HUGH HUNTER'S CLACKMANNANSHIRE NEWS

TOP OF THE SCOTS:
That's Callum Macaulay

It's now official! Tulliallan’s Callum Macaulay has been confirmed as the No. 1 amateur golfer in Scotland for 2007 by winning the Scottish Golf Union’s Order of Merit.
He finished the season with 740 points, an emphatic 99 points ahead of his nearest rival, Wallace Booth (Comrie), and 155 points ahead of Lloyd Saltman who has recently turned professional.
And it doesn’t stop there because in the race for the title of Scottish Golfer of the Year, Callum is in the lead. This is based on the Royal and Ancient Golf Club’s World Amateur Golf rankings and in the last week (due to his Newlands Trophy win at Lanark), Callum has leapfrogged over a couple of top golfers into the top spot in Scotland.
His world amateur ranking now stands at 45 (up eight places from last week). At the same time, Dollar’s Scott Borrowman has recorded a massive jump of 128 places in his world ranking to 451st!
The "Scottish Golfer of the Year" title is decided by the rankings as at October 31, so anyone wanting to overtake Callum will have to scour the world for point scoring events in the next five weeks … an impossible task.
Callum is now in Ireland representing Scotland in this week's men's home internationals, and hoping for continuing good form. With your golf correspondent also in Ireland, a comprehensive report on his progress is assured.
AREA TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP
The final section qualifying ties for the 2007 semi-finals and final will be played this weekend, the Wee County take on Argyll and Bute over the Rothesay course. With the County’s hopes drowned in the deluge at Braehead last month, the match is a bit academic, but will be a useful guide to future form.
Clackmannan will be represented by:
Ross Benvie, Mike Rust (both Braehead), Jamie Aitken (Alloa), Darren Hulston (Dollar) and Mark Crichton (Tulliallan).
FRANK THOMSON TROPHY 2007
Continuing his good form from the previous weekend when he was undefeated, John McPherson (Braehead) led the Clackmannan boys to second place with a 30pt total, one ahead of County Junior Champion Lawrence Allan (Alva).
This annual event, contested by teams of five representing Fife, Perth & Kinross and Clackmannan, was held at Gleneagles on Sunday. Normally played over the Queen’s course, a last minute shift (due to heavy rain) was made to the PGA Centenary course.
This was greeted with great enthusiasm by the young golfers and the improving afternoon weather conditions made it even more enjoyable. It was a tough test and even although the boys played off the front tees, they were faced with the same sort of shot that the professionals had on many holes.
The event was played under handicap Stableford with the best four scores counting
Details:
1 Fife 107pt
2 Clackmannan 103pt (John McPherson 30, Lawrence Allan 29, Michael Barrett 20 Gary Chalmers 24, Tom Hogarth 19)
3 Perth & Kinross 93pt.
Top scores of the day came from John McPherson (Braehead) and Jack Thorburn (Forrester Park) with 30 points each.
MIDLAND DISTRICT TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP
Tulliallan’s John Maxwell and Dollar’s Darren Hulston carded the top Wee County scores in the Midlands team event last Sunday, but the team finished considerably behind the winning Perth & Kinross team.
This event dates back many years and is contested by the four Midland counties - Angus, Clackmannan, Fife and Perth & Kinross.
The 2007 event was played over the 6,400yd Ferntower course of Crieff Golf Club. Heavy rain and a subsequent delay caused the event to be curtailed to the higher inward nine holes on the course.
As a result, all eight scores were made counting. Perth and Kinross as the holders of the trophy retained it comfortably, and in addition, one of their players returned the best individual score with a one under par 33.
Details (Par 34)
1 Perth & Kinross 291, 2 Fife 301, 3 Clackmannan 319 (R Benvie 39, D Hulston 37, J Aitken 40, C O’Connor 41 P Dempsey 42, M Crichton 41, J Maxwell 37, J Gullen 42), 4 Angus 322.
Best individual - Stuart McKendrick (Dunkeld and Birnam) 3
BELHAVEN BEST SCOTTISH CLUB HANDICAP CHAMPIONSHIP
The challenge of the Braehead duo, Steve Anderson and Jim Duncan, for the 2007 title fizzled out over the long Cardrona course near Peebles. The best they could manage was a four over par 76, leaving them in 43rd place, nine shots behind the winners, the Harrison club from Edinburgh, who returned a five-under-par score of 67.