Corey Pavin will captain US in 2010
Ryder Cup match at Celtic Manor

Corey Pavin has been appointed captain of the United States team for the 2010 Ryder Cup match at Celtic Manor, Wales.
It is 15 years since Pavin featured in the Ryder Cup as a player. He was twice on winning teams in the three years he was selected.
The PGA of America decided not to give Paul Azinger the captaincy for the second consecutive time after the Americans, without Tiger Woods, ended a decade of losing to Europe with a 16 1/2-11 1/2 victory at Valhalla this year.
The Americans have not won in Europe since The Belfry in 1993.
In his heyday, Pavin won 15 times on the US PGA Tour, including the 1995 U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills.
A short hitter, he more than made up for that with a a short game par excellence.
He was an assistant to Tom Lehman in 2006 in Ireland, where Europe won by a record margin.
Pavin appeared to be the only logical choice for the 2010 match - a major champion in his late 40s with Ryder Cup experience.

Musselburgh's Gerry Wilson wins Allan Trophy
in East Alliance competition at Eyemouth

By KEITH LIDDLE
Secretary.eesga@btinternet.com
On a dry, very cold and windy day, 76 members braved the wonderfully challenging course at Eyemouth Golf Club. A big "well done" to everyone who ventured out for this Edinburgh & East of Scotland Alliance competition.
Overall winner of the M Allan Trophy was Gerry Wilson (Musselburgh) with a net 70 off a handicap of 12. Despite dropping two shots at the par-3 third hole, Gerry was out in a very steady 39.
The back nine proved to be a more difficult for him though, with pars hard to come by. He did manage to birdie holes 12 and 17 to be back in 43.
In the scratch section George Wither (Lothianburn) had a great round of two-over-par 74. Out in 34, one under par, George had birdies at the seventh and ninth holes and a bogey at the fifth.
He played the tougher back nine in 40 shots, three over par. Birdies at the 11th and 16th were cancelled out by bogeys at 12, 15 and 18.
George's only major problem, like many today, was at the 607yd, par-5 14th, where he took a 7.
In second equal place were David Patrick (Elie), Scott Catlin (Greenburn) and Mike Thomson (Torwoodlee) with 75.
In the handicap section, Gerry Wilson was three shots clear of Jimmy Rankeillor (Baberton) who returned a net 73.
David Graham (Lochend) was third with net 74. Sharing fourth spot were Ian Taylor (Royal Burgess), Alistair Robertson (Kingsknowe) and Peter Sewell (West Linton) all with net 75s.
Although the weather was a bit unkind, the welcome we got from Eyemouth Golf Club was, as always, very warm.
The next outing is the Invitation Greensomes for the Richardson and Brownlee Trophy to be played over the Braid Hills No.1 course, Edinburgh on December 17.
Harrison Golf Club have kindly allowed us the use of their clubhouse and will provide catering. Their clubhouse is located on the left hand side of the road, before you reach the entrance to the golf course.










--- On Wed, 10/12/08, Keith Liddle wrote:
From: Keith Liddle

Paul Lawrie to present junior prizes at Stonehaven

Paul Lawrie will be the guest of honour at Stonehaven Golf Club's junior prizegiving on Sunday afternoon.
Apart from presenting the prizes, Paul will hold a question-and-answer session in the clubhouse.
"Paul will be the first Open champion to visit Stonehaven Golf Club since James Braid in 1906," said club captain Harry Roulston.

+Scroll down to read NE Alliance member Gary Homer's view of the Cruden Bay "frost course. "

Colin Nelson's 63 at Cruden

Bay wins him NE Alliance

Hazlehead golf shop professional Colin Nelson (Mackenzie Club), at one time a prolific winner on the North-east Alliance circuit, turned the clock back with a one-under-par 63 over the composite winter course at Cruden Bay today.
Nelson, pictured right by Cal Carson Golf Agency, headed a field of 66, thanks to an eagle 2 at the seventh and birdies at the second, 11th and 17th. He also bogeyed the third, ninth, 10th and 15th in halves of 31 and 32.
He had a shot to spare from joint runners-up, Brian Nicolson and Steven Scott, both Auchmill members.
Nicolson had that rare golfing feat - a score of 29 for nine holes - with birdies at the first, fourth and sixth but he came back down to earth with a double bogey 5 at the 10th and further shots dropped at the 14th and 15th before birdieing the 17th in an inward half of 35.
Scott did not have a birdie in an outward 34 but he birdied the 11th, 13th and 16th before getting an eagle 2 at the 17th. A double bogey 5 at the short 14th and a further shot dropped at the 12th gave him an inward half of 30.
The North-east Alliance now has its mid-winter break. The next competition is at Craibstone Golf Centre on Wednesday, January 7.

