Sandy Lyle finishes joint 48th in US Seniors' event

Sandy Lyle strung together rounds of 78,70 and 71 to finish joint 48th on 219 in the weekend US Champions Tour event, the SAS Championship, at Cary, North Carolina. Lyle earned $7,140.
Former Ryder Cup captain Mark James was way back on 231 after three rounds of 77 for a share of 69th place. On the same mark was Lee Trevino - Yes, he's still playing competitively! James and Trevino earned $1,785 apiece.
Ross Cochran was the winner with scores of 64, 67 and 71 for 14-under-par 202. He finished two ahead of Tom Pernice, junior (65-71-68). Cochran wasn $315,000, Pernice $184,800.

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CARY, North Carolina (AP) -- Left hander Russ Cochran won his second straight Champions Tour title, shooting a 1-under 71 on Sunday for a two-stroke victory over Tom Pernice Jr. in the SAS Championship.
The 51-year-old Cochran, a winner for the first time on the 50-and-over tour two weeks ago in South Korea, became the third wire-to-wire winner in tournament history, finishing at 14 under on the Prestonwood Country Club course.
"I'm not used to a big lead, so I didn't know what to expect," said Cochran, who entered the final round with a four-stroke lead after shooting 64-67 the first two days. "I found out that you just need to play well regardless. It's not like I was ever a great winner. I'm still learning how to win right now."

Pernice, the 2009 winner, closed with a 68.

"All in all, I played well, and I had some chances," Pernice said. "But I was never able to put any heat on Russ. ... It was a totally new wind direction today, and it made a difference in the scoring."

John Cook (70) was third at 10 under, and Bernhard Langer (68), Mark Calcavecchia (69), Bobby Clampett (69) and Ted Schulz (72) followed at 9 under.

Cochran bogeyed two of the first three holes, then played the final 15 in 3 under -- birdieing Nos. 16 and 17 -- to take the $315,000 winner's cheque.

Pernice eagled the par-5 17th to pull within one, but Cochran's pulled away with his late birdies.

"That was a big birdie for me (on 16)," said Cochran, the left-hander who won the 1991 Western Open for his lone PGA Tour title. "That kept me up two shots."

Monty says he has not 'played

around' with 
Celtic Manor

FROM THE EUROPEAN TOUR WEBSITE
Colin Montgomerie today insisted he had "not played around" with the course at The Celtic Manor Resort to give his European team an advantage in this weekend's Ryder Cup.
As the home captain, Montgomerie was entitled to set up the course however he saw fit to suit the strengths of his players or negate those of their American opponents.

But the 47-year-old Scot instead insisted he had set the course up to allow the best team to win as Europe attempt to regain the trophy lost two years ago at Valhalla.

"On this occasion, I haven't played around with the golf course at all," Montgomerie said. "This golf course is set up in a very, very fair manner to allow the best team to win.

"I don't think it was right to set the course up in any other way than to what it's been designed for. It's a great, great golf course and it's in super condition."

Asked if the course was set up as for a standard European Tour event, Montgomerie added: "Hence to our advantage, if it is a European Tour set-up. I was hardly going to set up to a US Tour set-up.

"It is a very fair test of golf and something that our European Tour players will be used to in the pace of greens.

“The rough is graded very fairly. A good shot will be rewarded and a bad shot will be penalised and that I think is the game of golf and that is what it should be.

"We are due for some breeze over Friday, Saturday, Sunday I see, average of about 10 to 15 miles an hour, which I think the course set-up will favour. I think it's not too tough, and yet it's tough enough.

"I think sometimes you can get yourself in a muddle by thinking that this is going to favour one team, and then the wind direction changes or something happens and of course it favours the other.

"I feel the course is very fair. I'm very happy with the set-up."

In April this year it was revealed that £500,000 had been spent on alterations to the course - which only opened in 2008 - with many of the bunkers deepened, the rough made consistently thicker than it was for the Celtic Manor Wales Open and the greens firmer and less receptive to spin.

Speaking at the time, Jim McKenzie, Celtic Manor's director of golf courses, said: "All along Colin has insisted that he was not interested in gaining a home advantage.

"If Europe do regain the Ryder Cup he wants it to be because they have played the better golf and not because the course has been tricked up."

Asked if he was surprised by Montgomerie's decision, United States team captain Corey Pavin said: "I think what he was saying is you set it up to European Tour standards, and that's the advantage that he's describing.

"I think Colin needs to do what he thinks is best for the European team to have the best chance to win. That's his job as captain. I think that's what he feels he's done, and setting up the golf course fairly, in the way the European Tour sets it up, it is what he thinks best.

"I'm glad it's set up fairly because I think that's the way the matches are meant to be played, in fairness and in great sportsmanship, and I think that's what Colin is striving to do here."

Pepperell and Senior bound for Egypt

NEWS RELEASE ISSUED BY ENGLISH GOLF UNION
Two of England’s brightest young internationals will break new ground when they compete in the Egyptian amateur championship at Katameya Heights Golf and Tennis Resort Club in Cairo from September 30 to October 2.
Eddie Pepperell (Drayton Park) and Jack Senior (Heysham, Lancashire) will hope to extend their successful seasons by representing the English Golf Union (EGU) for the first time in the event.

Both were members of the England team that successfully defended the Home Internationals title in Wales in August, Senior making his debut at Ashburnham.

