PRESTONFIELD'S WILLIE LAING WINS WITH NET
67 AT ROYAL MUSSELBURGH ALLIANCE

By DUNCAN IRELAND
Secretary, Edinburgh & East of Scotland Alliance.
A total of 89 players today for a very pleasant but very windy day at Royal Musselburgh Golf Club.
There was also a total of 29 No Returns - a third of the entire field, which shows how tough the conditions were and everyone who returned a score managed to get some points towards the Scratch Order of Merit.
Once again, we were magnificently looked after by John Henderson and his team and everyone commented on how good the greens were throughout the course, even those that couldn't putt - Andrew "Chalky" White even managed to four-putt!!!
Congratulations goes to the winner of the Bootland Trophy - Willie Laing from Prestonfield. His net 67 just managed to pip Gordon Law, David Patrick, Ewan Hogarth and Harry Cartmill (who is off to speak to the European Parliament tomorrow - but not, I'm reliably informed, about Willie Laing's handicap!) by one shot.
As you'll see, the scores were very tight with only two shots separating the first eight handicap scores.
Over on the scratch side of things, we had a three-way tie for first place between, Gordon Law, David Patrick and Ewan Hogarth. They all managed 68s, one better than Andrew Erskine and amateur Kevin Connachan.
We move on to West Linton in a fortnight and I hope as many of you as possible manage along to support our long overdue return there. It should be a great day.
TODAY'S LEADING RETURNS
BOOTLAND TROPHY - Royal Musselburgh
Overall Winner: W Laing (Prestonfield) (6) 67
SCRATCH
68 G Law (Uphall), D Patrick (Mortonhall), E Hogarth (Peebles) (£80 each).
69 A Erskine (Rahto Park), K Connachan (Royal Musselburgh) (£30 each).
HANDICAP
Prizes in vouchers
67 W Laing (Prestonfield) (6) (£100).
68 H Cartmill (Bathgate) (6) (£80).
69 J T Anderson (Kingsknowe) (8), D Jeffrey (Whitekirk) (6), P Ritchie (Bathgate) (9), P Sewell (West Linton) (8), W Smith (Harburn) (10) (£28 each).
Trainee professional
70 S Lamb (Broomieknowe) (£20).