Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Opportunity Knox? Not for Russell in
first round of US Qualifying Stage 2

Inverness-born Russell Knox, who has prospered on the NGA Hooters Tour in America since he played four years on the American college circuit as a Jacksonville University student, has made a bad start in pursuit of his dream of making it through to the US PGA Tour.
In the Stage 2 Qualifying event today (Wednesday) at Hombre Golf Club, Panama City Beach, Florida, Knox had a four-over-par round of 76 which left him trailing in joint 67th position in a field of 77.
Only the leading 20 and ties after four rounds advance to the Final Q School.
Knox had a crippling triple bogey 7 at the eighth and a dreadful finish of bogeys at the 12th, 14th and 16th after earlier shots dropped at the fourth and sixth holes.
Only birdies at the long opening hole, the short seventh and the long 10th were reminders that Knox has been one of the leading money-winners on the Hooters Tour, one of the main secondary pro tours in America.
Edinburgh exile David Kirkpatrick, based at Lakeland, Florida for a number of years, did better with a one-under-par 71 to be lying joint 22nd. He recovered well from a double bogey 6 at the sixth. His other dropped shots were at the third and eighth.
Kirkpatrick, who played for Scotland as an amateur in the 1990s, birdied the long first hole, the short seventh, the 12th and 16th.
David Skinns from Lincoln, another big success on the Hooters Touor, also had a 71.
Sam Osborne from England had a 73 to be sharing 42nd place.
Jointly leading the field on seven-under-par 65 were two Americans, Stephen Poole and Tom Gillis.
Aberdeen-born Michael Sim, brought up in Australia, had a four-birdie 71 to be tied for eighth place in the Stage 2 event at Kingswood, Texas. Richardson Johnson leads with a 65.
Sim bogeyed the second, fifth and 11th but birdied the seventh, 10th, 12th and 15th.

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No driver so Poulter pulls out of
Barclays Singapore Open

Ian Poulter has announced his withdrawal from the Barclays Singapore Open after failing to get a replacement driver in time for the tee-off of the Asian Tour event.
The Englishman had his driver stolen during the HSBC Champions in Shanghai last week and would not have received a replacement before the end of the second round on Friday evening. As a result, Poulter opted not to play in the $5million event, the richest national open in Asia.
"I am really gutted. I have been thinking about it for four hours and I have decided to withdraw because my new driver will not arrive on time," said Poulter.
"It is disappointing because I did not come all this way not to play. But with so many world ranking points at stake, if I played badly I may have lost ground," he added.
Tournament organisers announced Anirban Lahiri of India will take Poulter's place in the field.

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Sam Torrance becomes million Euro
man on European Seniors Tour

Sam Torrance’s victory in the season-ending OKI Castellón Open España – Senior Tour Championship saw the Scot become the ninth player to pass the €1million mark in official career earnings on the European Senior Tour.
Europe’s 2002 Ryder Cup-winning Captain’s €64,433 first prize took his Senior Tour career earnings to €1,059,609 in 64 tournaments since he reached the age of 50 and became eligible and moved him to seventh on the all-time money list, leapfrogging Seiji Ebihara and Terry Gale who also passed the milestone this season.
The trio have joined an exclusive group of players to have achieved the feat so far, with Tommy Horton the first, followed by Noel Ratcliffe, Carl Mason, Nick Job, Jim Rhodes and Denis O’Sullivan.
Torrance, who is slowly recovering from a hand injury that has troubled him for two years, has now targeted more tournament victories and another prize money milestone.
“I’m looking at €2million now - €1million is nice but I want €2million. I’m greedy,” said the Scot. “It’s great to pass the mark though. It’s been great to win again – it’s been a while.”
Torrance’s two-stroke victory at Club de Campo del Mediterráneo was his first since July 2007 when he won the Bendinat London Senior Masters and it also saw him reach another milestone – double figures for Senior Tour titles.
The 55-year-old Ayrshire man’s 10th victory also continued a run of winning each year since his first full Senior Tour season in 2004. He won the Senior Tour Order of Merit crown in both 2005 and 2006, following a fine European Tour career that saw him earn €5,491,084 in prize money.
American Jerry Bruner is in pole position to become the tenth player to pass the €1million mark when the new season begins, after his tied eighth place in Spain took his earnings to €998,782. Torrance’s compatriot Bill Longmuir is next in line with €989,776.
Newly crowned Order of Merit winner Ian Woosnam has made a magnificent start to his Senior Tour career, earning €320,120 in his rookie season, while three-time winner Peter Mitchell amassed €217,488 in just ten events.

