ title was won by Simon Fairburn (Craigielaw) with a 1 over par 72.
    Alva’s Lawrence Allan will be featuring in the Junior Tour events run by the Scottish Golf Union, thanks to his fine performance in the Under 16 Winter Series. Around 30 of the elite Scottish Junior Golfers will compete in five events over the next three months - the first event tees off at Monifieth on Sunday. County Junior Convenor Sam Kinnaird is pleased, “It will be a great opportunity for Lawrence to test his golfing skills against the top boy golfers in Scotland and I am certain he is looking forward to his first event at Monifieth”.

    MIDLAND ALLIANCE
    The last event played over Crieff Golf Course produced more success for Wee County golfers, in fact almost identical results to recent weeks with Bob Stewart (Tulliallan) taking the runners up spot in the scratch division with a 68 while Chris Westland and Hugh Hunter shared the handicap prize with net 66.

    TARTAN TOUR
    Not to be outdone by the amateur successes, local golf professionals are also making inroads into National competitions - in the Tartan Tour Winter Fourballs held over the par 72 Dundonald course in Ayrshire, Paul Brookes (Pitreavie) and Jamie Stevenson (Braehead) finished in 6th equal position with a 2 under 70, while the dynamic duo of Gregor Abel and David Herd (Alloa) were 3 shots further back. Callum Macaulay watch out!!

    Hugh Hunter 21st March 2010

    IT'S ALL GO FOR THE 2010 GOLF SEASON
    With lengthening days and better weather, the local Golf Season will be underway in a week or two when Golf Clubs stage their usual opening events. New members will be especially welcome at the six Golf Clubs in Clackmannan County (Alloa, Alva, Braehead, Dollar, Tillicoultry Tulliallan) and anyone interested in joining a Club should contact a local Golf Club Secretary or golf Club member whether they are a new start to the game or a former player returning to the game. There is considerable fun and pleasure to be gained on the local golf courses playing socially or competitively.

    COUNTY GOLF FIXTURES 2010
    At the Annual General Meeting held in November, the small group of golf enthusiasts set up County Golf arrangements for 2010. Bill Abernethy (Braehead) takes over the Presidency for 2010 with George Kay appointed as Vice President. Tommy Johnson continues in the crucial role of Secretary and Treasurer, and John Gullen was re-appointed team Captain. Tillicoultry’s Sam Kinnaird was appointed Junior Convenor and Kenneth Ellacott continues as the County delegate to the Scottish Golf Union.
    The County Golf Team are in action right at the start of the season with the usual Provan Salver matches against the other Midlands areas of Angus (28th March), Fife (4th April) and Perth and Kinross (18th April).
    On the competition side, the Spring Meeting (Division 1 at Tulliallan and Division 2 at Alloa) is on Saturday 24th April followed by the Boys Championship on Sunday 25th. Entry forms for these events will be posted in local Clubs shortly.
    The County Dinner has been rescheduled for Friday 9th April where presentations will be made. Details are on Club notice boards with tickets available in the Golf Clubs.

    FAST START FOR LAWRENCE IN 2010
    Junior golfer Lawrence Allan (Alva) has made a quick start to the 2010 season. In the four events of the winter series for the best Scottish Under 16’s golfers, Lawrence finished in the top ten three times out of four and, over the four events, he finished a highly creditable 3rd in the Under 16’s Order of Merit. Indeed, had he been one shot better at the last event held at Forrester Park near Dunfermline, he would have been in the runner-up spot. As a result of this fine performance he has been selected for the Under 16’s Quadrangular match in April. The team of 8 boys representing Scotland will take on teams from Ireland, Wales and the Netherlands over the Rijk van Nunspeet course to the east of Amsterdam on 13th, 14th and 15th April. Lawrence played well at the Under 16’s International held last year at Arbroath and with his current handicap of 1.7 he will be hoping for some good results in 2010 boys events.
    Lawrence will be joined by Dollar’s Gary Chalmers in the Scottish Boys Championship to be held at West Kilbride from 5th till 10th April. Gary plays his first match at 12.29 on Monday 5th, while Lawrence has to wait till 11.57 on the Tuesday.

    HOPE FOR CALLUM IN 2010
    Tulliallan’s Callum Macaulay is finding the professional game difficult - after missing cuts in early season events, he bounced back in true Macaulay fashion with a second place finish in the Hi5 tournament in Spain. He is in the field for the Kenya Open, a Challenge Tour event, and will be hopeful for another good performance. His aim is, of course, to return to the main European tour and with the experience he is building up this should be achievable during 2010. Best of luck!!

