Peterculter conditions wet and cold for a field of 91

HUNTLY MAN FIRST-TIME
WINNER ON NORTH-EAST
ALLIANCE CIRCUIT

From COLIN FARQUHARSON

Four times Huntly Golf Club champion Don Garrett, pictured right, became the second first-time winner on the 2006-2007 North-east Golfers’ Alliance with a par-matching 71 in difficult, wet and cold conditions at Peterculter Golf Club today.
This is only two-handicapper Garrett’s second season on the winter circuit and he followed in the footsteps of Clark Alexander (Murcar Links), who made a winning breakthrough at East Aberdeenshire recently, by heading a field of 91.
The secret of Don’s success was that he played down-the-middle golf, avoiding the card-ruining misfortunes that beset the majority of his rivals.
Don birdied the long fifth and the short eighth and dropped only two shots, at the fourth and the 12th, which he three-putted, in halves of 35 and 36.
Runner-up on 72 was Craibstone Golf Centre professional Iain Buchan who became a dad for the first time a few days ago. He birdied the three par-5s in halves of 37 and 35 but, like so many others, we went out of bounds during his round. In Iain's case it was at the fourth.

Former Walker Cup player Sandy Pirie tied for third place on 73 with fellow amateur Billy Main (Murcar Links) and Newburgh club pro Ian Bratton.
Pirie couldn't hole his birdie chances as he parred the last four holes for 37 home.

Of the many “unlucky losers,” possibly the unluckiest was Murcar Links professional Gary Forbes, having his first game of golf for seven weeks.
Gary’s 74 included six penalty shots, going out of bounds twice at the seventh and once at the 17th. He birdied the long fifth and long seventh and also th short 15th and par-4 16th.
David Corkey, the East Aberdeenshire club champion, also had a 74 after starting with a triple-bogey 7.
"I just went straight from the car to the first tee and, without thinking about where the potential danger lay, I just hit my first tee shot straight left and out of bounds," said David.
Gordon Grimmer, another on 74, bogeyed the 15th and 16th.
Leading scores (Par 71)
SCRATCH
71 D Garrett (Huntly).
72 I Buchan (Craibstone).
73 W Main (Murcar Links), I Bratton (Newburgh), A K Pirie (Hazlehead).
74 S Davidson (Banchory), G Forbes (Murcar Links), D Corkey (East Aberdeenshire), G Grimmer (Nigg Bay).
75 S Pert (Huntly), G Ingram (Inverurie).
76 C Nelson (MacKenzie Club), F Bisset (Banchory), I D Smith (Hazlehead), J Nicolson (Auchmill), R Pirie (Caledonian), L Sang (Aboyne), W S Urquhart (Murcar Links), I Welsh (Nigg Bay).
77 B Ritchie (Inverallochy), R Stewart (Cruden Bay), N Murray (Cruden Bay), S Fraser (Northern).
78 R L Nicoll (Murcar Links), A Graham (Portlethen), S Finnie (Caledonian).
79 J M Hamilton (Murcar Links), K Smith (Aboyne), D Nelson (Aboyne).
80 F Barclay (Kintore), C Alexander (Murcar Links).
81 F G Gray (Deeside).
82 S Kidd (Newburgh), S Scott (Auchmill), R McDonald (Kemnay).

HANDICAP
Class 1 – D Garrett (Huntly) (2) 69; K Smith (Aboyne) (8), A K Pirie (Hazlehead) (2), G Ingram (Inverurie) (4) 71; F Bisset (Banchory) (4), I D Smith (Hazlehead) (4), J Nicolson (Auchmill) (4), S Pert (Huntly) (3), D Corkey (East Aberdeenshire) (2), G Grimmer (Nigg Bay) (2) 72.

Class 2 – P Cornfield (Auchmill) (11), C Hood (Alford) (10), G Homer (Lumphanan (12) 73; G Leslie (Newburgh) (10) 74; W D Rae (Kemnay) (11) 75; G Travis (Auchmill) (15) 76; I Strachan (Royal Aberdeen) (11) 77.

LEADING SCORECARDS
Peterculter par 71:
OUT:4-4-3-4-5-4-5-3-4-36.
IN: 3-4-4-4-4-3-4-5-4-35

DON GARRETT 71
OUT: 4-4-3-5-4-4-5-2-4-35
IN: 3-4-5-4-4-3-4-5-4-36

IAIN BUCHAN 72
OUT: 5-3-3-6-4-5-4-3-4-37
IN: 3-4-4-5-4-3-4-4-4-35

BILLY MAIN 73
OUT: 5-4-3-5-5-5-4-4-4-39
IN: 3-4-4-4-4-3-4-4-4-34

IAN BRATTON 73
OUT: 4-4-4-4-4-4-6-3-4-37
IN: 4-4-3-5-4-3-4-5-4-36

SANDY PIRIE 73
OUT: 4-4-3-4-4-5-5-3-4-36
IN: 4-4-4-5-4-3-4-5-4-37

STEWART DAVIDSON 74
OUT: 5-5-2-3-5-5-4-3-4-36
IN: 4-3-4-5-4-4-5-5-4-38

DAVID CORKEY 74
OUT: 7-4-3-5-5-4-4-3-5-40
IN: 3-4-4-4-4-3-4-4-4-34

GORDON GRIMMER 74
OUT: 5-4-2-4-5-4-5-3-4-36
IN: 3-4-4-4-4-4-5-5-5-38

GARY FORBES 74
OUT: 4-4-3-4-4-4-4-4-4-35
IN: 3-4-7-5-4-2-3-7-4-39