Better late than never for
Fraserburgh wind-
tamer Colin Nelson

By COLIN FARQUHARSON
Mackenzie Club professional Colin Nelson, pictured right, is usually an early starter in North-east Alliance competitions. Just for a change, at the windswept Broch today, Colin was at the rear end of the field, helping to guide his former Hazlehead boss Ian Smith - "I've forgotten my glasses again" - round the lay-out which had the front nine holes played in the following sequence:
1-2-3 .... unchanged.
Then the ninth and eighth.
Then the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh.
Holes 10 to 18 unchanged.
One or two competitors did mention to me that they thought it helped the flow of players round the course. But the inside story from Fraserburgh Golf Club is that it is a temporary winter measure to spread the wear and tear away from the areas which carry most "traffic" during the normal golf season.
I digress. Back to Colin Nelson.
Apparently the wind, again from the west, was not quite as bad as the previous Wednesday at Newburgh. That seems to be confirmed by the number of No returns dropping from 29 at Newburgh to less than a dozen at Fraserburgh.
But it was a cross wind and, make no mistake, it was easy to lose the plot out there, very difficult to score unless you were a good player.
And Colin Nelson, revelling in his late start, when the windy was no easier than it had been all day, simply played his “best golf for ages” in mastering the conditions to head the field of 90 with a two-under-par 68.
Nelson, last but one to finish, pipped the long-time clubhouse leaders, Peterhead amateur Philip McLean and McDonald Ellon professional Ross Cameron, with a two-under-par 68, which represented very good golf indeed in the testing conditions.
Nelson birdied the first two holes, from five and 20ft.
He dropped a shot at the fifth but got on in two at the long eighth and two-putted for a third birdie to be out in two-under 33.
Four rock-solid pars after the turn led to a birdie 2 at the short 14th - "Colin hit a superb tee shot to within 10ft and holed the putt," said Ian Smith - and after pars at the next three, Colin three-putted the last.
"Colin was hitting the ball very well in the wind. It was a very good performance," said Ian Smith who doesn't throw his praise about.
Philip McLean, who is showing impressive improvement this year, and Cameron, in the same threesome, had a battle royal which Cameron was winning until he bogeyed the last while McLean birdied it for a two-stroke swing in the amateur's favour, both men finishing on 69.
The pin position at the short 17th caused all sorts of problems with balls running back down the slope, etc.
But there's always somebody who shows it can be done ... father and son Archie and Graeme McInnes both had birdie 2s there! Graeme, incidentally, just coming back to golf after working in the demolition business through the winter to finance his tournament golf trips.
No truth in the rumour that he was hitting his wedges 200 yards with rippling muscles.
Leading scores (Par 70):
SCRATCH
68 C Nelson (MacKenzie Club).
69 R Cameron (McDonald Ellon), P McLean (Peterhead).
72 A Campbell (Deeside), C Stephen (Meldrum House).
73 R Fitzpatrick (Inchmarlo), A Styles (Caledonian).
74 A Bews (Murcar Links), G McInnes (Murcar Links).
75 C Buchanan (Hazlehead), J Nicolson (Auchmill), R McDonald (Inchmarlo).
76 C Cassie (Nigg Bay), M Jenkins (Duff House Royal), C Carnegie (Kemnay).
77 B Harper (Newburgh), A McInnes (Murcar Links).
78 N Reid (Deeside).
79 S Scott (Auchmill), J M Hamilton (Murcar Links), J Wilson (Deeside), D Wilson (Duff House Royal), A Grant (Portlethen), W S Urquhart (Murcar Links), I D Smith (Hazlehead).
80 R L Nicoll (Murcar Links), D H Clark (Duff House Royal).
81 A Rodger (Fraserburgh), D McKay (Caledonian), H Roulston (Stonehaven), G Bruce (Westhill), C Hood (Alford), C Alexander (Murcar Links).
82 F Bisset (Banchory), N Chisholm (Kemnay), D Read (Banchory), B Shaw (Banchory)..
83 W Bavidge (Murcar Links).
84 P Farnan (Royal Aberdeen), D MacKay (Newmachar), F G Gray (Deeside), A Graham (Portlethen).
85 W Forbes (Murcar Links), J Jessiman (Oldmeldrum)..

HANDICAP
Class 1 – B Harper (Newburgh) (6), P McLean (Peterhead) (+2) 71; J Nicolson (Auchmill) (3), A McInnes (Murcar Links) (5) 72; A Campbell (Deeside) (+1), D McKay (Caledonian) (8), J H Hamilton (Murcar Links) (6), C Carnegie (Kemnay) (3), A Grant (Portlethen) (6), A Styles (Caledonian) (scr), I D Smith (Hazlehead) (6) 73.

Class 2 – C Buchanan (Hazlehead) (9) 66; C Cassie (Nigg Bay) (9) 67; J Wilson (Deeside) (10) 69; J Jessiman (Oldmeldrum) (14) 71; M Brown (Craibstone) (17), N Chisholm (Kemnay) (10) 72.; W Forbes (Murcar Links) (12), M F R Rogers (Kemnay) (13), W Bavidge (Murcar Links) (10) 73; W D Rae (Kemnay) (13), D Randall (Banchory) (15) 74.

FRASERBURGH SCORECARD ON THE DAY
OUT: 4-4-4-4-4-4-3-5-3--35. IN: 4-4-4-4-3--5-4-3-4--35

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

PHILIP McLEAN 69
OUT: 4-4-5-4-4-4-2-5-3--35. IN: 4-3-3-5-4-5-4-3-3--34.

ROSS CAMERON 69
OUT: 5-3-3-4-5-4-3-4-3--34. IN: 4-3-4-3-3-6-4-3-5--35.

ANDREW CAMPBELL 72
OUT: 5-3-4-3-4-5--3-4-5--36. IN: 3-4-3-4-4-5-4-5-4--36.

CRAIG STEPHEN 72
OUT: 3-3-4-4-5-4-3-5-3--34. IN: 3-4-5-4-4-4-4-5-5--38

++The 36-hole North-east Alliance championship has its first round at Duff House next Wednesday (March 12) with the second and final round at Cruden Bay on March 19.