HUGH HUNTER'S CLACKMANNANSHIRE NEWS

SWEET AND SOUR FOR WEE COUNTY TOP TWO

2007 SCOTTISH AMATEUR GOLF CHAMPIONSHIP

It was sweet and sour for the Wee County golfers Callum Macaulay (Tulliallan) and Scott Borrowman (Dollar) in the 2007 Scottish amateur championship played over the 6,700yd Prestwick golf course. But that’s golf.

The sweet bit first: once again they did themselves and the Wee County proud with two good performances to reach the latter stages of the event - Callum to the last 16 and Scott to the last eight from 256 competitors.

Their losses perhaps left a slightly sour taste in that they probably felt that their matches were winnable had it not been for some missed opportunities. Two great performances and I am sure that all Clackmannanshire golfers would want to congratulate them on their fine achievements.
Callum’s campaign opened with a match against a local who gave a good demonstration of how to tackle the humps and hollows of Prestwick. A two-hole lead vanished over the last three holes, and Callum’s par 3 at the second extra hole took him to the second round where he demolished a rather ill-tempered club thrower.

STUBBORN RESISTANCE

The next two opponents put up stubborn resistance, and it took considerable skill on Callum’s part to win through (he was three down to Mark Lamb at one stage). This set up a match against cack-hander John Gallagher, runner-up in the 2004 British Amateur. It was an outstanding match with John being about four under par when he won on the 17th.

Callum had a chance to square the match on the 14th, but his shortish putt slipped past, and a bogey at the short par-4 16th made the result pretty inevitable.
CALLUM MACAULAY RESULTS

Round 1 - Beat Steven Wallace (Prestwick St Cuthbert) at 20th.
Round 2 - Beat Garry Wood (Crow Wood) 6 and 5.
Round 3 - Beat Graeme Belch (Haggs Castle) 2 and 1.
Round 4 - Beat Mark Lamb (Haddington) 1 hole.
Round 5 - Lost to John Gallagher (Swanston New) 3 and 1.
LONG-HITTING BY BORROWMAN
Scott Borrowman, above picture by Hugh Hunter, opened the Scottish amateur championship with a couple of tight matches, impressing many with his long hitting – a drive to 2 ft at the 284yd par-4 18th yard 18th sealed his second round match.
In two consecutive rounds he took out two past champions - Graham Lowson (1991) and with a shattering, five-under-par 5 performance, and the 2006 title-winner, Kevin McAlpine.

Two down after nine holes against the defending champion, Scott clawed his way back and took the lead for the first time on the 13th. Two up with two to play, he could only watch as Kevin birdied 17 from a bad lie to take the match down the last.

A deadly pitch under pressure from Scott took him through by one hole.An outstanding victory. Alas the magic did not appear the next day when he took on the 1989 champion Allan Thomson, and Borrowman went down at the 16th.
SCOTT BORROWMAN RESULTS

Round 1 - Beat Colin Peddie (Hayston) at 19th.

Round 2 - Beat Kenneth Fairbrother (Cochrane Castle) 1 hole.
Round 3 - Beat Stephen McBlain (Prestwick St Cuthbert) 6 and 5.
Round 4 - Beat Graham Lowson (Auchterarder) 4 and 3.
Round 5 - Beat Kevin McAlpine (Alyth) 1 hole.
Quarter-final - Lost to Allan Thomson 3 and 2.

The 36 hole final was won by John Gallagher (Swanston New) who defeated Keir McNicoll (Carnoustie) by 4 and 3, so giving Callum a tiny crumb of comfort in that he was defeated by the eventual winner.

2007 AMATEUR GOLF RANKINGS (prior to Scottish Amateur)
The latest World Golf Rankings published by the R and A show Callum Macaulay at 51st in the world (up three places and the second best Scottish golfer behind Lloyd Saltman). Scott is at 769th (35th in Scotland).

In the Scottish Golf Union Order of Merit for mostly domestic golf events, Callum is ranked fifth and Scott 22nd.

THE 2007 SCOTTISH CHALLENGE

The Macdonald Cardrona Hotel, Golf and Country Club is the venue for the Scottish Challenge to be played this week from Thursday to Sunday.

It is part of the Challenge Tour (a series of golf events below the European Tour level) for professional golfers who are keen to move up to the top Tour.

Around 135 golf professionals are competing (28 from Scotland) and they are joined by six Scottish amateurs who have received special invites, including local Callum Macaulay.

The event is decided over 72 holes on the par-72, 6,990yd Cardrona lay-out along the Tweed valley with a cut after two rounds - the amateurs of course cannot win the money. It will be a useful test for Callum because he has hopes of joining the professional ranks sometime.

Entry for specators is free.

TOP TEN FINISH FOR BOB…….AGAIN!
In last week's East of Scotland Seniors tournament at Monifieth, Bob Stewart (Tulliallan), with rounds of 77 and 73, finished in eighth equal position, collecting more Order of Merit points and securing a place in the Order of Merit Final to be held at Blairgowrie at the end of August.

The results there will help to decide the Scottish team for the Senior Home Internationals. Local Ian Hutcheon, with two rounds of 66, won the East event by an amazing 13 strokes, and lowered the 65 year old’s handicap from plus 2 to plus 3!!

UNLUCKY FOR COUNTY AGAIN
Heavy rain put paid to the hopes of the County golf team in their bid to reach the final stages of the 2007 Area team championship at Braehead last Sunday. After the morning foursomes against the North-east, the County trailed by two matches to one, and had hopes of recovering in the afternoon singles matches, but despite heroic efforts by the Braehead staff to keep the greens playable, the incessant rain won the day and the foursomes result stood.

The same thing happened last year when a match at Letham Grange (not involving Clackmannan) was abandoned.

CLACKMANNAN 1, NORTH-EAST 2

Foursomes results (Clackmannanshire names first):
Callum Macaulay & Ross Benvie beat Philip MacLean & Mark Halliday 2 and 1.
Scott Borrowman & Ian Ross lost to Laurie Phillips & Gary Esson 1 hole.
Mark Crichton & Steven Horne lost to Bryan Innes & Terry Mathieson 1 hole.
Singles - Abandoned.