    MIDLAND ALLIANCE
    Clackmannan County golfers continue to make their presence felt in Midland alliance events held weekly during the winter. This winter has been a real headache for the organisers with cancellations and re-scheduling. Recent good results have been 1st equal handicap from Alloa’s Chris Westland and Hugh Hunter with net 68s at Arbroath and at Burntisland last week, Senior Internationalist Bob Stewart (Tulliallan) gave the younger golfers (including several professionals) something to think about with a well compiled 71. Bob leads the voucher list with Alloa’s Michael Niven also in the top ten.

    Hugh Hunter 14th March 2010

    CALLUM JUST MISSES OUT
    Tulliallan’s Callum Macaulay just failed in his bid to retain his European Tour category 11 status for 2010. At the final qualifying in Spain held over 6 rounds, Callum made a brave effort from behind and only failed by one shot. The final qualifying event has a cut after four rounds and Callum just made it right on the mark with a 4th round of 67. He knew he had to pull out something special to make the top 30 and he gave it his best shot - a 5th round of 70 lifted him up the field and then a final 4 under par bogey free round of 68 gave him a six round total of 419 (70,73,71,67,70,68) putting him in 32 equal position just behind the 31 qualifiers. It was a top class performance - in Club golf terms the course measured over 7000 yards and probably had a scratch score of 74, meaning Callum was playing to plus 6 and plus 7 in two of his rounds - this shows the very high standard of professional golf on the European Tour. All is not lost however, because of finishing 134 in the 2009 Race to Dubai, he has a Category 12 status - a bit lower than last year, so he will find that obtaining entries to events is more difficult but hopefully he will be occasionally considered for a sponsors invite. Hopefully this will give him some motivation in the events - he certainly has the game to compete at a very high level. Callum really has done remarkably well in his first season as a professional - he has made many cuts and won over €200,000. The experience he has built up should serve him well in 2010 and no doubt he will be planning his schedule for the new season. We all wish him well.

    LAWRENCE IN GOOD FORM
    Alva junior Lawrence Allan is continuing his good form in National Junior events. After a good performance in the Under 16s match against England, Lawrence was selected for the under 16s winter tour played over 4 courses. In the first event at Nairn Dunbar, Lawrence scored a par 72 finishing 1st equal and in the second event at Whitekirk he finished with a 3 over par 75 giving him 5th equal position. Two further events are being held at the start of 2010 and the four all count to an Order of Merit. At present Lawrence is in 3rd position with 342 points, 32 points behind the leader.

    MIDLAND ALLIANCE
    Wee County golfers continue to make their presence felt in the weekly events. In the latest one held at Muckhart in very wet conditions, Alloa’s Rae Barton tied with two others for the first handicap prize with a net 70, and in the team event he teamed up with Tulliallan’s Bob Stewart and assistant professional Alan Lockhart to give a runner up spot with a 63. In addition Rae qualifies for the Championship finals at Montrose in April, a good day’s work and a consolation for a soaking.

    Hugh Hunter 6 December 2009

    GRANT DOWIE - “AYE A KEN PAL”

    The death of top junior golfer Grant Dowie from Dollar in a car crash recently caused a great shock locally followed by great sadness. Grant, a junior member at Alloa Golf Club was making great progress with his golf and had the ambition of becoming a golf professional. On the local golf scene he featured regularly among the top junior golfers in Clackmannan County, having won both the Stroke Play championship (2007) and Match Play championship (2008). Alloa Golf Professional David Herd contributed a considerable amount to Grant’s development, “Grant started as a young boy with the unconventional golf grip of left hand below right but he changed with a lot of effort and became an elite local junior with a very low handicap”. County President Sam Kinnaird and Alloa Captain Hugh Hunter were also full of praise, “Grant was a great supporter of junior golf and featured in County Golf Teams and the Scottish Boys Championship, the most recent being the Gary Harvey trophy at Dunkeld where the County Boys came very close to a win helped by Grant’s efforts and it was good to see his confidence improving in these events”.
    There was a huge turnout for the memorial service in Dollar last week with local golfers, his fellow team mates from the County smartly turned out in County golf attire, friends from Alva Academy and Elmwood College where he was studying. What came across was Grant’s likeable nature, his quiet unassuming manner which was always evident on the golf course - indeed a thoroughly nice person and a credit to his family. In the present world of junior golf with an increasing number of spoiled brats, luckily still a tiny minority, Grant was a breath of fresh air, demonstrating the true ideals of golf - trying your best, accepting what happens and if it all goes wrong, no histrionics or club throwing, a real golfing model for others.
    Knowing that the 5th November would have been Grant’s 18th birthday, his fellow students at Elmwood organised a tribute golf competition and it was well supported with 58 golfers drawn from throughout Scotland including good local representation from county juniors and Alloa Golf Club members. The event was won by Marc Smith who scored 66 and received the trophy of a mounted golf club from Grant’s father Kenny. It was a very good day, the weather was kind and there was good support for his family and friends.

