HUTCH IS THE MAN

TO END AMERICAN

GRIP ON BRITISH
SENIORS' TITLE

The Scotland team who will seek to win the European senior men's amateur team golf championship for the second year in a row at Bled Golf & Country Club, Slovenia next week has been announced.
John Johnston (Royal Aberdeen) for Allan Ferguson (Drumpellier) is the only change in the six-man line-up that won the title for the first time in Finland 12 months ago.
The team is:
Ian Hutcheon (Monifieth), capt., Stephen Ellis (Cowal), Brian Grieve (King James VI), John Johnston (Royal Aberdeen), Donald McCart (Castlerock), Gordon MacDonald (Callander).
The players will get the best possible preparation this week when they compete as individuals in the British senior open amateur championship, starting at Nairn and Nairn Dunbar tomorrow.
A huge field of 252 players will play 18 holes over both courses with the leading 60 and ties after 36 holes contesting the final round at Nairn on Friday.
It’s an R&A-organised championship that is particularly popular with Americans, many of whom follow an unofficial global circuit for amateurs in the over-55 age bracket. Eight of the past 10 winners of the “British” title, have come from the United States.
Paul Simson, 56, from North Carolina, is defending the title he won at Saunton last year in his first attempt.
If any Scot can halt the American domination of the event - for one year at least - then it is Ian Hutcheon (pictured above) who is currently playing as good if not better golf than he did in his heyday of 30 years ago.
At the age of 65, he improved his handicap from +2 to +3 last week when he won the East of Scotland Seniors open over his home Monifieth course by 13 shots with a pair of 66s. He has won every event he has played in in the new Scottish Golf Union Seniors' Circuit.
Ian, a four-time Walker Cup player between 1975 and 1981 and Scottish champion at match-play (1973) and stroke-play (1974 & 1979), won the Scottish senior open amateur title earlier this year for the third time since 2003.
"Hutch" will be conceding the best part of five to 10 years to the leading Americans but the way Ian is playing at the moment, the age factor does not come into it.

LEADING TEE TIMES
WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY

Nairn tee time first; Nairn Dunbar second

7.55 & 12.01: Erik Myrmo (US), Federico Lang (Italy), Sandy Pirie (Hazlehead).
8.06 & 1.21: John Johnston (Royal Aberdeen), Timothy Hewan (SAf), Bob Kain (US).
8.33 and 12.34: Alan Ferguson (Drumpellier), Manfred Ingang (Ger), Willilam Wallace (Strathaven).
9.28 and 1.34: Denny Alexander (US), Mike Wilde (Camberley Heath), Donald McCart (Castlerock).
9.39 and 1.45: John Fraser (Royal Burgess), Peter Cowley (Cork), Clifford Heath (Silloth on Solway).
9.50 and 1.56: Stephen Baker (Little Aston), Fraser Urquhart (Inverness), Roy Smethurst (Crewe).
10.50 and 2.56: Joel Hirsch (US), Andrew Wright (Glencorse), Alan Clay (Minchinhampton).
11.50 and 7.44: Ian Hutcheon (Monifieth), Jerry Greenbaum (US), Bert Nicholson (Royoal Dornoch).
12.45 aand 8.44: Geoff Allan (Wilderness), John Dennis (US), Gordon MacDonald (Callander).
1.45 and 9.39: Neil Hughes (Gog Magog), Brian Grieve (King James VI), George Rodaks (Moffat).
2.56 and 10.50 George Paterson (Northern), Arthur Pierse (Tipperary), Hugh Clunas (Nairn Dunbar).

Nairn Dunbar first tee time; Nairn second tee time.
7.22 and 11.23: Neil Wilson (Spain), Stephen Ellis (Cowal), David Lane (Goring & Streatley).
8.06 and 12.12: John Baldwin (US), Patrick Garner (Sunningdale), David Sharp (Boat of Garten).
10.28 and 2.34: Jock Wellington (SAf), Michael Wigley (Hankley Common), Paul Simpson (US) (holder).
11.23 and 7.22: Mark Lironi (Cathkin Braes), Kemp Richardson(US), Patrick Tomisson (Nairn).
12.34 and 8.33: Alistair Fiddes (Murcar Links), David Eccleston (Ormskirk), Nuno Pereira Machado (Por).
2.12 and 10.06: Iain Stewart (Curragh), Robert Humble (Kilspindie), Phlip Slater (Sandiway).