Pepperell is enjoying his best season with victories in the Welsh open stroke play and the Berkshire Trophy. He also helped England win the European men’s team championship in Sweden and represented GB and I against the Continent of Europe in the St Andrews Trophy.
Senior, currently sixth on the Titleist/FootJoy EGU Order of Merit, has also enjoyed 2010. He won the South of England Stroke Play and has seven top ten finishes to his name including the St Andrews Links Trophy, the Tillman Trophy and the Craigmillar Park Open.
The Egyptian amateur championship is played over 54 holes of stroke play, 18 holes per day.

RYDER CUP CAPTAINS LOWER THE

BOOM ON TWITTER THIS WEEK

Both teams have been banned by their captains from using Twitter and other social networking sites during the Ryder Cup.
Colin Montgomerie and Corey Pavin say there will be a blanket ban in place this week to keep players focused on the three-day competition, which begins on Friday at Celtic Manor.

Pavin says the U.S. team agreed not to use Twitter because "it can be a little bit distracting sometimes."

Montgomerie says "we feel that tweeting and Facebook and all of these social sites ... can get one's self into trouble."
Of the European Ryder Cup team members, Ian Poulter is best known for using Twitter.

Drumpellier Golf Club professional and Ryder Cup referee - IAN TAYLOR  (Image by courtesy of Jan Kruger of Getty Images).

 DRUMPELLIER PRO TO BE A RYDER CUP REFEREE

NEWS RELEASE ISSUED BY PGA
A Scottish PGA professional has admitted to sleepless nights – ahead of making his Ryder Cup refereeing debut this week.
Ian Taylor, who is a Fellow of the PGA and head pro at Drumpellier Golf Club in Coatbridge, will live out the dream in the bear pit that is the Ryder Cup after being chosen to be among the select band of referees that will provide key rulings that could make or break a match.
But the Lanarkshire pro will have the distinction of being the only part-time referee – with a full time job on the side – to be in the thick of the action inside the ropes when Europe’s big guns take on their American counterparts at Wales’ Celtic Manor resort from October 1-3.
Despite recently officiating at the USPGA Championship at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin last month, Taylor admitted the prospect of the Ryder Cup had been keeping him awake.
“If I’m honest – I’m really nervous,” said Taylor, who gave a one-time rookie but now US Open champion Graeme McDowell his first ever ruling on the European Tour.
“I’ve never woken up so many times doing rulings in my head in the middle of the night. It is taking up most of my thought processes on a daily basis.
“I’m aware that one of my rulings could swing a match. That’s where I hope that the training I’ve received over the last 11 years will stand me in good stead.
“This is a great opportunity. I would never have made a Ryder Cup team as a player but through refereeing I can be inside the ropes at a Ryder Cup and be involved at tournament golf at the highest level.”
Taylor’s selection as a Ryder Cup referee follows a decision by the PGA to introduce a PGA Rules Panel more than 10 years ago.
PGA head of golf operations Simon Higginbottom, who will also be officiating at the Ryder Cup – his second appearance, said: “Ian is at the forefront of the PGA Rules Panel and is more than capable of working on the rules at the highest level, along with his extensive work at national and European levels.
“His inclusion on the Ryder Cup Rules Committee shows that it is possible for PGA members to work at the very top of this part if the industry, as they do with so many other facets of the game.
“We hope that, along with Charles Dernie who served on Rules at The K Club in 2006, Ian will serve as an inspiration for more PGA members to join the PGA Rules Panel through the CPD programme and expand what is already a superb group of professionals.”

 

HUGH HUNTER'S CLACKMANNAN NEWS

TULLIALLAN MISS OUT


In the 2010 Scottish Club Championship final at Fortrose and Rosemarkie, Tulliallan Golf Club missed out on a place in the European final when they finished in eighth place in the 36 hole event--- best two scores from three to count---- with a score of 287 (Mark Crichton 69, 74; Steven Horne 74, 82; Gordon Lyons 74,70). Winning team was Carrickvale Golf Club with a team total of 277.


CALLUM STAYS IN TOUCH
Showing an improvement in golfing form, Tulliallan’s Callum Macaulay made his third cut in a row at the European Tour's Vivendi Championship in France last week.
Opening with rounds of 70 and 72, he showed some good form with a 67 in the third round, but three bogeys in the closing stages of his final round left him in 46 equal position - fourth best Scot. In the previous weeks he made the halfway cut in Kazakhstan and Moscow. Consistent form is eluding him at present, but hopefully it will reappear soon.


EYES ON THE RYDER CUP
Avid golf enthusiasts will be following three days of Ryder Cup action at Celtic Manor from Friday when a strong European team take on America. Older golfers in Clackmannanshire may remember the great honour that Norman Wood brought to Alva Golf Club when he was selected for the GB 1975 Ryder Cup team.which played in America against a strong USA team.
Although losing his foursomes and four ball events, he recorded a fine win against Lee Trevino by 2 and 1 in his singles.
Norman hit his first golf shots over Alva golf course in 1962, eventually taking up a golf professional post at Royal Guernsey Golf Club. The UK team lost heavily in 1975 and shortly afterwards the team selection was widened to include golfers from the continent of Europe.


TOP SCOTTISH LADIES EVENT AT ALLOA
It was a great honour for Alloa Golf Club to host the Adult/junior lady foursomes event on Sunday, organised by the Scottish Ladies Golfing Association.
The event was designed to encourage the development of Junior Ladies and it was well supported with 42 couples taking part - sadly none from Clackmannanshire - and the fine sunny weather was a good promotion for Schawpark.
The winning couple was father/daughter Colin Turner/ Caitlin Turner from Baberton/Swanston with a Stableford score of 38 points.