"TIGER" BRATTON SCORES
FIFTH WIN OF SEASON
ON NE ALLIANCE CIRCUIT

Newburgh on Ythan club professional Ian Bratton has become the Tiger Woods of the North-east Alliance golf circuit this season. Bratton’s victory in today's meeting at Craibstone Golf Centre was his fifth in 12 outings.
Even Tiger would have been delighted to have shot a four-under-par 65 in cold, windy and sometimes very wet conditions. Ian, pictured right, outclassed the field of 89 on the day to win by four strokes from Newmachar’s Richard Hyland with fellow amateur Terry Mathieson (Murcar Links) third on 70.
OUT IN 32
Bratton’s brilliance reduced the outward half to 32 strokes with birdies at the first, fourth and eighth. He dropped his first and only stroke at the 13th but finished strongly with his fourth and fifth birdies of the day, at the 15th and 17th , for 33 home.
Hyland dropped shots at the second and third and then covered the remaining 15 holes in two under par with 13 pars and birdies at the fifth and 18th for his 69 (36-33).
Mathieson, three over par after 13 holes, birdied the 16th and 18th to salvage a creditable 70 (37-33).
MacKenzie Club Shop manager Colin Nelson had four birdies - only one fewer than Ian Bratton - but still contrived to finish with a two-over-par 71. Colin was three under par after eight holes with 2s at the second and sixth and a birdie 3 at the eighth but he bogeyed the ninth to turn in 33, the second lowest outward half of the day.
Then Colin bogeyed the 11th, ran up a double bogey 6 at the 13th, birdied the 15th and finally closed the doors on his victory hopes with another double bogey 6 at the 17th on his way to a four-over-par inward half of 38.

Leading scores (Par 69)
SCRATCH
65 I Bratton (Newburgh) p.
69 R Hyland (Newmachar).
70 T Mathieson (Murcar Links).
71 A Campbell (Deeside), C Nelson (MacKenzie Club) p, D Garrett (Huntly).
72 J Nicolson (Auchmill), G Forbes (Murcar Links) p.
73 F Bisset (Banchory).
74 W Main (Murcar Links), S Pert (Huntly), S Davidson (Banchory) p, C Alexander (Murcar Links) s.
75 G Ingram (Inverurie).
76 P Morrison (Oldmeldrum), S Finnie (Caledonian).
77 G Grimmer (Nigg Bay), C Carnegie (Kemnay), A Graham (Portlethen), L Barbour (Cruden Bay).
78 S Kidd (Newburgh), A K Pirie (Hazlehead).
79 D Corkey (East Aberdeeenshire), S Elrick (Kemnay), R L Nicoll (Murcar Links) s, I D Smith (Hazlehead) s, N Murray (Cruden Bay) p.
80 R Stewart (Cruden Bay) p, D Wilson (Duff House Royal), D Leighton (Murcar Links), K Smith (Aboyne).
81 B Harper (Newburgh), P Farnan (Royal Aberdeen) s.
82 M Kidd (Newburgh), F G Gray (Deeside).
83 A Grant (Portlethen), A Innes (Murcar Links).
84 C Hood (Alford), K Mintry (Turriff), G Homer (Lumphanan).
85 A Petrie (Oldmeldrum), I Strachan (Royal Aberdeen), N Parker (Murcar Links).
86 L Roger (Royal Aberdeen) s.
87 W Forbes (Murcar Links) s.
88 R Alison (Deeside) s.

HANDICAP
Class 1 – J Nicolson (Auchmill) (4) 68; D Garrett (Huntly) (2), F Bisset (Banchory) (4) 69; R Hyland (Newmachar) (+1) 70; A Campbell (Deeside) (scr), S Pert (Huntly) (3), C Alexander (Murcar Links) s (3), G Ingram (Inverurie) (4), P Morrison (Oldmeldrum) (5), S Kidd (Newburgh) (7) 71; T Mathieson (Murcar Links) (+2) 72; A Graham (Portlethen) (4), K Smith (Aboyne) (7) 73; W Main (Murcar Links) (scr), S Elrick (Kemnay) (5), R L Nicoll (Murcar Links) (5) s 74; G Grimmer (Nigg Bay) (2), C Carnegie (Kemnay) (2), I D Smith (4) s, D Wilson (Duff House Royal) (5), D Leighton (Murcar Links) (5), B Harper (Newburgh) (6), P Farnan (Royal Aberdeen) (6) s 75.
Class 2 – M Kidd (Newburgh) (10, G Homer (Lumphanan) (12), W Forbes (Murcar Links) (15) s 72; G Travis (Auchmill) (15), A Dent (McDonald Ellon) (2) 73; C Hood (Alford) (10), I Strachan (Royal Aberdeen) (11), D Wood (Newburgh) (14) s, B Lumsden (Northern) (16) 74; R Alison (Deeside) (13) s 75; G Leslie (Newburgh) (10) 78; W D Rae (Kemnay) (11) s , J Jessiman (Oldmeldrum) (14) s, J Jones (Craibstone) (16) 79 s; R Addison (Newburgh) (18) s 81.

p denotes professional; s denotes senior player.