    GRANT DOWIE:  05/11/1991 --- 25/10/2009

    Pictured below Kenny Dowie presents winner Marc Smith with the mounted club trophy following the Grant Dowie Tribute game at Schawpark on 5 November 2009.

    Hugh Hunter 9 November 2009

    SUCCESS GALORE FOR COUNTY GOLFERS
    Its been a week of achievement for Wee County golfers on the National Stage. Top performance of the week came from Tulliallan’s Bob Stewart in the Senior Home Internationals held in Ireland. In six matches of foursomes and singles, Bob recorded 3 wins, 2 halves and 1 loss. Best performance was in the singles when he played for Scotland in the number one spot, and over the three days was undefeated - winning against England, and halving with Ireland and Wales. In the foursomes partnered by Derek Murphy, they won two matches and lost one. Unfortunately Ireland just pipped Scotland for the 2009 Home International title.
    Next best performance came from 14 years old Lawrence Allan (Alva) who played in the Under 16s Scottish golf team in the annual match against England held at Arbroath, Lawrence partnered Euan Bradley (Mount Ellen) and the pair (pictured below) seemed to be heading for a heavy defeat at an early lunch when they were 5 down after nine holes - however a spirited fight back took the match to the last green where they lost by the narrowest of margins. In his singles match, he reversed his foursomes loss with a one hole win over English player Curtis Griffiths.
    After the morning foursomes, the Scottish boys found themselves 4-1 down, but turned the match round in the singles and the final match result was a draw at seven and a half matches each.
    Lawrence has demonstrated that he can play at a high level and with a few more years in boys golf he should be able to make a considerable mark bringing great honour to his family and Alva Golf Club.
    After coming close in previous years, Alloa’s Ray Barton eventually won the PGA patrons club Match Play tournament last week at Gleneagles, winning his semi-final match by 2/1 and the final by 2 holes.
    Alloa Golf Club’s professionals David Herd and Gregor Abel are also making inroads into the competitions scene - Gregor has been a regular in Tartan Tour events, with some good finishes and both will be at some of the Midland Alliances event over the winter. The “notional” money winners list in the Alliance is led by Alloa’s Michael Niven with Tulliallan’s Bob Stewart in second place.
    The success continues…………well, hopefully!


    Pictured is Alva's Lawrence Allan (right) and his foursomes partner Euan Bradley (Mount Ellen).

    ........... AND MORE SUCCESS FOR CALLUM
    Once again, Tulliallan’s Callum Macaulay bounced back in the last two rounds of the Dunhill at St Andrews to pick up a good five figure pay cheque and move him that bit closer to retaining his European Tour card for the 2010 golf season. In his first round over Kingsbarns, water gave him trouble and in round two the Carnoustie bunkers in the last few holes cost a number of dropped shots. So after two rounds he stood at 1 over par and needed something special in round three if he was to make the cut for the top 70 players - well it happened and fellow Tulliallan golfer Bob Stewart was there to see accurate driving of well over 300 yards and much better putting than in the first two rounds. Said Bob, “it was a gutsy performance and he produced it when he needed it, making the cut with nothing to spare”. A five under par 67 was the result and he followed it with a final 4 under 68 to give him a four round total of eight under par and a share of 42nd place. He was also pleased to learn that he had made the field for the Madrid Open this week and, of course, hoping that he can continue where he left off. Well done Callum!!

    Hugh Hunter 5 October 2009

    DUNHILL CALL-UP FOR CALLUM
    Last weekend saw the good news that Tulliallan’s Callum Macaulay and his supporters had hoped for - a sponsor’s invite to the prestigious Dunhill tournament played this week over St Andrews, Carnoustie and Kingsbarns. Callum started at 8th reserve and moved up to 3rd reserve but it was several days before the Golfing Gods smiled. In the event, Callum will be leading a team in a Pro-Am event whilst competing for a very lucrative prize fund - just what he needs in his quest to retain his Tour Card for 2010. Also in the event are his team mates from the winning 2008 Amateur Eisenhower Trophy team and they will now be competing as golf professionals. Hopefully there will be a strong local following to encourage Callum in this event. Details of his tee times are on the European Tour website.

