SEVEN-HANDICAPPER

RICHARD WINS
REAY ALLIANCE

WITH GROSS 70!
By ROBIN WILSON
Ignoring all the hot spots on adjacent Sandside Beach, the hottest golf of the day in the North Alliance fixture at Reay on Sunday came from local member Richard Macdonald, a seven-handicapper, who enjoyed a stroll under a clear blue sky to record a remarkable winning gross 70 and leave a quality field of low handicappers in his shadow.
Macdonald ignited his card at the sixth hole where he chipped in for an eagle 3. Another highlight was a 30ft putt for a birdie at the 16th in equal halves of 35 to pip Thurso’s scratch member Doug Thorburn by a shot.
Thorburn, although pushing Wick’s Ron Taylor for the scratch trophy, is still looking for his first win after three runner-up places this season.
POSITIONS CONSOLIDATED
Tain club member Steve Holmes and Mike Keay consolidated their positions as contenders for the North Alliance handicap trophy after visiting the Caithness course.
Keay, the Tarbat course greenkeeper, lowered his four-round total to 280 and Fortrose Academy teacher Holmes reduced his total to 282 when both featured in the prize list with net 68s.
But a similar net score from the Reay fixture by Graham Grant (Helmsdale) cut five shots from his previous total and lifted him into the lead for the Mackintosh Salver on 278.
This trio’s main threat now comes from Reay’s scratch winner. With his handicap applied MacDonald’s net 63 lowered his aggregate to 285. An eradication of his Invergordon return of 84 will hoist him ahead of the other three contenders but a handicap cut of two strokes applied to the Reay member will make his task a little more difficult.
With Macdonald upsetting the winning scratch habit of Ron Taylor (Wick) it meant little change in the scoring for the end of season scratch trophy. Tain’s Munro Ferries made only a one shot improvement to his total, down to 291, but still trailing Taylor by seven and Thorburn by five. Ferries was in a position to better his aggregate but he bogeyed the last three holes to add 38 to his outward 35 and 73.
LOCALS LEAD WAY IN CLASS ONE
In the lovely sunny overhead conditions all the winning handicap scores were below par. In Class 1 Three locals lead the way, Bruce Mackay, Steve Efemey and Gavin Gunn. Behind came Grant, Holmes and Keay. The highlights of Holmes’s round came from a holed forty yard approach shot to the 6th green followed by birdie two on the next hole in halves of 36 and 37. Mike Keay like Ferries dropped shots over the closing stages, bogies at four of the last five holes. Peter Etheridge (Brora), pictured above, the winner of Class 2, also found a birdie 2 on the sixth green but was deflated with four putts on the next green only to recover his outward score of 40 with another 2 at the ninth. Aided by his third birdie of the round at the 12th and another on the par-5 14th hole, he came home in 37 for net 66 and relegate Thurso’s Doug Mackenzie to second place in Class 2.
With the weather disruption on February 11, there is just a seven-day break until Wick hosts its fixture on Sunday.

LEADING RETURNS
(All Reay players unless stated)

SCRATCH
70 R MacDonald (Reay).
71 D Thorburn (Thurso).
72 J. Sangster (Thurso).
73 D A Mackay, R W Taylor (Wick), S Holmes (Tain), L Parnell, M Ferries (Tain).
74 G Grant (Helmsdale).
75 B Ferries (Tain), G. Sutherland.
HANDICAP
Class 1 -B Mackay (8), S Efemey (9) 67; G Gunn (10), G Grant (Helmsdale) (6), S Holmes (Tain) (5), M Keay (Tain) (8) 68.
Class 2 - P Etheridge (Brora) (11), D MacKenzie (Thurso) (12) 66; A Mackay (12), D Gray (11) 68.