Gleneagles Scottish PGA Championship

75 - What a blooming

good show by

Heather MacRae!

Didn't she do well! Heather Macrae, probably under more pressure than in any other previous round in her whole golfing life, showed her class with a three-over-par round of 75 over the so-tough PGA Centenary Course at Gleneagles Hotel today.
Heather, the first female to play in the Gleneagles Scottish PGA championship since Meg Farquhar at Lossiemouth in 1933, might even now beat the halfway cut, which would be some performance for a rookie pro who was the British women's open amateur stroke-play champion at Nairn in 2005.
The 25-year-old Dunblane player, who is an assistant pro in training at Gullane, is lying joint 35th in the huge field of the great and the good on the Tartan Tour. The leading 50 and ties after 36 holes will qualify for the weekend's 36 holes.
If you miss the fairways at the PGA Centenary Course, you have a job finding your ball, let alone playing it, so Heather was not often in the long grass even though she had a dreadful start that would have demoralised someone of less moral fibre.
She bogeyed the second, double-bogey the par-5 second and dropped another shot at the sixth to be four over par on the seven tee. But that was the low point of her round. She turned in four-over-par 40 but she had put the wheels on her recovery by birdieing the eighth.
She did bogey the ninth, 13th and 14th but cancelled them out with birdies at the 11th, 15th and 17th in a admirable one-under-par inward half of 35.
When one considers that former Northern Open champion David Thomson, now the director of golf at Skibo Castle, took 85 blows and there were three "No Returns," Scottishgolfview has no hesitation in naming Heather MacRae "Player of the Day.
No doubt about who has the bragging rights in the MacRae household until further notice because brother Andrew, an assistant pro on the Gleneagles Hotel staff, returned an 84 to be joint 143rd at the end of the day.
Up at the sharp end of the tournament, four players are locked together in the lead at four-under-par 68 - Mark King (Kingsfield), Northern Open winner Craig Lee, former Walker Cup amateur Lindsay Mann, and one-time European Tour player Jonathan Lomas who now stays near Turnberry.
King had a magnificent start, birdieing the second, third, fourth, fifth and ninth to be out in 33, despite bogeys at the sixth and seventh. He cooled off a bit on the inward half but kept a bogey off his card for the second nine and had a birdie at the 16th.
Craig Lee birdied the second and the fourth but was back to square one when he had double bogey 6 at the fifth. But he did go on to get in the red and stay there with birdies at the seventh, 11th, 14th, 15th, 16th and 18th in halves of 35 and 33. He did have bogeys at the 10th and 13th.
Lindsay Mann came roaring home in 32 after putting his only bogey of the round - at the first - to the back of his mind with birdies at the eighth, 14th, 16th, 17th and 18th.
Lomas was another who had an awful start - a double bogey 6 at the first. But that was his only slip. He birdied the second and sixth to match the par of 36 to the turn and then motored home in 32, thanks to birdies at the 14th and 16th and then that rare bird at the 553yd 18th - an eagle 3.
ALL THE FIRST-ROUND SCORES