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Inverness Fairways Target Golf Leagues

Week 5
MONDAY LEAGUE ROUND-UP
At the midway point of the Monday League it is now looking very much like a three-horse race. The Loch Ness Juniors maintained their place at the top on shots scored with a convincing win over their counterparts Matthew MacPherson.
Just behind them are the Neverwillbees and BM Trucks. The latter securing their 2 points courtesy of having the bye but the former took their win over Trilight by the closest possible margin of just one shot.
Both teams had the same number of scoring balls but the Neverwillbees sneaked it with their mix of balls in the higher scoring target. These results leave Matthew MacPherson on the bottom 2 points behind Trilight who themselves are 4 points behind the leading trio. There are still 5 games left to play and the teams have all to play each other once more so there is still plenty time for the table to turn itself around.

Trilight 28 – 29 The Neverwillbees;.
Matthew MacPherson 31 – 66 Loch Ness Juniors.
BM Trucks (Bye) 17.

TUESDAY LEAGUE ROUND-UP
There was a decisive move at the top of the Tuesday league that could have decided the fate of the title. Both the Luckless Leadbetters and Fairways were unbeaten this season so far and faced up to each other. Fairways played well and their score of 52 has won many a game of Target Golf but they hadn’t accounted for the mercurial form of the Leadbetters who compiled the season highest score of 119.
This puts the Leadbetters 2 points clear at the top with just 2 games left. Fairways stay in second place 2 points ahead of the Coastguards who had a shock defeat at the hands of Pat’s Pet’s whose score of 79 came out of nowhere considering their previous best was 12!! Pat’s Pet’s now have the opportunity to avoid the wooden spoon as they join Tag Team, who lost to Fairhurst Fore, on 2 points.
With Muirton Marvels seeing of The Sainties both these teams are tied with Fairhurst on 4 points barely out of the battle for the spoon.

Pat’s Pets 79 – 34 Coastguards.
The Sainties 23 – 44 Muirton Marvels.
Tag Team 16 – 47 Fairhurst.
Luckless Leadbetters 119 – 52 Fairways.

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Policeman Brian beats field of 100

to win NE Alliance at Turriff

Inverallochy policeman Brian Ritchie headed a field of 100 with a fine round of four-under-par 66 at today's North-east Golfers' Alliance competition over a rain-saturated Turriff course.
Several forward tees were used because of the conditions but that does not detract from Ritchie's spectacular start in which he birdied five of the first six holes and reached the turn in five-under-par 31.
Bogeys at the 10th and 11th took some of the wind out of his sails but the two-handicapper parred the next six holes before finishing with his sixth birdie of the day, a 3 at the 18th, for 35 home and a two-stroke victory.
McDonald Ellon tour pro Ross Cameron and senior amateur George Paterson (Northern) shared second place on 68. Cameron had six birdies and four bogeys, Paterson three birdies, including two 2s, and only one bogey.
62 was the lowest net score of the day, achieved by seven-handicapper John Roberts, the Cruden Bay GC caterer, making a welcome comeback to the Alliance fold, in Class 1 and Tom Collie (Kemnay), off 11 in Class 2.

LEADING SCRATCH
Par 70
66 B Ritchie (Inverallochy).
68 R Cameron (McDonald Ellon), G Paterson (Northern).
69 B Brooks (Meldrum House), C Trahan (Murcar Links), J Roberts (Cruden Bay), P McLean (Peterhead), D Clark (Duff House Royal), M Jenkins (Duff House Royal).
70 R Stewart (Cruden Bay), S Davidson (Banchory), S Finnie (Caledonian), B Urquhart (Murcar Links), R McDonald (Inchmarlo).
71 I Bratton (Newburgh), B Nicolson (Auchmill), J Mooney (Turriff).
72 A Campbell (Deeside), S Scott (Auchmill), C Robb (Inchmarlo).
73 D Corkey (Murcar Links), N Reid (Deeside), T Collie (Kemnay), F Bisset (Banchory).
74 J Borthwick (Craibstone), L Taylor (Auchmill), C Clark (Mackenzie Club).
75 N Hardie (Kintore), J Duncan (Newburgh), D Law (Hazlehead), D MacKay (Newmachar), K Beveridge (Aboyne), I Gordon (Aboyne).
76 L Roger (Royal Aberdeen), K Minty (Turriff), J Thomas (Craibstone), D MacAndrew (Royal Aberdeen), N Parker (Murcar Links).
77 C Alexander (Murcar Links), C Duffus (Kemnay).
78 P Farnan (Royal Aberdeen), D Wood (Newburgh).
79 F Barclay (Kintore), P Anderson (Deeside), B McPherson (Northern), N Stewart (Northern), D Wilson (Duff House Royal), C Hood (Alford), S Elrick (Kemnay), J Kinsella (Braemar), D Nelson (Aboyne), J Murray (Banchory).
LEADING HANDICAP
Class 1
- J Roberts (Cruden Bay) (6) 62; B Ritchie (Inverallochy) (2), J Borthwick (Craibstone) (8) 66; N Hardie (Kintore) (8) 67; G H Paterson (Northern) (scr), D Clark (Duff House Royal ) (1), M Jenkins (Duff House Royal ) (1), S Scott (Auchmill) (4), D MacKay (Newmachar) (1), L Roger (Royal Aberdeen) (8) 68.
Class 2 - T Collie (Kemnay) (11), 62; D Wood (Newburgh) (12), B Sinclair (Caledonian) (14), D Lawrie (Inchmarlo) (14) 66; K Minty (Turriff) (9), N Parker (Murcar Links) (9) 67; S Kennedy (Craibstone) (12), P Cornfield (Auchmill) (12), I Strachan (Royal Aberdeen) (12), J Jessiman (Oldmeldrum) (15), J Jones (Craibstone) (17) 68.