LEADING SCORECARDS
Craibstone Golf Centre par 69
OUT: 4-3-4-5-5-3-3-4-4-35
IN: 3-4-3-4-4-4-4-4-4-34

IAN BRATTON 65
OUT: 3-3-4-4-5-3-3-3-4-32
IN: 3-4-3-5-4-3-4-3-4-33

RICHARD HYLAND 69
OUT: 4-4-5-5-4-3-3-4-4-36
IN: 3-4-3-4-4-4-4-4-3-33

TERRY MATHIESON 70
OUT: 4-3-4-4-5-4-4-5-4-37
IN: 3-4-3-5-4-4-3-4-3-33

ANDREW CAMPBELL 71
OUT: 4-3-4-7-4-3-4-5-4-38
IN: 4-4-3-4-3-4-4-4-3-33

DON GARRETT 71
OUT: 4-3-5-5-5-3-4-4-4-37
IN: 3-5-3-4-4-4-4-4-3-34

COLIN NELSON 71
OUT: 4-2-4-5-5-2-3-3-5-33
IN: 3-5-3-6-4-3-4-6-4-38

2006-2007 MONEY LIST
(Vouchers where amateurs are listed)
+Before competition at Craibstone.
1 - £547 Ian Bratton (Newburgh).
2 - £290 Terry Mathieson (Murcar Links).
3 - £240 Stewart Finnie (Caledonian).
4 - £223 Stewart Davidson (Banchory).
5 - £206 Colin Nelson (MacKenzie Club).
6 - £195 Gary Homer (Lumphanan).
7 - £173 Iain Buchan (Craibstone).
8 - £165 Ian Strachan (Royal Aberdeen).
9 - £162 Brian Ritchie (Inverallochy).
10 - £160 Ronnie McDonald (Kemmnay).
11 - £150 Gary Esson (Portlethen).
12 - £147 Andrew Campbell (Deeside).
13 - £142 Billy Main (Murcar Links).
14 - £138 Paul Cornfield (Auchmill).
15 - £135 Alister Petrie (Oldmeldrum).
16 - £133 Hamish McNaugthon (Cruden Bay).
17 - £130 Leslie Roger (Royal Aberdeen).
18 - £126 Clark Alexander (Murcar Links).
19 - £125 Greg Ingram (Inverurie).
20 - £120 David Corkey (East Aberdeenshire).

ORDER OF MERIT EXPLAINED

The Order of Merit standings for the whole NE Alliance season will be an average of a players' best 10 scores, so 10 scores is the minimum requirement.
For the first half of the season, the minium requirement was to have had five scores. If a player had played in all 12 of the competitions up to the mid-winter break, then his Handicap Order of Merit would be based on average of his 12 scores; if he had played in say seven competitions, he would have an average from seven.
Ron fixes a "target score" for each meeting, which is roughly a blend of the course par and CSS. A player's average score for Order of Merit purposes only is worked out against these.
There should be a Scratch as well as a Handicap Order of Merit table below but the Scratch figures are not yet to hand. We will publish them as soon as Ron Menzies gets them to me.

LEADING ORDER OF MERIT (Handicap)
+Before competition at Craibstone.
1 David Corkey (East Aberdeenshire) (2) Avge net score in relation to Ron Menzies' "target score" for each meeting: 0.6.
2 Fergus Bisset (Banchory) (4) 1.6.
2 Bob Nicoll (Murcar Links) (5) 1.6.
2 Alan Stewart (Hazlehead) (8) 1.6.
5 Stewart Finnie (Caledonian) (scr) 1.8.
5 Colin Duffus (Kemnay) 1.8.
5 Alister Petrie (Oldmeldrum) (7) 1.8.
9 Brian Ritchie (Inverallochy) (2) 1.9.
9 Alan Grant (Portlethen) (7) 2.
10 Paul Cornfield (Auchmill) (11) 2.1
11 John Nicolson (Auchmill) (4) 2.3.
12 Billy Main (Murcar Links) (scr) 2.4
12 Dean Yeats (Newmachar ) (+1) 2.4.
15 Don Garrett (Huntly) (2) 2.6.
16 Andrew Campbell (Deeside) (scr) 2.7.
16 Terry Mathieson (Murcar Links) (+2) 2.7.
18 Clark Alexander (Murcar Links) (3) 2.8.
18 Sandy Innes (Murcar Links) 2.8.
18 Allan Swift (Auchmill) (4) 2.8

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