Sunday, April 05, 2009


They could be the brightest "Northern Lights" at Royal Aberdeen: David Law (Hazlehead) on left and Chris Robb (Inchmarlo) on right. Cal Carson Golf Agency images.

Scottish boys' "major" at Balgownie this week

NEWS RELEASE ISSUED BY THE SCOTTISH GOLF UNION
The SGU’s first major event of the season gets underway this week at one of Scotland’s oldest golfing gems, Royal Aberdeen Golf Club, which plays host to the Scottish Boys Championship which tees off today (Monday, April 6).
Attracting almost 300 entrants, the handicap ballot for this year’s event was set at 5.5 which compares with the balloted handicap of 6.6 when the club last hosted the tournament back in 2001.
The current Scottish boys' champion Michael Stewart is too old to contest his title this year, leaving a number of contenders ready to take on the challenge for the 2009 boys' crown.
Northern star David Law, runner-up to Stewart in the SGU Boys Order of Merit last year as well as losing out to him in the semi-finals at Southerness, is keen to make use of local knowledge to take his challenge further this year.
Commenting ahead of the tournament, Law, a boys' international player, said, “I can’t wait to get going. Royal Aberdeen is the type of course where you need to have a game plan. I have played it regularly with a number of members and taken a few tips from them.
“I will have played the course more than most in the field. However, I am mindful that this is match-play and you need to be on the top of your form each day, but I am feeling confident and am really looking forward to it.”
Fellow national squad member Paul Shields from Kirkhill, Scottish boys' finalist last year, is optimistic about taking his title hopes all the way this year, despite still recovering from a virus to which he succumbed during practice a few weeks ago.
Scottish schoolboys champion Chris Robb (Inchmarlo) is also among the tipped favourites after dominating the first Junior Tour event of the season last weekend, with the only sub par total in the field. The event, played at Kingsbarns, saw northern players claim four of the top six finishing positions demonstrating the strong early season form which should stand them in good stead next week.
Other hopefuls include former Under-16 and Under-14 stroke-play champions Ian Redford and Paul McPhee respectively, along with John Henry, who will have taken notes from elder brother Scott, winner of back-to-back titles in this championship in 2004 and 2005.
Hosted by Royal Aberdeen Golf Club for the third time in the championship’s 68-year history, the Walker Cup venue for 2011 will provide a challenge to Scotland’s best up and coming golfers. SGU Events Manager Euan Mordaunt, organising his 11th Scottish boys' tournament, said, “Royal Aberdeen’s championship course is probably one of the most testing of venues used on the Scottish boys' tournament circuit which should make for an exciting week ahead.”
For the duration of the tournament the Eisenhower Trophy won by Scotland at the World Amateur Team Championships last year will be on display alongside a replica of the Havemeyer Trophy, won by the club’s own Richie Ramsay at the US Amateur Championship in 2006. Mordaunt added, “The silverware on show at the club does not fail to impress and will hopefully provide our competitors with the drive and inspiration to follow in the footsteps of the successful Scots who won two of the most important trophies in amateur golf. “
Spectators are very welcome to come along and support Scotland’s rising stars in the week long event which concludes with a 36 hole final which will take place at 8.30am and 1.00pm on Saturday, April 11.
The competition attracted 292 entries for a starting field of 256. The ballot was made at 5.5 with 36 competitors on the reserve list.
Kate Weldon
Communications Manager
Scottish Golf Union

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Champion of Champions Glenn Campbell (Blairgowrie) receives the trophy from the smartly-attired Leven Golfing Society captain Gus Black. Philip McLean (Peterhead), beaten in a play-off, is on the right (Cal Carson Golf Agency image). You can enlarge the image by clicking on it.

