Three tie on 68 at Ballater in
North-east Alliance

By COLIN FARQUHARSON
Banchory assistant professional Stewart Davidson and two amateurs, John Nicolson (Auchmill) and Northern’s George Paterson, jointly headed a field of 102 for today’s North-east Golfers’ Alliance meeting at bright but cold Ballater.
They all hit the two-under-par 68 mark but had contrasting views in the clubhouse.
Davidson, a winner already this season at Kemnay on the autumn-winter-spring circuit, was the early clubhouse leader and he thought there was no way he would still be in the pole position at the end of the day.
“There are bound to be scores better than a 68,” he said in the early afternoon.
But late finishers Nicolson and Paterson could only match Davidson’s effort although they had the chance to finish ahead of him.
Davidson had cancelled out a double bogey 6 at the sixth with an eagle 2 at the 319yd 14th and was three under par for the last eight holes in coming home in 33.
Nicholson, out in 34, was four under par standing on the 16th tee. Pars at the last three holes would have given him outright victory by two strokes.
But he bogeyed the 16th and 18th to fall back into a tie on 68.
Paterson, who had eagle 3 at the 509yd seventh in reaching the turn in 32, an outward half matched only by Scotland boy cap David Law (Hazlehead), dropped shots at the 10th, 12th and 13th before collecting a hat-trick of birdie 3s from the 14th to the 16th.
Then George three-putted the short 17th for a bogey 4 and came home in 36 for his 68.
David Law, incidentally, three-putted the last from 15ft when one putt would have given him a winning 67, and two putts a share of first place on 68.
Thirteen greens were of the winter variety but that did not stop Murcar Links veteran from including only 24 putts in a 69 which earned him joint fourth place.
The clutch of players on the one-under-par mark included former Aberdeen Links champion Graeme Mitchell, now a Braemar Golf Club member with seven of a handicap.

LEADING SCRATCH
Par 70
68 S Davidson (Banchory), J Nicolson (Auchmill), G Paterson (Northern).
69 G Mitchell (Braemar), R L Nicoll (Murcar Links), F Bisset (Banchory), D Law (Hazlehead), D Garrett (Turriff), B Urquhart (Murcar Links), D Naylor (Banchory).
70 J Thomas (Craibstone), C Stephen (Meldrum House), G Bruce (Westhill).
71 A Nelson (Banchory), D Nelson (Aboyne), M Barnard (Inchmarlo), B Nicolson (Auchmill).
72 N Hardie (Kintore), C Nelson (MacKenzie Club), H Roulston (Stonehaven), C Law (Hazlehead), C Dempster (Inchmarlo), R Fitzpatrick (Inchmarlo), R McDonald (Inchmarlo).
73 J Dalgarno (Hazlehead), B Ritchie (Inverallochy), A Graham (Portlethen)..
74 I Craik (Portlethen), C Buchanan (Hazlehead), D Corkey (Murcar Links), I D Smith (Hazlehead), A J Smith (Turriff), S Lawrie (Portlethen), A Petrie (Oldmeldrum), R Bryant (Kemnay), S Elrick (Kemnay), N Williamson (Banchory), C Clark (MacKenzie Club).
75 A Campbell (Deeside), L Prouse (Hazlehead), D McKay (Caledonian), N Stewart (Northern), D Wilson (Duff House Royal), C S Davidson (Braemar), D Clark (Duff House Royal), C Alexander (Murcar Links), D S Leighton (Northern).
76 P Farnan (Royal Aberdeen), C Cassie (Nigg Bay), D Bisset (Banchory), J Murray (Banchory), G Homer (Lumphanan), R Hyland (Craibstone), B Bavidge (Murcar Links), S Scott (Auchmill).
77 J Duncan (Newburgh), S Cooper (Banchory), F G Gray (Newmachar), C Hood (Alford), J Mooney (Turriff), M Jenkins (Duff House Royal), A Grant (Portlethen), K Beverige (Aboyne).
78 P Anderson (Deeside), J M Hamilton (Murcar Links), J Kinsella (Braemar), M F R Rogers (Kemnay).
79 K Davidson (Turriff), N K Parker (Murcar Links), D Read (Banchory).
HANDICAP
Class 1 – G Mitchell (Braemar) (7) 62; N Hardie (Kintore) (8), R L Nicoll (Murcar Links) (5) 64; J Dalgarno (Hazlehead) (8) 65; C Buchanan (Hazlehead) (8), A Nelson (Banchory) (5), N Williamson (Banchory) (8), J Nicolson (Auchmill) (5) 66.
Class 2 – A Petrie (Oldmeldrum) (10), N Stewart (Northern) (11), M Rogers (Kemnay) (14) 64; G Homer (Lumphanan) (11) 65; B Bavidge (Murcar Links) (10), G Kelly (Peterculter) (14), R Lumsden (Northern) (18) 66.

LEADING SCORECARDS
BALLATER PAR IS 70: OUT: 5-4-3-4-3-4-5-4-3--35. IN: 4-5-4-3-4-4-4-3-4--35

STEWART DAVIDSON 68
OUT: 5-4-3-4-2-6-4-4-3--35. IN: 5-4-4--3-2-4-4-3-4--33
JOHN NICOLSON 68
OUT: 5-4-3-3-3-4-4-4-4--34. IN: 4-4-4-3-3-3-5-3-5--34
GEORGE PATERSON 68
OUT: 4-4--3-3-4-4-3-4-3--32. IN: 5-5-5-4-3-3-3-4-4--36
BOB NICOLL 69
OUT: 5-4-4-4-3-4-5-3-4--36. IN: 5-4-3-3-3-4-4-3-4--33
GRAEME MITCHELL 69
OUT: 4-5-3-5-3-4-5-4-4--37. IN: 3-5-4-3-3-4-4-3-3--32
DAVID LAW 69
OUT: 5-4-4-4-2-4-3-3-3--32. IN: 4-6-4-3-3-5-4-4-4--37.
FERGUS BISSET 69
OUT: 4-4-4-4-3-4-5-4-3--35. IN: 4-4-4-3-3-4-4-4-4--34
DON GARRETT 69
OUT: 5-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4--37. IN: 4-4-5-2-3--5-4-2-3--32
BILL URQUHART 69
OUT: 5-5-3-4-3-4-4-3-3--34. IN: 4-5-5-3-4-4-4-3-3--35
DAVID NAYLOR 69
OUT: 4-5-3-4-3-5-4-4--3--35. IN: 4-5-5-3-2-4-4-3-4-34

+Next Wednesday's meeting is at Edzell.