JAMES BYRNE TO PLAY IN NE ALLIANCE NEXT WEEK

By COLIN FARQUHARSON
British amateur championship beaten finalist James Byrne, home on holiday at Banchory from Arizona State University, is to play in next Wednesday's North-east Alliance competition at Newburgh on Ythan Golf Club, Aberdeenshire.

He will play in a threesome at the end of the field with fellow Scotland internationals Philip McLean (Peterhead) and Kris Nicol (Fraserburgh).

Byrne smashed the Newburgh course record with an 11-under-par round of 61 on his way to winning the 2008 North-east District Open by eight shots with an 11-under-par total of 277.
James' target for 2011 will be to win a place in the GB and I team to play the United States in the Walker Cup match at Royal Aberdeen GC in September.
Prospects are rated as "promising" for the resumpton of the 2010-11 NE Alliance season after its scheduled and also enforced midwinter break. The last competition before the bad weather arrived was at Edzell Golf Club on November 17.
+Craibstone Golf Centre was on the fixture list as the venue for January 5 but the NE Alliance's acting joint secretaries, Dave Wilson and Dave Mackay, decided that Newburgh's seaside links had a better chance of beating the weather and also the lay-out lends itself to a two-tee start, which Craibstone doesn't, an important factor when they are trying to get a field of 108 round 18 holes in something like only seven hours of daylight.
Craibstone will now stage the March 2 Alliance fixture which was scheduled for Newburgh.

+The North-east Alliance mobile phone (07801 819746) will be "live" between 10am and 4pm next Tuesday, should any competitors wish to cancel their reserved tee times and free them up for others who will otherwise not get a game.