Campbell beats McLean in play-off

for Champion of Champions' title

By COLIN FARQUHARSON
Although the last three-four seasons have not been without their successes for him, I think it's safe to say that former Scottish amateur champion Glenn Campbell was scoring his first big win since that 2005 match-play triumph at Southerness when he claimed the Scottish champion of champions’ tournament title in a dramatic post-7pm finish to the 72-hole event at Leven links this evening.
And it was the 36-year-old Campbell’s match-play tiger qualities that prevailed again.
Blairgowrie member Campbell, the head greenkeeper at Murrayshall, beat Peterhead’s 22-year-old Philip McLean, a protégé of Paul Lawrie, at the second hole of a sudden-death play-off after they had tied on five-under-par 279 over the par-71 lay-out.
Campbell, leader at halfway by two shots, still had that advantage over the field with one round to go but McLean was snapping at his heels throughout the final 18 holes.
Campbell finally cracked under the pressure when he bogeyed the very last hole with three putts downhill from about 30yd. He finished with a par-matching 71 for a five-under-par total of 279.
Two putts would have won him the title but McLean was already in the clubhouse on 279 after an impressive two-under-par 69, his second such round of the day. Impressive because although McLean is undoubtedly in my opinion a rising star, certainly in the amateur ranks, he has never really felt the heat, the pressure, call it what you will, with which anyone in contention to win a four-rounder at this level has to cope .
Scotland youth cap McLean, a full-time amateur and winner of the North-east Alliance championship last month, did not have a single bogey in his closing circuit, which underlines how well he responded to the personal challenge of being in the spotlight.
With nine holes to play he had earned himself a share of the lead with Campbell bogeying the sixth and McLean getting a 2 at the short fifth. But the experienced Blairgowrie campaigner spurted ahead again with birdies at the 10th and 12th.
McLean had also birdied the 12th but could not get another one down the home straight.
On the 18th, after an excellent approach shot, the Buchan player’s putt from 12 feet for a closing and vital birdie stayed above ground.
The first play-off hole was halved in 4 but McLean bogeyed the next – the short 15th – to lose out but his day will come, as Campbell predicted in his winner’s speech.
McLean actually lipped out with his birdie putt to finish it at the first extra hole. Both missed the green right at the short second extra hole, the 15th. McLean pitched to 7ft – and missed; Campbell pitched to 5ft and holed it for victory.
Scottish stroke play champion Wallace Booth finished third on 281 after a closing 70 which included birdies at the 10th, 12th, 13th and 14th, a purple patch which put him right in the picture, level with the pursuing McLean a five under par overall, one behind Campbell.
But Booth’s charge came off the rails with bogeys at the 15th and 17th.
WHAT THEY HAD TO SAY
Glenn Campbell: "I played very steadily on both days. That three-putt at the 72nd hole was my first of the tournament. I'm 36 but I don't think I can be considered a backnumber by beating a field of this standard in the first 72-hole event of the Scottish season.
"I have to think that I am playing better since I returned to being a full-time greenkeeper! They gave me six months off to concentrate on my golf after I won the Scottish amateur title at Southerness in 2005 and later we reached a compromise which meant I didn't work the hours I had previously worked as head greenkeeper at Murrayshall.
"But now I am back in full harness once again - by choice ... and I have to say that I prefer it this way. Working for a living suits me.
"A pity there has to be a loser in a play-off. Young Phil did well this weekend. His time will come, no doubt about it.
Philip McLean: "I'm not as disappointed at losing the play-off as I you might think. Like Glenn, I played well over Saturday and Sunday. I holed more putts over the third and fourth rounds than I did on Saturday and that made a difference.
"But, having won the North-east Alliance championship last month, and now come a close second in the first rounder of the Scottish season, I'm really looking forward to the rest of the campaign. I feel a lot more confident about where my game can take me.
"When you think that I was only first reserve to get a place in the field for the Champion of Champions with just a week or two to go, then it's worked out really well for me. I enjoyed it very much."

LIFE OF BRYAN (Fotheringham)
Bryan Fotheringham, the popular former Scotland cap from Forres, had the distinction of being the first-round leader with a six-under-par 65 in which he had a magical finish of six successive 3s. The par for the last six holes at Leven adds up to 24 shots. Bryan covered them in only 18 shots ... an eagle 3 at the 13th, a par-3 at the 15th and birdie 3s at the 14th, 16th, 17th and 18th.
"I had only 26 putts in the first round," said Bryan later. "But when I went out again on Saturday afternoon, the magic had gone. I needed 37 putts and scored a 78. But that's golf for you."
Things did not get better on Sunday for Bryan. He had another 78 in the third round a 75 in the fourth round, when he tried one of his spare putters.

FINAL ROUND SCORECARDS
Leven Links par:
OUT: 4-4-4-4-3-5-3-4-3--34. IN: 4-4-5-5-4-3-4-4-4--37

GLENN CAMPBELL: 71
OUT: 4-4-4-4-3-6-3-4-3--35. IN: 3-4-4-5-4-3-4-4-5--36
PHILIP McLEAN: 69
OUT: 4-4-4-4-2-5-3-4-3--33. IN: 4-4-4-5-4-3-4-4-4--36

PLAY-OFF (1st hole, par-4; 15th hole, par-3)
CAMPBELL: 4-3.
McLEAN: 4-4.

