LATE DRAMA AT HUNTLY IN NE ALLIANCE

Last man-in Stewart Pert ties with

long-time leader David Law on 67

By COLIN FARQUHARSON
Colin@scottishgolfview.com
Last man to finish in a field of 80, local player Stewart Pert, claimed a share of victory with long-time clubhouse leader , double Scottish champion David Law (Hazlehead) in today’s North-east Golfers’ Alliance competition at Huntly.
Law’s par-equalling round of 67 over the 5,359yd course, playing a shot or two more difficult in the windy conditions made him the clubhouse leader for a couple of hours.
A gusting wind made club selection difficult and it took a player of the class of the national boys’ and men’s title-holder to get round with two birdies (10th and 15th ), only two bogeys (three putts at both the eighth and 11th) and 14 pars in halves of 34 and 33.
“It was quite tricky out there with the strength of the wind varying, depending where you were on the course. The longest putt I holed all day was 12ft for a birdie at the 11th and from the same distance to save par at the last,” said Law (pictured above by Cal Carson Golf Agency), whose other birdie followed a gap wedge approach to within 6ft of the flagstick at the 15th.
He had two three-putt bogeys, at the eighth and 11th in halves of 34 and 33.
Two-handicapper Pert, home in two-under-par 32, shook off a double bogey 6 at the fourth with some brilliant putting.
“I holed a 40-footer from off the green at the first and had only nine putts on the outward half. I think I had only 22 in all,” he said. “But I missed a birdie putt from about 5ft on the last and, although I did not know it at the time, I would have been the winner if that putt had dropped.”
Jim Emslie (Royal Aberdeen), playing in the Alliance for the first time, shared third place on 68 with Murcar Link's North-east District team player - so too is David Law! - Anthony Bews.

Emslie had halves of 34 with only three deviations from par. He bogeyed the first, a birdie at the 11th and a bogey at the 16th.
Bews, too, was out in 32 with 2s at the second and sixth.
His first shot dropped at the ninth saw him out in 32 and a birdies at the 1oth and 12th with a second bogey 5 sandwiched between at the 11th, meant he was two under par with six holes to play.
Had Bews parred in from there, he would have won by two shots with a 65. Instead he bogeyed the 13th, 14th and 16th for 36 home and a 68.
"I thought a score in the low 60s must be leading in the clubhouse and I have to admit I was 'messing about' over the last few holes. I could kick myself now because I threw away my chance of winning," said a rueful Anthony.
Incidentally Bews and his Murcar Links clubmate, Kyle Nelson, who finished with a 72, were playing their SECOND 18 holes of the day! They had competed in the Murcar Links Wednesday medal in the morning, then rushed out to Huntly for a tee-time just after 1pm.
Play in the North-east Alliance can be a bit slow at time so it's incredible that former Links champion Stewart Finnie (Caledonian) and his partner were able to gallop round in just over two and a half hours in the middle of the field. Stewart had a 75.
Clark Alexander (Murcar Links) raised his hopes of repeating a one and only Alliance win (East Aberdeenshire in 2007), when he reached the turn in 32. But for Clark it really was a game of two halves .... he came home in 40 for a 72.

LEADING TOTALS
Par 67
SCRATCH
67 D Law (Hazlehead), S Pert (Huntly).
68 J Emslie (Royal Aberdeen), A Bews (Murcar Links).
69 G Taylor (Meldrum House).
70 C Carnegie (Kemnay).
71 B Brooks (Meldrum House), J Duncan (Newburgh), G Gordon (unatt), C Nelson (MacKenzie Club), R Stewart (Cruden Bay), K Beveridge (Aboyne), T Spencer (Inchmarlo), C Robb (Inchmarlo).
72 A Campbell (Deeside), L Morgan (Kemnay), C Alexander (Murcar Links), K Nelson (Murcar Links).
73 J Dalgarno (Hazlehead), J Nicolson (Auchmill), S Chalmers (Banchory), G H Paterson (Northern).
74 S Higgins (Royal Aberdeen ), C S Davidson (Braemar).
75 D Clark (Duff House Royal), B Nicolson (Auchmill), N Chisholm (Kemnay), P McIntosh (Bon Accord), C Stewart (Kippie Lodge), J Mooney (Kingscliff Solutions), K Lumsden (Craibstone), S Finnie (Caledonian).
76 B Harper (Newburgh), F G Gray (Newmachar), M Booth (Kemnay).
77 C Cassie (Nigg Bay), T Collie (Kemnay), J Forbes (Aboyne).
78 J Borthwick (Craibstone), P Anderson (Deeside), N Murray (Cruden Bay), J Turner (Kemnay), D Nelson (Aboyne).
79 A J Smith (Turriff), J B D Smith (Cruden Bay), R Morrison (Murcar Links), J Murray (Banchory), L Fowler (Royal Aberdeen), R Bruce (Aboyne).
80 S Kennedy (Craibstone), S Innes (Murcar Links).
81 D Wilson (Duff House Royal), C Graham (Kemnay).

HANDICAP
Class 1 – J Dalgarno (Hazlehead) (8), S Pert (Huntly) (2) 65; J Duncan (Newbugh) (5), C Carnegie (Kemnay) (4), C Alexander (Murcar Links) (6) 66; L Morgan (Kemnay) (4), K Lumsden (Craibstone) (7) 68; D Law (Hazlehead) (+2), T Collie (Kemnay) (8), C S Davidson (Braemar) (5), T Spencer (Inchmarlo) (2), S Alison (Caledonian) (8), K Nelson (Murcar Links) (3) 69; B Harper (Newburgh) (5), J Borthwick (Craibtone) (8), F G Gray (Newmachar) (6), J Turner (Kemnay) (8), A Bews (Murcar Links) (+2) 70.
Class 2 – S Higgins (Royal Aberdeen ) (11) 63; M Booth (Kemnay) (12) 64; N Chisholm (Kemnay) (9) 66; S Kennedy (Craibstone) (13) 67; P Anderson (Deeside) (10) 68; S Davidson (Northern) (14) 71; J Jessiman (Oldmeldrum) (15), R Brown (Craibstone) (12), J Wilson (Deeside) (11), P Cornfield (Auchmill) (13) 72; N Stewart (Northern) (12) , G Ikelly (Peterculter) (14) 73; H McNaughton (Cruden Bay) (11), D Bisset (Banchory) (10), J Penny (Huntly) (13) 74.

HUNTLY SCORECARD. 5,359yd par 67
OUT: 4-3-3-4-4-3-4-4-4-33. IN: 4-4-4-4-3-4-4-3-4-34

TODAY'S BEST SCORECARDS

DAVID LAW 67
OUT: 4-3-3-4-4-3-4-5-4-34. IN: 3-5-4-4-3-3-4-3-4-33.
STEWART PERT 67
OUT: 4-3-3-6-4-2-5-4-4-35. IN: 4-4-3-3-3-5-3-3-4-32
ANTHONY BEWS 68
OUT: 4-2-3-4-4-2-4-4-5-32. IN: 3-5-3-5-4-4-5-3-4-36
JIM EMSLIE 68
OUT: 5-3-3-4-4-3-4-4-4-34. IN: 4-3-4-4-3-4-5-3-4-34
GLEN TAYLOR 69
OUT: 4-2-3-5-4-3-3-4-5-33. IN: 4-3-4-4-5-4-4-3-5-36

NEXT WEDNESDAY'S NE ALLIANCE COMPETITION IS AT McDONALD ELLON.