DOUG THORBURN STEALS TARBAT HONOURS
WITH SECOND-NINE SCORE OF 32

By ROBIN WILSON
An entry of 56 turned up for the first North Golf Alliance fixture to be played over the Tarbat nine-hole course in Easter Ross. Although local members put in an early challenge, Thurso's +1 handicapper Doug Thorburn stole the show with a brilliant second nine holes of 32.
The perfect playing conditions complimented the course which, for the time of year, was in excellent condition. Only some interesting choices of pin positions made life difficult for first-time visitors but not for the two lowest handicappers in the field.
Thorburn and Helmsdale's scratch player Ronald Sutherland were eventually sorted into first and second place on a card play-off, Thorburn 37-32 and Sutherland 34-35, this after Thorburn nearly tore up his card after hitting two balls out of bounds at the 177yd par-3 fifth hole in his first round and making a quadruple bogey 7.
Their 69s were one above the par of the 5,200yd course where Thorburn, in his first round, kept himself in touch with a closing birdie. Where he had made his quadruple 7 on his first circuit, the Caithness player made a par 3 at his second attempt.
Having already birdied the second hole, his 11th, and also the 13th, he added another birdie at the 16th, where the landing area beside the pin was about the size of a sixpence. He could afford a bogey at the last hole in his second nine of 32 to pip Sutherland.
Sutherland matched the par on his first nine holes and missed out on first place with a closing bogey.
The mid-handicappers in Class 1 were at ease on the short lay-out. Don C Mackay, father of the Reay fixture's winner, Don A Mackay, kept his first round score to 36 and repeated level 4s on the next nine for 72.
With a Royal Dornoch handicap of eight since leaving Reay, Don senior cruised to first handicap place, beating the home club hopes into second and fourth place. The local greenkeeper Mike Keay finished with a net 66 to be runner up.
Losing third place on a countback to Reay's Alister Gunn was local Hamish Skinner who grossed 75 for net 67. Skinner had a second nine of 39 against 37 from Gunn.
From Durness, the other nine-hole course used as an Alliance venue, 19-handicapper Gerald Klein felt at home with a net 67 to lead the Class 2 returns. Tain's Ali Melville was the runner-up with a net 68 off 12, to be followed by two more Caithness success stories. Thurso's Doug Mackenzie began his day with three double bogey 6s but for the next fifteen holes had nothing worse than a 5 on his card to gross 81 and a net 69.
Reay's Kenny Farmer, after playing blind for the first nine holes, got round in 40 but then, knowing where he was going, hacked a 40 out of the course second time round but still got a fourth place for his effort.
The run of fixtures continue this coming weekend at Wick.
Results:
SCRATCH
69 D Thorburn (Thurso), R Sutherland (Helmsdale).
HANDICAP
Class 1 - D C Mackay (Royal Dornoch) (8) 64; M Keay (Tarbat) (7) 66; A Gunn (Reay) (7), H Skinner (Tarbat) (8) 67; A J Gill (Brora) (4) 71.
Class 2 - G Klein (Durness) (19) 67; A Melville (Tain) (12) 68; D Mackenzie (Thurso) (12), A Farmer (Reay) (16) 69.