FINAL TOTALS
Par 284 (4 x 71). CSS 72 74 73 72
279 P McLean (Peterhead) 71 70 69 69, G Campbell (Blairgowrie) 68 69 71 71 (Campbell won sudden-death play-off at second extra hole).
281 W Booth (Comrie) 68 72 71 70.
282 P O’Hara (Colville Park) 73 70 70 69.
283 R Kellett (Colville Park) 70 69 73 71.
284 S Borrowman (Dollar) 73 73 68 70, K McNicoll (Carnoustie) 70 74 72 68
286 S Rennie (Drumpellier) 76 72 67 71, G Dear (Murrayshall) 71 74 72 69.
289 J Cairney (Irvine Ravenspark) 69 76 74 70, G Paterson (St Andrews New) 71 74 72 72.
290 P Betty (Hayston) 72 72 70 76.
291 G Yates (Hilton Park) 68 79 74 70, S Michie (Thornton) 71 75 73 72, S McEwan (Caprington) 71 73 72 75, M Main (Thornton) 71 73 77 70.
292 K Nicol (Fraserburgh) 73 78 71 70.
296 R Coull (Edzell) 70 80 73 73, M Bookless (Sandyhills) 75 74 71 76, S Armstrong (Turnhouse) 72 73 78 73, B Fotheringham (Forres) 65 78 78 75.
297 G Finlay (Ballumbie Castle) 71 73 76 77.
298 M Clark (Kilmacolm) 74 81 69 74.
299 C Checkley (Vale of Leven) 74 78 73 74.
300 A Dick (Kingsknowe) 76 78 74 72, S Stewart-Cation (Ladybank) 74 73 78 75.
301 S Wallace (Prestwick St Cuthbert) 74 75 76 76, R Carson (Dalmahoy) 72 76 76 77.
303 C Martin (Balbirnie Park) 77 77 77 72, G Bolton (Bute) 75 78 75 75, D Booth (Rotherham) 75 78 78 72, A Bews (Murcar Links) 75 75 74 79.
304 D Imrie (Thornton) 77 75 75 77, C Donaldson (Downfield) 77 77 74 76, S Graham (Blairgowrie) 69 81 82 72..
307 S Kennedy (Dumfries & Galloway) 76 80 77 74
308 J Donaldson (Falkirk Tryst) 71 83 72 82.
309 J Shanks (Irvine) 77 75 79 78.
311 G Robertson (Irvine Ravenspark) 80 81 74 76, L Pirie (Millport) 75 79 80 77
312 G McDougall (Bishopbriggs) 77 80 78 77, T McInally (Loudoun Gowf) 75 79 83 75.
315 G Lyons (Tulliallan) 80 79 78 78.
327 M Ishaq (Bonday) 87 86 73 81.

NR M Campbell (Renfrew) 74 79 79 NR.
Withdrew: C Hamilton (Ballochmyle) 74 81, A Ballantyne (Hawick) 75 84, R Stewart (Tulliallan) 75 82.

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GLENN CAMPBELL LEADS BY TWO FROM YOUNG McLEAN

