Tuesday, December 08, 2009

Last Midland Alliance fixture of the year

Paul Jamieson wins at Charleton with three-under-par 68

By LEE SUTHERLAND
The Midland Golfers Alliance held their last meeting of the year before the mid-winter break at Charleton course on the south coast of Fife this week.
Perfect overhead conditions led to some great scoring. Leading the way in the scratch section was Dunblane New professional Paul Jamieson with a three under par score of 68.
There was a tie for first in the handicap section with Hugh Cowbourgh (Muckhart), playing off six, and Derek Thomson (Downfield), also a six-handicapper, returning net scores of 67.
LEADING SCRATCH
68 P Jamies (Dunblane New) p.
69 R Stewart (Tulliallan).
70 C Mathieson (Falkirk Tryst) ap, M Brown (Monifieth).
71 A Lockhart (Ladybank) ap, S O'Donnell (Balbirnie Park) ap).
72 S Graham (Letham Grange).
73 C Donnelly (Balbirnie Park) p, R Redpath (Scotscraig), H Cowborough (Muckhart), D Thomson (Downfield), M Fraser (The Duke's).
LEADING HANDICAP
67 H Cowborough (Muckhart) (6), D Thomson (Downfield) (6).
68 R Stewart (Tulliallan) (1).]
69 R Redpath (Scotscraig) (4), S Mitchell (St Andrews New) (12), J Crawford (Dunblane New) (6), D Black (Dunfermline) (12), C Westland (Alloa) (11), M Fraser (The Duke's) (4).
70 A Mason (Thornton) (7), I Wilson (Craigie Hill) (6), J Irwin (Muckhart) (8), J Meddicks (Murrayshall) (8), L Terras (Elie) (12).

Qualifiers for the JTC Interiors Express Championship in April at Montrose Links
S Graham (Letham Grange)
H Cowborough (Muckhart)
D. Thomson (Downfield)
M. Fraser (The Duke's)

Next Meeting is on Tuesday, January 19
at Drumoig.

Tee reserved: 8.30am - 12.15
+Members please note that the Lundin meeting is now full and a reserve list is in operation. Please phone Eddie to be added.

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Eyemouth and Portlethen playable for Alliance fixtures

Eyemouth golf course is playable for tomorrow's Edinburgh & East of Scotland Alliance.
So too is Portlethen for the additional North-east Alliance fixture tomorrow.
We'll have results from both venues on this website on Wednesday evening.

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Lee Westwood named The 2009 Race to

Dubai European Tour Golfer of the Year

NEWS RELEASE ISSUED BY EUROPEAN TOUR
Lee Westwood has been named The Race to Dubai European Tour Golfer of the Year following a momentous season which culminated in him being crowned Europe’s Number One golfer for the second time in his career.
The award comes at the end of a year in which he won twice – in the Portugal Masters and Dubai World Championship presented by: DP World – and became the inaugural winner of The Race to Dubai with record earnings of €4,237,762. In the process, he climbed to Number Four on the Official World Golf Ranking.
The 36 year old Englishman has been named The European Tour Golfer of the Year on two previous occasions, in 1998 and 2000, and joins Severiano Ballesteros, Ernie Els and Sir Nick Faldo as a three-time winner. European Ryder Cup Captain Colin Montgomerie is the only player to have won the award four times.
Westwood’s performance in the Dubai World Championship in particular was breathtaking in its brilliance. Westwood was trailing Rory McIlroy in The Race to Dubai heading into the final week of the season but knew that victory in the Dubai World Championship would make him unbeatable in the quest to be crowned European Tour Number One and once again hold the Harry Vardon Trophy.
For four days he put on a master-class and his final round of eight under par 64 over the Earth Course at Jumeirah Golf Estates will stand alongside some of the greatest performances ever witnessed on The European Tour as he hit every fairway, every green and holed every putt of consequence for a six-stroke victory, thus securing his 20th European Tour title.
His level of consistency, particularly over the second half of the season, was also something to behold as he recorded 11 top ten finishes from his 13 events after the US Open. His victory in the Portugal Masters, his first win in more than two years, was his 30th title worldwide and took him past Mark James and second only to Sir Nick Faldo in the list of England’s most prolific champions.
In addition to his two victories, Westwood also finished joint third in The Open Championship at Turnberry, where he was within a putt of making the play-off with Stewart Cink and Tom Watson, and finished in the same position in the US PGA Championship at Hazeltine National GC.
Westwood said: “It is a fantastic honour to win The European Tour Golfer of the Year and cap a wonderful season for me and all those who have helped me get to this position.
“I have won this award twice before but this probably means more to me in recognising how I have fought my way back to the top. When I last finished Number One in 2000 it was special as I won six events and the World Match Play that year. But to then drop completely into obscurity and come back from that, get back into the World’s top five and crown it all by winning the Dubai World Championship and the first Race to Dubai means a lot.
“It says a lot about my mental strength and about the team around me, and all the hard work and dedication they have put in, and the belief they have shown in me. It certainly helps having Billy Foster on the bag, a man I consider the best caddie in Europe, if not the world, while Steve McGregor, who I have worked with on my fitness for the past three years, and my coach, Pete Cowen, have all played a huge part on the course.
"And I’d also like to thank my manager Chubby Chandler, who I have been with for 16 years, and my family at home, who have been supportive through the good times and the bad times, and back through the good times. This award is as much for them as it is for me.”
European Tour Chief Executive George O’Grady said: “We congratulate Lee on a marvellous season and deservedly winning The Race to Dubai European Tour Golfer of the Year award. He has demonstrated a tremendous level of consistency this season, coupled with brilliant performances in the Portugal Masters and the Dubai World Championship. He is also an outstanding ambassador for The European Tour on the global stage.”
Westwood was voted The Race to Dubai European Tour Golfer of the Year by a panel comprising members of the Association of Golf Writers in addition to commentators from television and radio following a lively discussion during which a number of candidates were considered.