TURRIFF PAR 70
OUT: 4-4-4-3-4-5-4-4-4--36. IN: 3-4-5-4-4-3-4-3-4--34

BRIAN RITCHIE 66 (-4)
OUT: 3-4-3-2-3-4-4-4-4--31. IN: 4-5-5-4-4-3-4-3-3--35

GEORGE PATERSON 68 (-2)
OUT: 4-4-4-2-4-5-4-5-4--36. IN: 2-3-5-4-4-3-4-3-4--32

ROSS CAMERON 68 (-2)
OUT: 3-4-4-4-3-5-5-3-4--35. IN: 4-4-5-3-5-3-3-2-4--33

JOHN ROBERTS 69 (-1)
OUT: 3-4-4-2-5-5-4-4-4--35. IN: 3-4-4-4-5-4-3-3-4--34

PHILIP McLEAN 69 (-1)
OUT: 4-4-4-3-4-4-5-4-4--36. IN: 3-4-4-3-4-3-4-3-5--33

DUNCAN CLARK 69 (-1)
OUT: 3-4-5-3-3-6-4-4-4--36. IN: 4-3-5-5-4-3-3-3-3--33

MIKE JENKINS 69 (-1)
OUT: 4-5-4-3-4-4-4-4-5--37. IN: 3-4-5-4-4-3-3-2-4--32

BARRY BROOKS 69 (-1)
OUT: 4-4-4-3-4-4-4-5-4--36. IN: 3-4-4-4-5-3-4-3-3--33

CALLUM TRAHAN 69 (-1)
OUT: 4-4-3-3-3-5-4-4-4--34. IN: 4-4-5-3-6-3-3-3-4--35

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Three awards for The Castle Course at St Andrews

The Castle Course in St Andrews has received three prestigious international awards in its inaugural season.
The course has been recognised by Travel & Leisure Golf magazine in America as the New Course of the Year. It was also named International Development of the Year by Golf Inc magazine in America pipping the Els Club in Dubai to the title.
In August, the course was recognised by the Institute of Groundsmanship, the British and International Golf Greenkeepers Association (BIGGA) and some leading turfcare journalists as the 2008 Turf Professional Project of the Year.
The Castle Course opened for play on 28 June and after only a few months was included in the authoritative Golf World Top 100 rankings, an impressive achievement for a new golf course.
By 31 October when it closed down for the winter, 14,000 rounds had been played on The Castle Course and bookings have already been coming in for its first full season from April 1 to October 31 next year.
As the seventh course at the Home of Golf, The Castle Course has attracted a great deal of media interest from around the world since the project started and an international naming competition for the course was held through the St Andrews Links website www.standrews.org.uk.
Alan McGregor, general manager of the Trust, said, “For a new golf course to receive this level of recognition at such an early stage is quite remarkable. When we began working with the architects David Kidd and Paul Kimber we knew we were going to create a special course but I don’t think anyone realised just how dramatic and eye-catching it was going to be.
“It has been a successful first half-season with many golfers from near and far playing the course. We have received a large amount of positive feedback and, it is fair to say, some questions about the challenging nature of the course. We had always anticipated making some changes as the course matures and we will be working on it over the winter. But overall we are absolutely delighted with how the course is progressing and we are looking forward to next season.”
The Castle Course sits on a spectacular clifftop location overlooking the ancient town of St Andrews. It has been designed as a links-like course with undulating fairways and landforms and crisp, sandy lies. Over the winter some of the mounds in the fairways will be cut back and reduced and some adjustments will be made to the green surrounds on a few holes.
As well as adding to the golf offering in St Andrews, The Castle Course has brought economic benefits to the town creating jobs for 40 people across the greenkeeping, reception, retail and food and beverage departments and helping to encourage visitors to stay longer and play more golf.
Tee times for The Castle Course from 1 April to 31 October, 2009 can be booked by contacting 0044 1334 466666 or emailing reservations@standrews.org.uk.

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