Strathpeffer golfers advance in seniors contest
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
Senior Northern Counties Cup at Nairn Dunbar
WITH wins over McDonald-Ellon and then The Moray Golf, Strathpeffer Spa senior golfers, Michael Wilson, Sandy Mackenzie, James Garrow and Frank Byrne won through to the quarterfinals of the Senior Northern Counties Cup at Nairn Dunbar last week.
Their progress was then halted by The Nairn in the double foursomes format, Wilson and Mackenzie going down by five holes to Peter Stegers and Pat Tomisson and Garrow and Byrne finishing level with J McGinley and I Cooper.
Fortrose and Rosemarkie lost both their teams on the opening day, the first team beaten by Moray Golf Club’s second string and the second Fortrose quartet losing out in round two to Elgin.
In a close final Inverness represented, by Laurie Chancellor, David Rae, Fraser Urquhart and Jim Eliot ended a nine year wait to enjoy their second success in the competition beating Duff House Royal in the final by one hole.
Next year’s competition for the seniors will be staged at the Macduff course where the local Duff House Royal team won the first ever staging of the competition in 2002.
North District Championship this weekend at Royal Dornoch.
THE North District Golf Association stage their flagship championship for the Association Cup and Youth Cup this weekend at Royal Dornoch and it will be played on a Sunday for the very first time since inaugurated in 1922.
In 1921 John Sutherland the eminent secretary of Royal Dornoch Golf Club was the person entrusted to bring the north’s golf clubs into the fold of the Scottish Golf Union and once done he set about arranging a championship the following year at Dornoch which not surprisingly was won by local player Don Sutherland.
When three years later the championship was again played at Dornoch, Sutherland won again, then for the next three years he was champion after he moved to become a member of Inverness Golf Club.
Sutherland remains the only golfer to have won in four competitive years but his record of five wins was matched and then overtaken by Brora’s Jim Miller between the years 1971 to 1989. Miller achieved his record seven wins in 1989 at Nairn and although recording two back-to-back wins, as had in the fifties Jock Brown (Nairn Dunbar), and more recently Grantown on Spey’s Duncan Stewart, and Inverness’s Bryan Fotheringham, not since Sutherland’s era has anyone managed a hat-trick of wins.
Included in the full field of 75 at Royal Dornoch are five former winners and it is the 1991 champion Neil Hampton, from the host club, who will start Sunday’s championship off at 7.30am accompanying the defending champion Bruce Thomson (The Nairn) and Billy Ferries (Tain).
Michael MacDonald (Fortrose and Rosemarkie) is the only Ross-shire golfer to have won the north title. He did so at Inverness in 2005 but perhaps the time has come for former north boy’s champions from Fortrose, Chris Gaittens (2007) and Alan Cameron (1988) to step up and claim the senior title.
Tain Golf Club
RESULTS from the club:
Monthly Medal (CSS75)
Section 1 — 1 G Smith (10) 76 BIH; 2 E Morrison (5) 76.
Section 2 — 1 R Anderson (15) 82 BIH; 2 M Brown (19) 82.
Play your way to Castle Stuart Winner — G Smith.
Rose and Macleod Qualifying 1st Round (CSS 73):
Section 1 — 1 G Tonge (6) 71 BIH; 2 A Watt (7) 71; 3 B MacKenzie (6) 72 BIH.
Section 2 — 1 D Cormack (14) 68; 2 R Porteous (13) 71; 3 R Anderson (15) 74.
Scratch — S Morrison (Pro) 75.
Rose and Macleod Qualifying 2nd Round (CSS 73):
Section 1 — 1 J Dundas (5) 70 BIH; 2 M Ferries (+1) 70; 3 G Oliver (7) 71 BIH.
Section 2 — 1 M Brunton (26) 66; 2 D Waddell (17) 73; 3 B Bannerman (14) 74.
Scratch — M Ferries 69
Strathpeffer Spa Golf Club
RECENT results from the club:
Gents
Spring Meeting — 1 A Simpson (16) 61; 2 M MacKenzie (5) 63; 3 J Foot (13) 64.
Ladies
Telecom Vases:
Silver — M Morrison (14) 77.
Bronze — J Burnell (34) 75
Ladies Open:
Silver
Scratch — V Morrison (Strath) (6) 74.
Handicap — 1 M Morrison (Strath) (14) 67; 2 P Bethune (Muir of Ord) (19) 69; 3 M Cairney (Tarbet) (17) 72.
Bronze
Handicap — 1 G Omand (Inverness) (26) 73; 2 S Urquhart (Durness) (20) 73.
Isle of Skye Texas Scramble — 1 M Bartlett, K Bartlett, D Morrison and N Bartlett, 51.7; 2 M Morrison, C Morrison, B Morrison and K Manson, 52.9; 3 G Ross, M MacNab, J Gordon and L Porter 53.1.
Alness Golf Club
RESULTS this week from the club:
Ladies
Ardross Castle Cup — 1 M Maculloch (20) 70; 2 J Keith (15) 72.
Gents
Cattanach Greensomes — 1 A Macrae and A Macrae jr (14) 64; 2 B Corr and R Mercer (20) 65.
Commercial Shield — 1 R Bell (10) 67; 2 D Kernaghan (10) 68.