FROM COLIN FARQUHARSON AT THE SCOTTISH
CHAMPION OF CHAMPIONS' TOURNAMENT
Blairgowrie's Glenn Campbell could "only" match the par of 71 in the
third round after earlier efforts of 68 and 69 had put him clear of the
field at the halfway stage of the Scottish champion of champions'
72-hole tournament at bright but breezy Leven links today.
But the former Scottish amateur match-play champion was able to
maintain a two-stroke lead over the quality field as his nearest
overnight rival, Ross Kellett (Colville Park) had a 73 for 212 which
dropped him to fourth place.
Campbell's 54-hole tally of five-under-par 208 was two shots ahead of
young Philip McLean, the Paul Lawrie protégé from Peterhead.
McLean was not even in the restricted field less than a couple of weeks
ago but one or two withdrawals have given him the chance to show what
he can do in this kind of company.
McLean, a Scotland youth cap, shot a 69 for 210 with birdies at the
dsthird, fourth, fifth 12th and 13th in halves of 33 (one under par)
and 36 o(one under par). His bogeys were a 6 at the long sixth, a 4 at
the short seventh and a 5 at the treacherous 18th, playing long into
the cooling wind.
Others who broke 70 in the Sunday morning round were past Scottish
youths champion Scott Borrowman from Dollar with a 67 for 214 and a
share of sixth place with Paul Betty (Hayston) who had a 72.
Borrowman birdied
the dfourth, sixth, 10th, 12th and 16th in halves of
32 and 36. He confined his bogeys to the last four holes, dropping
shots at the short 15th and the downwind par-4 17th.
Steven Rennie (Drumpellier) had the best third-round score of 67 which
lifted him up to eighth place on 215. Rennie made his round with an
outward half of three-under-par 31 which was highlighted with birdies
at the third, fourth and sixth. He got two more birdies after the
turn, at the 11th and 17th and had only one bogey, at the 14th.
Scottish stroke-play champion Wallace Booth from Comrie stayed in the
title hunt with a 71 for 211 and third place behind Campbell and McLean.
THIRD ROUND SCOREBOARD
Par 213 (3 x 71). CSS 72 74 73
208 Glenn Campbell 68 69 71.
210 Philip McLean 71 70 69.
211 Wallace Booth 68 72 71.
212 Ross Kellett 70 69 73.
213 Paul O'Hara 73 70 70.
214 Scott Borrowman 73 73 68, Paul Betty 72 72 70.
215 Steven Rennie76 72 67.
216 Steven McEwan 71 73 72, Keir McNicoll 70 74 72.
217 Gavin Dear 71 74 72, Greg Paterson 71 74 72.
219 Scott Michie 71 75 73, John Cairney 69 76 74.
220 Mark Bookless 75 74 71, George Finlay 71 73 76.
221 Gordon Yates 68 79 74, Michael Main 71 73 77, Bryan Fotheringham 65
78 78.
222 Kris Nicol 73 78 71.
223 Ross Coull 70 80 73, Steven Armstrong 72 73 78.
224 Matthew Clark 74 81 69, Anthony Bews 75 75 74, Robert Carson 72 76
76.
225 Craig Che
ckley74 78 73, Stephen Wallace 74 75 76
226 Jamie Donaldson 71 83 72.
227 David Imrie 77 75 75.
228 Allyn Dick 76 78 74, Campbell Donaldson 77 77 74, Graham Bolton 75
78 75.
231 John Shanks 77 75 79, David Booth 75 78 78, Colin Martin 77 77 77.
232 Stuart Graham 69 81 82, Michael Campbell 74 79 79.
233 Sean Kennedy 76 80 77.
234 Les P:irie 75 79 80.
235 Graeme McDougall 77 80 78, George Robertson 80 81 74.
237 Tommy McInally 75 79 83, Gordon Lyons 80 79 78.
246 Mikhail Ishaq 87 86 73.
Withdrew: Craig Hamilton 74 81 - , Alan Ballanbtyne 75 84, Bob Stewart
75 82.

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Glenn Campbell tops Champion


of Champions' halfway parade


Former Scottish champion Glenn Campbell from Blairgowrie leads the field by two strokes at the halfway stage of the opening 72-hole event of the domestic men's amateur season: the Champion of Champions' tournament, organised by the Leven Golfing Society.
Glenn, pictured right by Cal Carson Golf Agency, had rounds of 68 and 69 for a tally of 137.
Next comes Ross Kellett (Colville Park) on 139 with scores of 70 and 69.
FULL LIST AT THE END OF SATURDAY PLAY
137 Glenn Campbell 68 69.
139 Ross Kellett 70 69.
140 Wallace Booth 68 72.
141 Philip McLean 71 70.
143 Paul O'Hara 73 70, Bryan Fotheringham 65 68.
144 Paul betty 72 72, Michael Main 71 73, George Finlay 71 73, Steven McEwan 71 73, Keir McNicoll 70 74.
145 Steven Armstrong 72 73, Gavin Dear 71 74, Greg Paterson 71 74, John Cairney 69 76.
146 Scott Borrowman 73 73, Scott Michie 71 75.
147 Scott Stewart-Cation 74 73, Gordon Yates 78 79.
148 Steven Rennie 76 72, Robert Carson 72 76.
149 Mark Bookless 75 74, Stephen Wallace 74 75.
150 Anthony Bews 75 75, Ross Coull 70 80, Stuart Graham 69 81.
151 Kris Nicol 73 78.
152 David Imrie 77 75, John Shanks 77 75, Craig Checkley 74 78.
153 David Booth 75 78, Graham Bolton 75 78, Michael Campbell 74 79.
154 Colin Martin 77 77, Campbell Donaldson 77 77, Allyn Dick 76 78, Les Pirie 75 79, Tommy McInally 75 79, Jamie Donaldson 71 83.
155 Matthew Clark 74 81, Craig Hamilton 74 81.
156 Sean Kennedy 76 80.
157 Graeme McDougall 77 80, Bob Stewart 75 82.
159 Gordon Lyons 80 79, Alan Ballantyne 75 84.
161 George Robertson 80 81.
173 Mikhail Ishaq 87 86.
NEXT UPDATE AT THE END OF SUNDAY'S THIRD ROUND.

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