Leading scratch (par 64)
63 C Nelson (Mackenzie Club).
64 B Nicolson (Auchmill), S Scott (Auchmill).
65 W S Urquhart (Murcar Links).
66 D McKay (Caledonian).
67 L Taylor (Auchmill), M Jenkins (Duff House Royal).
68 S Davidson (Banchory), J Roberts (Cruden Bay), D Clark (Duff House Royal).
69 W Main (Murcar Links), C Stephen (Meldrum House), R Cameron (McDonald Ellon), S Finnie (Caledonian), R McDonald (Inchmarlo).
70 P Anderson (Deeside), I Bratton (Newburgh) J Scott (Peterculter), R Pirie (Caledonian), J Mooney (Turriff).
Leading handicap
Class 1 - D McKay (Caledonian)( (7) 59; S Scott (Auchmill) (4) 60; B Nicholson (Auchmill) (2), J Roberts (Cruden Bay) (6) 62; L Taylor (Auchmill) (4), L Rogers (Royal Aberdeen) (8) 63.
Class 2 - J Scott (Peterculter) (12) 58; P Anderson (Deeside) (9) 61; G Moir (Auchmill) (13), N Parker (Murcar Links) (9) 62; D Randall (Banchory) (15), G Kelly (Peterculter) (14).

CRUDEN BAY FROST COURSE SCORECARD: Par 64
OUT: 4-4-3-4-4-3-4-3-3--32
IN: 3-4-4-4-3-3-3-4-4--32

COLIN NELSON - 63
OUT: 4-3-4-4-4-3-2-3-4--31
IN: 4-3-4-4-3-4-3-3-4--32

BRIAN NICOLSON - 64
OUT: 3-4-3-3-4-2-4-3-3--29
IN: 5-4-4- 4-4-4-3-3-4--35

STEVEN SCOTT - 64
OUT: 5-4-3-4-4-3-4-4-3--34
IN: 3-3-5-3-5-3-2-2-4--30

YOUR VIEW ... FROM GARY HOMER

What comes to mind is 5 iron-putter at Hazlehead pitch and putt ... which had better greens!
This was the Cruden Bay "frost course."
Where was the frost?
Every year it's like this at Cruden Bay.
Maybe it's time to drop it from the NE Alliance circuit and play where we are accommodated.
I'd like to wish everyone a MERRY XMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR.
All the best for 2009

AGREEMENT FROM ALAN NELSON
I totally agree with Gary Homer's comments. What makes the impression that Cruden Bay don't want the NE Alliance all the more obvious, is that whilst the Alliance played on a frost course, the Cruden Bay members were playing the nine-hole St Olaf course on normal tees and normal greens.

Golf fans throw their weight behind
Sandy for Ryder Cup captain campaign

An internet petition to have Sandy Lyle installed as Europe’s next Ryder Cup captain has been delivered to the European Tour after collecting over 2,000 signatures.
Launched by golf magazine ‘bunkered’, the biggest-selling golf title in Scotland, the ‘Select Our Sandy’ campaign attracted widespread support from Ryder Cup fans from all across the UK.
A total of 2,081 people signed the on-line petition lobbying for Lyle’s selection as the European captain for the 2010 Ryder Cup match at the Celtic Manor Resort in Wales.
Martin Dempster, Editor of "bunkered," personally delivered the petition to Ryder Cup spokesman Mitchell Platts as the European Tour’s Tournament Players' Committee prepare to meet next month to select a successor to previous captain Nick Faldo.
The petition was launched in the wake of Faldo’s European team losing 16½-11½ to the USA in September’s most recent staging of the biennial competition, the first loss for the Continent since 1999.
As the only one of Europe’s ‘Big Five’ of the 1980s not to have been given the captaincy so far – Faldo, Ian Woosnam, Bernhard Langer and Seve Ballesteros have all had a shot at the reins – Lyle is one of the front-runners for the 2010 job.
And the team at "bunkered" believe that he is more than deserving of the opportunity.
“No disrespect to any of the other names in the frame but this is probably Sandy’s last chance to be Europe’s Ryder Cup captain, and it would be a real kick-in-the-teeth to a true ambassador for European golf if he were to be denied this opportunity,” explained Dempster.
“The fact that we have received over 2,000 signatures for our petition in little over two months proves that there is enormous clamour amongst golf fans to see Sandy as captain in Wales.
“It is my hope that the European Tour take good notice of our petition when they come to making their decision and, in the meantime, I will have my fingers crossed that they make the right one by choosing Sandy.”

