CLACKMANNAN COUNTY NEWS ..... FROM HUGH HUNTERE

NOW IT’S THE WEE COUNTY BOYS' TURN!

Last week's Scottish championships for Under-16s and Under-14s gave the top boys a chance to prove their golf skills on the national stage and show that top Clackmannan golf is not just about Callum Macaulay and Scott Borrowman. And prove it they did with their first appearances at this level over the tough Brunston Castle course in Ayrshire.
First event was the three-round Under-16s championship with a cut after two rounds, and the 120 strong field included locals Grant Dowie (Alloa) and John McPherson (Braehead). After first rounds of 80 from Grant and 79 from John, they were just above the middle of the field, with a good chance of making the cut.
John repeated his first-round score (two-round total of 158), but Grant fell back by a couple of shots (two-round total of 162), just missing the qualifying cut at 15-over-par 159. John went on to score a final round of 82, finishing in 29th position (actually 19th Scot).
The title was won by Ian Redford (King James VI) with a three-round total of 222. A fine result by John on his first appearance – well done!
The Under-14s event on the same course with a field of 84 was decided over 18 holes, and four locals took the plunge to try their game against other good golfers in their age group. All four hit first class drives off the first tee to a narrow fairway with bunkers, thick rough and a large water hazard close by.
In this nerve-racking situation, Gary Chalmers (Dollar) finished left centre, Lawrence Allan (Alva) was right and the best drives rifled a long way down the middle came from the Braehead duo of Michael Barrett and Jamie Pollock.
Best of the group was Gary who set about the course in his usual determined way. A one under par outward nine became two under at the 11th with a birdie 3, and at that point he led the tournament. However, a combination of difficult holes and heavy rain saw him slip back to finish with a two over par 74. The winner, Harry Whittle (Woburn) played his closing holes in two under par to finish in 70, and take the 2007 title.
Gary can be very pleased with his performance, although he is probably a bit disappointed at dropping shots over the closing holes. He finished eighth (sixth Scot), next best being Michael Barrett with a well compiled 79, spoiled only by a couple of 6s on the inward nine.
A bit further back were Lawrence Allan (84) and Jamie Pollock (90). Another measure of the fine performance of Gary and Michael was the fact that they were the only two players in the last 12 matches to break 80 in the deteriorating conditions.
County president Sam Kinnaird was pleased with the performances “Well done to all these boys, and over the next few years, we hope to see good results in boys' golf from Clackmannanshire players.”

JUNIOR MASTERS GOLF
The 2007 Junior Masters national tournament reaches the regional finals next week, and six local juniors will be competing at Stirling for a place in the finals to be held over the Queen's Course, Gleneagles on October 7.
Alloa Golf Club is represented by William Nelson and junior club champion John Salmond, Tillicoultry by Scott Baird and David Kinnaird; Dollar by Gary Chalmers and Steven McPherson (pictured above, Gary on the left). Other finals will be held at Dunfermline and Peebles.

COUNTY JUNIOR LEAGUE
The Clackmannan Boys League is reaching a critical stage where every tie is almost certain to affect the final top placings. In the latest matches, Alva continued their undefeated run with another halved match, this time against Dollar.
The home club took the first three matches, but the Alva tail wagged strongly to take the remaining three, interestingly by exactly the same margins. Alloa had a solid win over Tillicoultry who were unable to recover from the strong opening by the Alloa juniors.

Details:
DOLLAR 3, ALVA 3
(Dollar names first)
Steven McPherson bt Lawrence Allan 4 and 3.
Gary Chalmers bt Daniel Ashe 3 and 2.
Tom Hogarth bt Scott Thomson 3 and 2.
Ian Cullins lost to Adam Ashe 4 and 3.
Scott Green lost to Martin Hall 3 and 2.
Jack Dowie lost to David Fisher 3 and 2.

ALLOA 4, TILLICOULTRY 2
(Alloa names first)
Andre Scotland bt Colin Carberry 5 and 4.
Grant Dowie bt Scot Baird 5 and 4.
Grant Ross bt Jonathan Imrie 4 and 3.
William Nelson lost to Kevin Ross 2 and 1.
Calum Boyd bt David Kinnaird 4 and 3.
Calum Graham lost to Richard Brown 1 hole.

HOW THEY STAND

1 Alva 8 pt (played five).
2 Dollar 5 pt (played four).
3 Alloa 3 pt (played four).
4 Braehead 2 pt (played three).
5 Tillicoultry 2 pt (played four).

SUTHERLAND CHALICE
At the weekend, the Scottish Golf Union Order of Merit events moved to the south at Dumfries for the 72-hole event. Once again the top two Wee County golfers were in the prizelist, and collected valuable points for the Order of Merit title.

Over the par-70 lay-out, Callum Macaulay (Tulliallan) opened with two steady rounds of 71, then unleashed two final rounds of 65 and 68 to lift him well up the field to third equal position.

Scott Borrowman (Dollar) moved to runner-up spot after three rounds following his 65, but fell back with a final round 71 to share sixth place.

Greg Paterson from St Andrews New scored a runaway victory by eight shots.

SELECTED FINAL SCORES
1 Greg Paterson 68 64 66 66: 264 (-16)
3 (equal) Callum Macaulay 71 71 65 68: 275 (-5)
6 (equal) Scott Borrowman 69 72 65 71: 277 (-3)

SCOTLAND CALL-UP FOR CALLUM
Callum Macaulay (Tulliallan), with his consistently high standard of golf performances lately, has been named in a six-man squad to represent Scotland in the European individual championship in Berlin from August 22 to 25.

Each country in membership of the European Golf association nominates their top amateur golfers, and these are joined by exemptions and individual entries to make up the high quality field.

The 2007 event is decided over 72 holes at the Nick Faldo-designed course at Sporting Club Berlin. It is a 7134yd, par-75 lay-out and boasts a Scottish links design with 133 deep pot bunkers. Probably only room in each for one angry man with his golf club!

The other team members are Wallace Booth, Kevin McAlpine, Keir McNicoll, Scott Henry and Lloyd Saltman.

SCOTTISH GOLF RANKINGS
Callum Macaulay’s world golf ranking continues to improve. He has now moved to 59th, and is third Scot, having now overtaken James Byrne. In the home rankings, covering only UK tournaments, Callum is ranked fifth and Dollar’s Scott Borrowman is ranked 23rd.

Both players will be looking towards the Scottish Amateur to be played over Prestwick from July 30, and hoping (along with hopefully the rest of the Wee County golfers) that their fine form will take them a fair distance in the match-play tournament which starts with a field of 256.
Callum’s bid to reach the Open championship starting field at Carnoustie came unstuck at the local final qualifying over the Barry links at Panmure last week. After qualifying at Musselburgh with a brilliant five-under-par 67, his final two rounds of 76 and 72 were well outside the qualifying mark.

With only three spots available from the field of over 100 top-class amateurs and professionals at each of the four venues, it was always going to be difficult and in fact no home-based Scots won any of the 12 spots. The qualifying scores were around five under par or better for the two rounds. It's tough at the top.