EARLY BIRD NELSON WINS N E
ALLIANCE AT PORTLETHEN
WITH A SIX-BIRDIE 68

MacKenzie Club professional Colin Nelson may be enduring short-putt problems – he missed one from a foot – but the rest of his game was in tip-top shape as he headed a field of 92 at today's North-east Alliance meeting at Portlethen Golf Club.
Nelson, pictured right, first away from the 10th in a two-tee start, made the most of missing the really heavy rain that set in around lunchtime. He finished with a four-under-par 68, thanks to birdies at the 12th, 18th, second, fourth, fifth and sixth. He had bogeys at the 16th and ninth.
Nelson had a shot to spare at the finish from two amateurs, Billy Main (Murcar Links), who also started early, and senior George Paterson (Northern) who was one of the last to finish and therefore played extremely well to coax a 69 out of very wet conditions.
“I drove the ball just about as well as I can,” said George who did well on the inaugural Scottish seniors circuit this year.
Scratch man Paterson birdied the second, sixth, seventh and 18th and dropped only one shot, at the 10th.
Main, a very consistent one-handicapper, birdied the third, fourth, fifth, ninth and 11th. He had bogeys at the first and 13th.
The two-tee start seemed to work well in getting everyone round in daylight but it did not eradicate the chronic slow-play problem.
Meldrum House +2 amateur Craig Stephen, a winner twice already this Alliance season, was one of many who had No Returns although the bulk of them were due to the rain.
“It was just too slow for me,” said Stephen.
Next Wednesday's Alliance competition at Cruden Bay is the last until January 9 at Craibstone Golf Centre.

+There was considerable praise for the Portlethen course, despite the atrociously wet conditions endured by most of the field of 92. Patrick Lovie, the Inchmarlo Golf Centre head professional, summed it up: "Portlethen is maturing into an outstanding course. It's also getting tougher to score over. The head greenkeeper has introduced some definition between the fairways and the rough and narrowed some of them. In short, the course is looking good and will only get better."

LEADING SCRATCH SCORES
Par 72
68 C Nelson (MacKenzie Club).
69 W Main (Murcar Links), G H Paterson (Northern).
71 G Esson (Portlethen), S Davidson (Banchory), D Garrett (Huntly).
73 A Campbell (Deeside), P Lovie (Inchmarlo), A K Pirie (Hazlehead), S Pert (Huntly), D Corkey (Murcar Links), R McDonald (Inchmarlo), J Nicolson (Auchmill).
74 F Bisset (Banchory), J Mooney (Turriff), A Bews (Murcar Links), G Bruce (Westhill).
75 G Forbes (Murcar Links).
76 S Finnie (Caledonian).
77 A Doig (Caledonian).
78 J Dalgarno (Hazlehead). R Fitzpatrick (Inchmarlo), J M Hamilton (Murcar Links), F G Gray (Deeside), J Murray (Banchory).
79 D Christie (Portlethen), D Read (Banchory). D Wilson (Duff House Royal).
80 N Hardie (Kintore), R L Nicoll (Murcar Links), W S Urquhart (Murcar Links).

81 C Carnegie, G Green (Huntly), C Hood (Alford), M Jenkins (Duff House Royual), D Leighton (Murcar Links).]

82 S Scott (Auchmill), H Roulston (Stonehaven).

83 S Garden (Hazlehead), D McKay (Caledonian), B Shaw (Banchory).

84 D Bisset (Banchory), N Parker (Murcar Links).

85 L Roger (Royal Aberdeen), J Forrest (Northern), B Bavidge (Murcar Links).

LEADING HANDICAP
Class 1
W Main (Murcar Links) (1) 68; G H Paterson (Northern) (scr) 69; J Murray (Banchory) (6). J Nicolson (Auchmill) (3) 70; D Garrett (Huntly), J Dalgarno (Hazlehead) (7), A K Pirie (Hazlehead) (2), S Pert (Huntly) (2), D Corkey (Murcar Links) (2) 71; N Hardie (Kintore) (8), J M Hamilton (Murcar Links) (6) 72; G Esson (Portlethen) (+2), F Bisset (1), C Hood (Alford) (8) 73; A Campbell (Deeside) (+1), F G Gray (Deeside) (4), R L Nicoll (Murcar Links) (6), D Wilson (Duff House Royal) (5) 74.
Class 2
S Garden (Hazlehead) (9) 74; D Moir (Murcar Links) (13), D Bisset (Banchory) (9), M Brown (Craibstone) (17), B Bavidge (Murcar Links) (10) 75; P Vaid (Westhill) (15), J Forrest (Northern) (9) 76; G Leslie (Newburgh) (10), N Chisholm (Kemnay) (10), A Dent (McDonald Ellon) (16), G Kelly (Portlethen) (13) , B Lumsden (Northern) (13) 77; W D Rae (Kemnay) (13) 78; W Forbes (Murcar Links) (12), G Homer (Lumphanan ) (12), R Brown (Craibstone) (13) 79.

PORTLETHEN SCORECARD: PAR 72
OUT: 4-5-4--5-3-4-4-3-4--36. IN: 3-4-3-5-4-4-4-4-5--36.

COLIN NELSON 68
OUT: 4-4-4-4-2-3-4-3-5--33. IN: 4-4-2-5-4-4-5-3-4--35.

BILLY MAIN 69
OUT: 5-5-3-4-2-4-4-3-3--33. IN: 3-3-3-6-4-4-4-4-5--36.

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

GARY ESSON 71
OUT: 4-5-3-5-2-4-5-3-4--35. IN: 3-4-4-5-4-5-4-3-4--36.

DON GARRETT 71
OUT: 4-5-3-5-3-4-4-3-5--36. IN: 4-4-2-6-4-5-3-3-4--35.

STEWART DAVIDSON 71
OUT: 4-5-4-5-3-4-4-3-4--36. IN: 3-4-3-5-4-5-3-4-4--35