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'Forgotten man' Stephen Gallacher

can rejuvenate Scottish golf

FROM THE SCOTSMAN WEBSITE
By MARTIN DEMPSTER
Away from the Tiger Woods shenanigans – it's a miracle the man has been able to retain his status as the world No 1 if all these "personal sins" are to be believed – a significant development may have occurred in terms of Scottish golf having more to shout about on the European Tour in 2010 than we had in the season that's just finished.
David Drysdale certainly earned pass marks and so, too, did Richie Ramsay given that he managed to retain his Tour card in what was his first full season on the circuit. I also reckon Callum Macaulay can hold his head up, having come close to doing likewise even though he's still wet behind the ears when it comes to playing in the professional ranks.
As for the others, they won't need me to tell them that their tick went in the 'could do better' column, the likes of Paul Lawrie, Alastair Forsyth, Marc Warren and, in particular, Colin Montgomerie all having campaigns that offered little to get excited about as Scotland drew a blank on the European Tour for only the second time since 1986.
They'll hopefully come out with all guns blazing next season, but it's unlikely that any of the Scots will be looking forward to the 2010 campaign quite as much as Stephen Gallacher, pictured above, who could be described as our 'forgotten man' given that he hadn't been seen on the course in a competitive sense since the Barclays Scottish Open at Loch Lomond in the middle of July.
Spending time with Gallacher recently, it was refreshing to hear him talk about having developed a fresh attitude during the four months he was sidelined due to a debilitating viral illness.
Gallacher is one of the most talented golfers this country has ever spawned and, after winning the Dunhill Links in 2004, we were all expecting to see him kick on and, by now, have a Ryder Cup appearance under his belt. The fact his career has actually got into reverse since then is a major disappointment to Gallacher himself and the many people who are close to this likeable man.
Having had time to reflect recently, Gallacher has given himself a shake, the result of which is a player who has a new outlook and is ready to move on, leaving the things that have perhaps been holding him back in recent years firmly in the past.

Gallacher is too much of a gentleman to say what they were but I'm prepared to hazard a guess. I reckon some of the Scottish players have become a bit too cosy in their own company, the result being that, instead of being a spur to one another, they've all levelled out.
I think the time had come for them to break out on their own a bit more and it is interesting to note that Gallacher, after being attached to Stirling-based 110 Sport for a number of years, is now managed by an English-based company, GMI.
When I spoke with Gallacher, he was preparing for his competitive comeback in the European Tour Qualifying School, having heeded some excellent advice given to him by the European Tour to head there in the hope of securing one of the prized cards up for grabs even though he was guaranteed ten starts next season under a medical exemption.
In truth, I feared the six-round marathon would be a tall order for a player who hardly had the energy to play a practice round earlier in the year, yet the former Walker Cup player went to Girona and produced what, in my book at least, was one of the most remarkable performances of the season.
Breaking 70 in all but one of the rounds, he finished third, just behind English duo Simon Khan and Sam Hutsby, and, in doing so, brightened up a year that had proved extremely frustrating, perhaps even worrying, in one fell swoop.
From the moment he followed his uncle Bernard on to the golfing stage, Gallacher has been renowned among his peers as being one of the best ball strikers around. Heck, some of those mechanical Swedes wouldn't be able to tie his laces in terms of natural golfing ability.

Gallacher's main problem in recent seasons has been poor putting, something that is all the more frustrating given that he had a magical touch on and around the greens when he earned a place in the record books by becoming the first Scottish player to land national titles at boys, youths and men's level, the latter coming in 1992, when he beat David Kirkpatrick from North Berwick in the final at Glasgow Gailes.
Steven O'Hara, Andrew Coltart and Scott Drummond also passed the Qualifying School exam this time around, the three of them deserving credit, too, for the way they handled such a pressure-packed experience after finishing outside the top 115 on this year's money-list.
For my money, though, Gallacher is the man who can spark Scottish fortunes and, based on what I was hearing from him over a coffee, I was thinking that before he even went out to Spain. At 35, he can still have the best years of his career ahead of him.
With a number of things in the pipeline, these are exciting times for the Bathgate boy who now lives in Linlithgow and, with a bit of luck, he'll be back where he belongs before too long.

+Any comments? Is Martin Dempster correct in his forecast and his comments about Scottish pro golf? E-mail Colin@scottishgolfview.com

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