Clackmannan round-up

Stirlingshire beat Wee County
at soggy Kilsyth Lennox

By HUGH HUNTER
With a 70 year history, the annual golf match against Stirlingshire took place over the recently extended Kilsyth Lennox course. The wet ground conditions proved very testing for golf shot making, and Stirling emerged winners by 8 ½ to 5 ½. With many call-offs, the match was reduced to 9 a side with the morning games comprising four foursomes and one single, and the afternoon play being nine singles. Out of the 14 matches on the day no fewer than nine went to the last hole a testing downhill 210 yd par three.
The morning matches went Stirling’s way with a two match lead. Although after 6 holes it was advantage Clackmannanshire, which slipped away on the inward nine. Best performance came from the number one pair of Jamie Aitken and Scott Moffat – 1 down after three holes they quickly squared the match and held on to the last hole where Jamie holed a good three foot putt to take the match.
The only other success came from the Alloa duo of Phil Dempsey and David Milloy with a salvaged half thanks to a fine tee shot at the last to 12 ft by Dempsey.
In the afternoon singles, Jamie Aitken once more did the business with a one hole win, and so making him the Clackmannan player of the day with two wins. Scott Moffat fought back and overcame a two hole deficit to square his game.
A birdie blitz against Steven McIvor pulled him back to a halved game David Milloy was never troubled in his match and the comeback of the day had to be Craig O’Connor who won the last three holes against the local green keeper to snatch victory.

MATCH RESULTS
MORNING (Clackmannan names first)
1. Mark Inglis (Dollar) lost to Liam McLean (Kilsyth Lennox) 3 and 2.
2. Scott Moffat (Braehead) & Jamie Aitken (Alloa) beat Steven Aitken & George McNairney (both Falkirk Tryst) 1 hole
3. Steven McIvor (Alva) & Darren Hulston (Dollar) lost to James Donaldson & Fraser Moore (both Falkirk Tryst) 2/1
4. Phil Dempsey & David Milloy (both Alloa) halved with Lindsay Blair (Grangemouth) & Robin Craw (Falkirk Tryst)
5. Craig O’Connor (Dollar) & John Maxwell (Tulliallan) lost to Alan Brown & Gary Motherwell (both Kilsyth Lennox) 2 holes.

AFTERNOON
Stirling 5 Clackmannan 4
1. J Aitken beat S Aitken 1 hole
2. Moffat halved with Donaldson
3. McIvor halved with Moore
4. Hulston lost to Blair 1 hole
5. Milloy beat McLean 6/4
6. McNairney beat Inglis 8/7
7. Dempsey lost to Craw 1 hole
8. Maxwell lost to Motherwell 2/1
9. O’Connor beat Brown 1 hole

SCOTTISH BOYS GOLF CHAMPIONSHIP
Four Wee County Junior golfers (the best entry for many years) made the long trip to Southerness to compete for the National title. In their first time appearance in the event, they acquitted themselves well even although they were all gone by the second round.
Grant Dowie (Alloa) had the honour of playing in the first match and recorded the first win in the 2008 event when he defeated Craig McCravey (Cawder) by 4/3. With two birdies in the outward nine holes, Grant established a 2 hole lead increasing to 3 with a birdie at the 11th and then closing out the match on the 15th green.
He could not sustain the form and lost the next day to Alan Bruce in the second round.
John McPherson (Braehead and Lawrence Allan (Alva) found their opponents in good form and both went down by 3/2, although it has to be said that the putting surfaces were not kind to John.
Lawrence (who has another possible five years in the event) went behind to Stewart Beattie (St Andrews) on the outward nine and could never get back on level terms.
Dollar’s Gary Chalmers took his first round tie against Gordon Nelson (Thornhill) by 2/1 but came up against a low handicap player in the second round eventually losing 3/2.
Better luck next time, boys!

MACAULAY PLAYS NO. 1 IN SPAIN
It was another first for Wee County Golf when Callum Macaulay (Tulliallan) led the Scotland team in a two day friendly international match in Spain. Playing in the number one position is not easy, and Callum found himself with two losses on the first day of play.
This must have motivated him as he turned this around on Day 2 with one win and a halved match against strong Spanish opposition. Callum played his foursomes games with Wallace Booth (Comrie) and at the end of the month they are both off to Valderrama to represent Europe in the Michael Bonallack Trophy match against an Asia Pacific team.
In the friendly two day match, Spain narrowly defeated Scotland by 12 ½ to 11 ½.

SCOTT AT THE TOP AGAIN!
While Callum Macaulay was in Spain helping Scotland win a team trophy, Scott Borrowman (Dollar) was achieving his own success in the Royal and Ancient Bursars tournament.
This event brings together the golfers who are supported by the R & A for a stroke play competition over St Andrews.
With rounds of 71, 70 and 70, Scott tied with Italian Federico Columbo from Milan, and was declared winner of the event on a count back over the last nine holes.
As well as a trophy, Scott can look forward to a place in the Palmer Cup team which is a match between students from Europe and America. This year it will be played at Glasgow Gailes in Ayrshire.

AMATEUR WORLD RANKINGS
The success of Macaulay and Borrowman is reflected in the recent Royal and Ancient World Amateur Rankings. After being in the thirties rankings for some time, Callum has moved strongly upwards into 22nd position, no fewer than 45 places above nearest Scottish rival Wallace Booth, and leader of the three Scots in the top 100 amateurs.
Scott is a bit further back, but is up 84 places to 408 in the world. With more counting events coming up shortly (including the prestigious Lytham Trophy) there will be plenty of opportunities to improve these rankings

AND FINALLY
Scott Moffat (Braehead) set off to the Scottish Golf Show at Ingliston recently to try to achieve a hat trick of wins in the Long Driving competition, only to discover that there was no sign of the event.
Rumour has it that the contenders saw him coming and persuaded the organisers to hide the equipment!!