    DOLLAR DISAPPOINTMENT
    Dollar’s challenge in the Scottish Club Championship final at Prestwick last Sunday did not materialise and the team finished well down the field. With the best two from three scores of 156 in each of the two rounds and in windy, difficult conditions the team finished 17 shots behind the winning local Prestwick team.

    SCOTTISH ALLIANCE GOLF CHAMPIONSHIPS
    The annual Championships are played over three days at Gullane from 6th till 8th October - Clackmannanshire will be represented by two Alloa golfers, Chris Westland and Ray Barton.

    Hugh Hunter 27 September 2009

    NEAR MISS FOR COUNTY GOLF TEAM AT ERSKINE
    The County Golf team came very close to winning a semi-final place in the Scottish Area Team Championship last weekend - indeed half way through the singles the match was in the Wee County’s favour but then the strong Renfrewshire team fought back to take the match by 6 matches to 2 with one half. Eight of the nine matches went to the 17th or 18th green and the County golfers can be proud of their performance in the away match. Top performer for the County was Alloa’s Ian Ross who was undefeated on the day - in the morning he partnered Scott Borrowman, turning a one hole deficit at the turn into a win on the 17th helped by a spectacular shot from Scott to the 17th green from an almost impossible position next to a tree. In Ian’s singles match he met his best ever challenge with his best ever win on the last green (and the second of the day) against former Scottish Internationalist and Amateur Champion Craig Watson. The only other crumb of comfort was a halved match in the singles by John Maxwell against Andrew Farmer. Although the team must have been a bit disappointed with the result it shows quite clearly that they have the golf game to compete at a high level in Scotland and they must be encouraged for future matches.
    Match Results (Foursomes) - Clackmannan names first.

  • 1. Jamie Aitken & Ross Benvie lost to R Clark and M Clark - 2/1
  • 2. Ian Ross & Scott Borrowman beat C Watson & A Farmer - 2/1
  • 3. John Maxwell & Steven Horne lost to B Adams & G Stevenson - 2/1
    Match Results (Singles)
  • Aitken lost to M. Clark - 4/3
  • Borrowman lost to M. Dailly - 3/1
  • Maxwell halved with Farmer
  • Benvie lost to Stevenson - 2/1
  • Ross beat Watson - 1 hole
  • Horne lost to R. Clark - 1 hole.

    FRANK THOMSON TROPHY
    The County Under 14’s team were in action last weekend on the PGA course at Gleneagles, venue for the 2014 Ryder Cup. In difficult conditions, the County five of Lawrence Allan, Jordan Struthers, Angus Boyd, Jack Dowie and Rikky Alexander were a bit behind the other two areas competing in the Stableford event - namely Fife (winners) and Perth & Kinross.

    MIDLAND ALLIANCE
    Alloa’s Michael Niven continues to produce good performances in the Alliance events - in the latest tournament at Pitlochry, Michael scored 72 to lead the Amateurs and was only bettered by three professionals.

    PAY DAY FOR CALLUM IN AUSTRIA
    It wasn’t as good as he and his many supporters had hoped. Callum opened with a 5 under par 66 in the first round, fell back with a 74 in round 2, rallied in round 3 with a 68 and after a well over par start in round 4 once more he bounced back with several birdies and a final round of 72. This gave him a 72 hole total of 280 (4 under par) and some food for thought.

    SCOTTISH CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP
    Clackmannanshire will be represented by Dollar Golf Club in the final involving 16 winning Clubs from the 16 golfing areas in Scotland. They will be hoping to repeat past wins by Alloa and Tulliallan Golf Clubs in the event to give them a trip to the European Final. Representing Dollar will be Darren Hulston, Gary Chalmers and Steven McPherson.

    Hugh Hunter 20 September 2009

    • The Wee County Success Story

    Click here for a history of Clackmannanshire Golfing successes

    TROPHIES & WINNERS 2009
    SENIORS
    JUNIORS
    County Champion
    S. Borrowman (Dollar)
    Mossman Trophy
    G. Chalmers (Dollar)
    County Matchplay
    J. Aitken (Alloa)
    Drysdale Trophy
    L. Allan (Alva)
    Order of Merit
    I. Ross (Alloa)
    Pointin Shield
    S. Baird (Tillicoultry)
    Harrower Trophy
    I Ross (Alloa)
    Anderson Trophy
    L. Allan (Alva)
    County Fours
    Dollar
    Jubilee Trophy
    G. Murray
    County Mixed
    Alloa
    Boys League
    Tillicoultry
    County League
    Braehead
     
     

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