GRAHAM GORDON COMEBACK STARTS

WITH NE ALLIANCE WIN AT KEMNAY

By COLIN FARQUHARSON

Colin@scottishgolfview.com
Former Scottish amateur champion Graham Gordon has set out on the comeback trail by winning the first North-east Alliance competition of the 2009-2010 season at Kemnay Golf Club today.
After playing in two events early in the year on the PGA EuroPro Tour and Challenge Tour, Gordon was so incapacitated by illness that he could hardly walk. Now, the former Walker Cup player and Newmachar member is going to get back into the card-and-pencil routine by playing on the Alliance circuit until the satellite tours restart next year.
Gordon headed a field of 80 at Kemnay with a one-over-par 72, highlighted by and eagle 3 at the 488yd 11th and birdies at the eighth and ninth in halves of 36 He would have got under par but for bogeys at the 16th and 18th.
The current Scottish amateur title-holder David Law (Hazlehead) needed only a par 3 at the last hole for a 71 which would have been a winning score. Unfortunately, he ran up a quadruple bogey 7, bizarrely landing in the same bunker TWICE as he criss-crossed the green in a comedy of errors.
Gordon won by a shot from Inchmarlo Golf Centre staff professional Ryan Fitzpatrick and Huntly amateur Stewart Pert. Fitzpatrick will be rueing an inward half of 39 after leading the field with 34 to the turn. Ryan had 6s at the 11th (bogey) and 13th (double bogey) and a 5 at the 16th.

+Apologies for the "old" picture of Graham Gordon above. We're on the case to get a more uptodate one!

QUALITY FIELDS

+Today's field included the 2009 Scottish boys' match-play champion (David Law), the 2009 Scottish men's amateur champion (David Law), the 2009 Scottish seniors match-play champion and Order of Merit winner (George Paterson), the 2009 Aberdeen Links champion (George Paterson), the 2003 Scottish men's amateur champion (Graham Gordon) and a 2003 Walker Cup player (Graham Gordon).

WHERE HAVE ALL THE PROS GONE?

+What the field did not have was anything like the number of professionals and assistant professionals who used to support the North-east Alliance week in, week out back the days when Chapper Thomson, Major Bill Graham and even when Bill Crichton was secretary. Where have they all gone? We'll come back to the subject, but if you have any ideas on how secretary Ron Menzies can persuade the pros to play, E-mail them to me at Colin@scottishgolfview.com

LEADING SCRATCH SCORES
Par 71
72 G Gordon (unatt).
73 R Fitzpatrick (Inchmarlo), S Pert (Huntly).
74 A Campbell (Deeside), B Harper (Newburgh), S Finnie (Caledonian).
75 C Nelson (MacKenzie Club), D Law (Hazlehead).
76 B Brooks (Meldrum House), I Bratton (Newburgh), P McIntosh (Bon Accord), D Leighton (Northern).
77 G H Paterson (Northern), M Jenkins (Duff House Royal).
78 J Duncan (Newburgh), C Carnegie (Kemnay), D Nelson (Aboyne).
79 D Corkey (Murcar Links), S Chalmers (Banchory), I Taylor (Stonehaven), B Nicolson (Auchmill)
80 S Sharp ( Newburgh ), C Stewart (Kippie Lodge), N Chisholm (Kemnay), I D Smith (Hazlehead), J Murray (Banchory), C Alexander (Murcar Links), C Robb (Inchmarlo)..
81 J Borthwick (Craibstone), C Trahan (Murcar Links).

82 J M Hamilton (Murcar Links), N Parker (Murcar Links).]

83 C Cassie (Nigg Bay), J Dalgarno (Hazlehead), R Morrison (Murcar Links), D Wilson (Duff House Royal), T Collie (Kemnay).

LEADING HANDICAP SCORES
Class 1 – B Harper (Newburgh) (6) 68; D Leighton (Northern) (6) 70; S Pert (Huntly) (2) 71; P McIntosh (Bon Accord) (4), J Murray (Banchory) (8) 72; J Duncan (Newburgh) (5), J Borthwick (Craibstone) (8), I D Smith (Hazlehead) (7), N Parker (Murcar Links) (9), D Nelson (Aboyne) (5) 73.
Class 2 – N Chisholm (Kemnay) (9) 71; M Ord (Royal Aberdeen ) (12) 72; N Pareker (Mucar Links) (9) 73; J Dalgarno (Hazlehead) (9), T Collie (Kemnay) (9) 74; R Allison (Deeside) (15), P Anderson (Deeside) (10), D Lawrie (Inchmarlo) (13), D Randall (Banchory) (15) 76.

KEMNAY PAR 71 SCORECARD
OUT: 4-5-3-4-4-3-4-5-4: 36 IN: 3-5-4-4-3-5-4-4-3: 35

BEST CARDS

GRAHAM GORDON 72
OUT: 4-6-4-4-4-3-4-4-3: 36. IN: 3-3-5-4-3-5-5-4-4: 36

RYAN FITZPATRICK 73
OUT: 3-5-3-4-3-3-4-5-4: 34. IN: 3-6-4-6-3-5-5-4-3: 39.

STEWART PERT 73

OUT: 4-6-3-3-4-4-5-5-4: 38. IN: 3-5-5-3-3-5-4-4-3: 35.

ANDREW CAMPBELL 74

OUT: 4-5-3-4-5-2-5-5-4: 37. IN: 3-5-5-4-3-6-4-4-3: 37.

BRIAN HARPER 74

OUT: 4-4-3-3-5-2-5-5-4: 35. IN: 3-5-5-4-4-6-4-5-3: 39.

DAVID LAW 75

OUT: 3-5-3-4-4-4-5-4-4: 36. IN: 4-5-3-4-3-6-3-4-7: 39

Next Wednesday's competition is at Huntly.