RUSSELL KNOX TRAILS IN FLORIDA

Russell Knox's opening round of one-under-par 71 left him in joint 38th position in a field of 132 at the end of the first day in the NGA Hooters Tour Winter Series event at Southern Dunes Golf & Country Club, Haines City in Florida.
The Inverness player, who is based at Jacksonville Beach, Florida, is six shots behind leader Matthew Harmon from Michigan with a 65.
Knox finished runner-up and earned $5,500 in last week's event, also after starting with a 71.
Irishman Sean McTernan from Sligo is in joint 29th place with a 70.
Edinburgh exile David Kilpatrick had a 73.

I have nothing in common with Sergio,
says Padraig Harrington

FROM THE GUARDIAN.CO.UK WEBSITE
By LAWRENCE DONEGAN
Rumours of antipathy between Europe's two best golfers, Padraig Harrington and Sergio García, have circulated for years but in an interview with the Guardian the Irishman has revealed the full extent of their estrangement, describing a relationship riven by professional rivalry and personal differences.
"We have zero in common, bar the fact that we both play golf. He is the antithesis of me, and I am the antithesis of him," said Harrington, who was this week named the European Tour's player of the year in recognition of his two major victories in 2008, at the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale and the US PGA Championship in Detroit.
The Irishman edged out García on the final green of the PGA and had also defeated the Spaniard in a play-off to win last year's Open at Carnoustie — an occasion remembered as much for the frostiness of their interaction as it was for the excellence of their golf.
At the time many observers believed their evident lack of personal warmth was a by-product of what was a fiercely contested tournament but Harrington conceded their antipathy was more deep-rooted.
"We play the game in exactly the opposite way. He is destined to find the long game easy and the short game hard, and I am the opposite," he said. "We're also competitors who for the last few years have been vying over who is the No1 golfer in Europe. I think in the hearts and minds of a lot of people García would have been No1, while I have been ranked No 1.
"As you can imagine, no quarter is given. It is not as if we have ever had a row or a run-in. I have had plenty of run-ins with people and we would still be friends but [with Garcia] it is just, well, we are just so much the opposite of each other."
Yet if Harrington was happy to concede that he and the Spaniard would never be close friends, he also insisted that relations improved during September's Ryder Cup, where the two players were members of the beaten European team.
"It was one of the few good things that came out of that week," he said.
The pair played practice rounds together at Valhalla and, after being teased by other team members about a photograph on the team room wall showing Harrington holing a crucial putt at the US PGA Championship, García conceded he had wanted to smash the club over the Irishman's head.

Surfing knee injury knocks Adam Scott
out of Australian Open next week

Austratlian Adam Scott today withdrew from the Australian Open after failing to recover from a knee injury he picked up in a surf accident last week.
Scott hurt his right kneecap while running out of the surf at Coolum beach, Queensland state, where he was forced to pull out of the Australian PGA championship.
"I didn't get enough time to recover," Scott said. "I have a tear in the ligament in my knee and that's flared up a fair bit. There's still some swelling, and I can't walk properly at the moment or extend my leg fully.
"It's not really the hitting that's the problem, it's the walking."
Scott said he'd injured the same knee six times in the past.
The 28-year-old Australian, whose world ranking has dropped from a career-high No. 3 to No. 16 with only two tournament wins this season, has struggled with injuries and illness.
Scott, yet to win any of Australia's three biggest tournaments, said he would have risked the injury if it was for one of the majors.
"I could hobble around this week, but it would set me back, and I wouldn't be able to start 2009," Scott said. "I'm trying to look at the big picture.
"It's disappointing I can't play, but as far as my knee's recovery, at least I can start 2009 (feeling) 100 percent."
Editor's Note:The only surfing British/Irish golfers get in the winter is on the Internet. No danger of injuring a knee doing that, unless you fall off your chair. Which is possible, I suppose, over the Festive period.