SWANSON WINS AFTER
COUNTBACK AT TAIN
IN NORTH ALLIANCE

BY ROBIN WILSON

Not one of the trophy contenders from the first half of the season had a day to remember when the North Alliance golf fixtures resumed at Tain.
Caithness duo Ron Taylor (Wick) and Doug Thorburn (Thurso), who each have three good scores to work with, will have to make another trip across the Ord in search of a fourth mandatory counting score after both failed to return cards.
Locals Munro and Billy Ferries, Mike Keay and Steve Holmes did not take home advantage to improve their positions.
Taylor ripped up his card at the 12th hole after knocking three drives out of bounds and Thorburn’s day ended before it began really. He started his round with three wayward shots from the first tee, resulting in two lost balls and a double figure score immediately on his card.
How Thorburn could have done with clubmate Alan Swanson’s opening birdie as Swanson, playing in only his second fixture of the year, came through a three-way scratch tie to take first place on 72 at the head of a smaller than usual field of 57.
COUNTBACK
Swanson beat local left-hander Munro Ferries (pictured above) and Helmsdale’s Graham Grant on the inward half count back from the Caithness player’s two consistent halves of 36 while Ferries collapsed over the last four holes to end up in second place, only because Grant had the leading net score in Class 1 .
Grant’s net 66 beat Wick’s Ron Barker on the inward half countback after Barker enjoyed a memorable first nine holes of 30 before throwing it all away over Tain’s much tougher inward stretch.
Grant’s score trimmed his net aggregate by 11 shots and he is now just two behind Mike Keay’s total of 282 with the Helmsdale member still having room to improve on a 77 from the Invergordon fixture.
Left-hander Ferries had the scratch prize in his sight on the 15th tee but went to the next tee reeling from a four-putt double-bogey 6. The par-3 16th was safely negotiated but his score went to the bottom of the river at the next hole.
From his tee shot, he was left with a delicate pitch over the left-hand bunker to the green. Catching the ball on the sole of his wedge, it flew over the green and into the river on the other side. He ended up taking a quadruple bogey 7.
Shell-shocked on the final hole, a bogey 5 completed his disappointing inward 40 to add to his outward 32 - a 72 that could so easily have been a sub-70 round. His 72 did lower his scratch aggregate tally by two shots to 297 but still in the lead, despite a 77, is Billy Ferries with 293.
WATER TROUBLE
Graham Grant also found trouble in the water towards the end of his round. He sliced into the river from the tee for halves of 34 and 38.
After 73s, Mike Keay and Steve Holmes did not improve on their respective net totals of 282 and 290. Tain’s Mike Sangster shot 76 (37-39).
The Thurso club found another winner in Class 2 where Billy Sutherland fronted the 24 players in this section with a net 71 from his handicap of 21.
Two stokes behind, Willie Dunbar (Reay) got into the frame for the first time and another first- time winner was Alf Williamson (Thurso), beating John Morrison (Durness) on a count back for third place.
Snow has hit the North and Sunday’s fixture over Dornoch Struie course is under threat due to an already wet course.

Leading returns:
SCRATCH
72 A Swanson (Thurso), G Grant (Helmsdale), M Ferries (Tain).
73 R Barker (Wick).
76 M Sangster (Tain), A Gill (Brora).
77 B Ferries (Tain).
78 S Cowie (Thurso).
79 A Watt (Tain), P Blyth (Tain), L Parnell (Reay), J Sangster (Thurso).
HANDICAP
Class 1 – G Grant (Helmsdale) (6), R Barker (Wick) (7) 66; A Gill (Brora) (5), P Blythe (Tain) (8) 71; S Cowie (Thurso) (6) 72.
Class 2 – W J Sutherland (Thurso) (21) 71; W Dunbar (Reay) (18) 73; W Williamson (Thurso) (18), J Morison (Durness) (19) 74.