Record field for North-east Alliance at Edzell

Winner George Bruce (Westhill) above and runner-up Alastair Webster (Edzell) on the right.

BY GEORGE! WESTHILL

PRO ENDS SIX YEARS

WITHOUT A WIN

Westhill professional George Bruce, pictured above, ended six years without a win on the North-east Golfers’ Alliance circuit at Edzell Golf Club today.
Bruce headed a field of 114 – a record for the past 14 years when Ron Menzies has been secretary – with a two-under-par round of 69.
“It was, I think, at Cruden Bay in 2001 that I last won an alliance competition,” said George. “Within that time I had to give up the game for a couple of years because I couldn’t get any assistants to help me in the Westhill club shop.”
The secret of his success at Edzell on a day when a high wind inflated many scores was “hitting fairways and holing a few putts.”
Bruce had birdies at the seventh, eighth, 10th, 15th and 16th in halves of 36 (level par) and 33 (two under par). He had bogeys at the second, sixth and 14th.
Until Bruce returned his card late in the day, home club professional Alastair Webster had been the clubhouse leader with a 70.
Webster, just back from a nine rounds in 14 days’ family holiday in America where he played a clutch of big-name courses in the Atlanta area, had birdies at the sixth and ninth and a solitary bogey at the fifth.
"I think it was the cross wind that cost people who don't really know the course a lot of strokes," said Webster. "I've come back from the States with my game in good nick and I think I missed only one fairway today."

Robert Gordon University student Adrian Styles filled third place with a par 71.
Golf, as well all know, can be a very funny game. Take the case of Stuart Garden (Hazlehead) who, playing off 11, went round Ballater in last week's NE Alliance meeting in a scratch 70 for a net 59.
Secretary Menzies duly cut Stuart's handicap from 11 to 9 for today's competition at Edzell - and Stuart had a gross 94, net 85 off his new handicap.
TODAY'S TOP SCORES
Par 71.
SCRATCH

69 G Bruce (Westhill).
70 A J Webster (Edzell).
71 A Styles (Murcar Links).
72 M Barnard (Inchmarlo), C Stephen (Meldrum House).
73 P Lovie (Inchmarlo), D Read (Banchory).
74 R Hyland (Hazlehead), S Davidson (Banchory), D Raitt (Murcar Links).
75 L Taylor (Auchmill), I Bratton (Newburgh), R McDonald (Inchmarlo), G Forbes (Murcar Links).
76 C Nelson (MacKenzie Club), C Hood (Alford).
77 F Bisset (Banchory), A K Pirie (Hazlehead), M Lees (Pine Lodge), I D Smith (Hazlehead), M Lawrie (Kemnay).
78 S Pert (Huntly), W S Urquhart (Murcar Links), M Jenkins (Duff House Royal), S Finnie (Caledonian), N Parker (Murcar Links), G Paterson (Northern).
79 A Campbell (Deeside), W Main (Murcar Links), J M Hamilton (Murcar Links), D Wilson (Duff House Royal), A J Smith (Turriff), D Clark (Duff House Royal), D Nelson (Aboyne), D Corkey (Murcar Links).
80 J Dalgarno (Hazlehead), D Garrett (Huntly).
81 R M Grant (Caledonian).
82 A Graham (Portlethen), S Scott (Auchmill).
83 P Farnan (Royal Aberdeen), J Murray (Banchory), R L Nicoll (Murcar Links), S Chalmers (Banchory), S Higgins (Royal Aberdeen), R Brownhill (Stonehaven), C Alexander (Murcar Links), A McInnes (Murcar Links).
HANDICAP

Class 1
D Read (Banchory) (4) 69; L Taylor (Auchmill) (5) 70; I D Smith (Hazlehead) (6), A Styles (Murcar Links) (scr) 71; D Nelson (Aboyne) (7), M Lawrie (Kemnay) (5) 72; J Dalgarno (Hazlehead) (7), R Hyland (Hazlehead) (1), J M Hamilton (Murcar Links) (6), D Raitt (Murcar Links) (1) 73.
Class 2
C Hood (Alford) (9) 67; J Jones (Craibstone) (17) 71; G Homer (Lumphanan) (12) 72; S Higgins (Royal Aberdeen) (10) 73; S Youngson (Turriff) (14) 74; M Ord (Royal Aberdeen) (13), W Bavidge (Murcar Links) (10), I Strachan (Royal Aberdeen) (12) 75.

SCORECARD FOR EDZELL: Par 71
OUT: 4-4-4-4-4-3-4-4-5--36. IN: 4-4-4-4-3-4-4-3-5--35.

GEORGE BRUCE 69
OUT: 4-5-4-4-4-4-3-3-5--36. IN: 3-4-4-4-4-3-3-3-5--33

ALASTAIR WEBSTER 70
OUT: 4-4-4-4-5-2-4-4-4--35. IN: 4-4-4-4-3-4-4-3-5--35

ADRIAN STYLES 71
OUT: 4-5-4-5-5-4-4-3-4--38. IN: 3-4-3-5-2-4-4-4-4--33.

CRAIG STEPHEN 72
OUT: 4-4-3-5-4-3-4-4-5--36. IN: 4-4-4-4-4-4-4-3-5--36.

MARK BARNARD 72
OUT: 4-4-4-4-4-3-4-4-5--36. IN: 5-4-3-4-3-4-4-4-5--36.