Par 72
68 M King (Kingsfield) 33-35, C Lee (unatt) 35-33, L Mann (Carnoustie) 36-32, J Lomas (unatt) 36-32.
69 R Cameron (McDonald Ellon), D Orr (East Renfrewshire), J McCreadie (Buchanan Castle), J Sharp (Carrick at Cameron House), S Herald (Mearns Castle).
70 T Buchanan (Duddingston).
71 L Harper (Archerfield Links), R Arnott (Bishopbriggs), P Mitchell (Hermitage), K Walker (Castle Park), G Niven (Stirling Univ), A Oldcorn (Kings Acre), S Gray (Hayston).
72 E Thomson (Senit Associates), C Gillies (Perry Golf), J McGhee (Turnhouse), M Kerr (Bathgate), C Nicoll (Prestwick), T Burgoyne (Gotastroms).
73 C Matheson (Falkirk Tryst), P Wilson (World of Golf), S Henderson (Kings Links), A Lockhart (Ladybank), G Lornie (Paul Lawrie Foundation), G Wright (West Linton), B Wallace (unatt).
74 E Davie (Dunblane New), S Cairns (Colville Park), F Mann (Musselburgh), H Kemp (Bishopbriggs), J McKinnon (Irvine), S Craig (Paragon), S Lamb (Broomieknowe).
75 F McLaughlan (Bothwell Castle), A Gibson (North Gailes), J Porteous (Craigielaw), M Bruce (Gullane), C Cameron (Hamilton), R Smith (Gleneagles Hotel) R Rafferty (unatt), P McKechnie (Braid Hills), N Fenwick (Dunbar), E Hogarth (Peebles), C Boyle (Lanark), D Patrick (Elie), Heather MacRae (Gullane) 40-35, D Park (Wishaw), P Wytrazek (Burntisland), A Cooper (Newmachar), G Fox (East Kilbride), J Stevenson (Braehead).
76 D Fleming (Prestwick), C Robinson (Dumfries & Galloway), S Duncan (Balbirnie Park), S McNally (Scottish Inst of Sport), G Law (Uphall), C Ronald (Carluke), I Taylor (Drumpellier), A Purdie (Kingsbarns), K Cam0pbell (Machrihanish), I Bratton (Newburgh-on-Ythan), P Lovie (P1 Corporate), G Hardy (Ayr Belleisle), B Leishman (Gleneagles Hotel), C Donaldson (C Donaldson Golf Academy).
77 C Elliott (Haggs Castle), C Smith (Royal Musselburgh), P rookes (Pitreavie), I Stoddart (Uphall), I Colquhoun (Dundonald Links), K Campbell (Balmore), D Broadfoot (Dumfries & Co), S Spence (unatt), M Barnard (Inchmarlo), A McDonald (Elie), A E Reid (West Linton), S Rettie (Glenbervie), M Loftus (Cowglen), K Hutton (Downfield), N Scott Smith (Palacerigg), G McInnes (Murcar Links), A Reid (unatt), S Morrison (Tain), A MacKenzie (Duddingston), G Forrester (St Andrews Golf School).
78 A Jowett (Gleneagles Hotel), M Finlayson (Edzell), N Murray (Cruden Bay), R Irvine (Douglas Park), C Mrris (Kingsknowe), S Reekie (Blairgowrie), S Morrison (Acushnet Europe), C Everett (Caldwell), D McKay (Wellsgreen), L Vannet (Carnoustie GL), K Lobban (K Lobban Golf), S Savage (Dalmuir), M Gillingham (Gleneagles Hotel).
79 G Dingwall (Royal Dornoch), D Watters (Gourock), G McFarlane (Clober), J Hedberg (Royal Aberdeen), R Gray (Prodream USA), N Colquhoun (Merchants of Edinburgh), S Taylor (Bothwell Castle), C Kelly (Cawder) K Baxter (Buchanan Castle), M Murray (unatt), A Love (Charleton), R Stewart (Cruden Bay).
80 M Rae (Alyth), P Malone (Braid Hills), S Gillespie (Burntisland), A Fullen (Largs), O Morton (Gullane), B Mason (Callaway Golf), P Wardell (Whitekirk), C Russell (RAW Golf Course Design).
81 Greig McSporran (Kinross), P Hubner (Eastwood), S Brown (Carnoustie GL), N Keast (Duff House Royal), J Kelly (Kames CC).
82 C Lawson (Blairgowrie), G Bruce (Westhill), R Fitzpatrick (Inchmarlo), C MacDonald (Peterculter), A Mackrell (East Kilbride), K Monaghan (Bothwell Castle), S O'Donnell (Balbirnie Park), J Smallwood (Fereneze), S Catlin (Greeburn), A Forrow (Whitecraigs).
83 R Gaden (Gleneagles Hotel), C Donelly (Balbornie Park), I Hanna (Strathclyde Park), J Ruth (Gary Mitchell Golf), David Ross Nicol (Dundonald Links).]
84 A MacRae (Gleneagles Hotel), G Boswell (Mearns Castle), H Wong (Wellsgreen).
85 D Thomson (Carnegie Club), I Graham (Crow Wood)
86 R Neill (Drumpellier), D Snodgrass (Hilton Park), M Lacey (Gleneagles Hotel), R Cartwright (Dunbar).
88 Peter McLachlan (West Kilbride), A Erskine (Ratho Park), D Knapp (North Gailes).
NRs Norman Huguet (Musselburgh), J Clive (Carrick at Loch Lomond), G Robertson (Lanark).
Retired C Cunningham (Westin Turnberry).