SGU ELITE TRIO FINISH 1-2-3 IN NE ALLIANCE AT BUCKPOOL

By COLIN FARQUHARSON
Scotland Elite squad members Kris Nicol and Jordan Findlay from Fraserburgh and Hazlehead’s David Law showed their international class by finishing 1-2-3 in today’s North-east Alliance competition in springlike conditions at Buckpool Golf Club.
By common consent, Buckpool, year in, year out, offers the best winter playing conditions of any venue visited by the NE Alliance.
The trio – who all have +4 ratings - fly out to South Africa on Tuesday for an eight-week warm-up for the new season, courtesy of the Scottish Golf Union.
Nicol, pictured, headed a field of 87 at Buckpool with a brilliant round of five-under-par 65, covering the last 11 holes in seven under par, including an inward half of 29 (six under par).
He had made a slow start with bogeys at the first, fourth and sixth and turned in one-over 36 but he finished with one eagle (at the 11th), and six birdies (at the third, eighth, 11th, 16th, 17th and 18th. What a finish!
Scottish Alliance champion Findlay also birdied the last three holes in halves of 35 and 32. His other birdie came at the eighth and he had one bogey, at the fifth
Former Scottish boys’ and men’s match-play champion David Law finished third with a 69 with only three deviations from par – birdies at the third and 17th and a bogey at the 14th in halves of 34 and 35.
David Law's older brother Chris, by the way, who also plays in NE Alliance competitions has turned professional and joined the King's Links Golf Centre staff for PGA training.
Carnegie Club staff pro Joel Hopwood came all the way down from Skibo Castle, as he does on a regular basis, to have a "game of two halves" - 43 (eight over par) and 33 (two under).
"I had never seen the course before but that's no excuse for a terrible start. I lost two balls as I bogeyed the first and second, triple-bogeyed the third, double-bogeyed the sixth and bogeyed the fifth and sixth to be nine over par after six holes," said Joel.
"But I did cover my last 12 holes in two under par with birdies at the ninth, 12th and 16th, with only one other bogey, at the 11th."
Portlethen five-handicapper David Fleming had the day's best net score - a 66 - to win Class 1 by a shot.
David finished joint sixth in the list of scratch scores, alongside young Portlethen clubmate, one-handicapper Sean Lawrie, who is related to Paul.

LEADING SCRATCH
Par 70
65 K Nicol (Fraserburgh).
67 J Findlay (Fraserburgh).
69 D Law (Hazlehead).
70 J Duff (Newmachar), I Bratton (Newburgh) p.
71 D A Fleming (Portlethen), Sean Lawrie (Portlethen).
72 D Brown (Kemnay) p
73 M Forster (Cruden Bay), R Lamb (Newmachar).
74 G Paterson (Northern)
75 C Nelson (Mackenzie Club) p, P Morrison (Oldmeldrum), S Finnie (Caledonian), C Stewart (Kippie Lodge) p.
76 J Duncan, S Scott (Auchmill), C Cassie (Nigg Bay), G Geddes (Auchmill), Hopwood (Skibo Castle) p, J Reid (Cruden Bay).
77 C Law (Kings Links Golf Centre) ap, F Bisset (Banchory), A Petrie (Oldmeldrum).
78 L Fowler (Royal Aberdeen), B Harper (Newburgh), S Elrick (Kemnay), D Wilson (Duff House Royal).
79 P W McIntosh (Newburgh), M Lawrie (Kemnay), J Roberts (Cruden Bay), S Chalmers (Banchory) p.
80 C Buchanan (Newmachar), D Philip (Newburgh), P Farnan (Royal Aberdeen), N Parker (Murcar Links).
81 A K Pirie (Hazlehead), J Forrest (Northern), L Prouse (Hazlehead), J M Hamilton (Murcar Links), J Murray (Banchory), R O’Donnell (Oldmeldrum), Steve Lawrie (Portlethen).
82 D Nelson (Aboyne), D Leslie (Westhill), G Homer (Northern), I Strachan (Royal Aberdeen), W Shaw (Banchory), J Borthwick (Craibstone), T Collie (Kemnay).
83 A Graham (Aboyne), S Davidson (Northern), W Skene (Deeside).
84 P Anderson (Deeside), D Randall (Banchory).
85 D Lawrie (Inchmarlo), J Jessiman (Oldmeldrum).
86 G Allan (Newmachar), G Steveley.
87 D Bisset (Banchory), S Kennedy (Craibstone).
88 B Lumsden (Northern), C Brindley (Banchory), M Booth (Kemnay).
89 R Brown (Inverurie), D Wood (Newburgh), M Rogers (Kemnay).
90 N Chisholm (Kemnay), C Duffus (Kemnay)
91 H McNaughton (Cruden Bay), N Stewart (Northern), M Ord (Royal Aberdeen), J Lumsden (Auchmill), J Mackintosh (Auchmill), P Cornfield (Auchmill)
94 B Lumsden, senior (Northern)
97 J Gall (Caledonian).
100 C Farquhar (Northern), M Brown (Inverurie)
101 J McPherson (Auchmill), T Slater.

+Players without home clubs after their names are asked to E-mail the "missing" information to Colin@scottishgolfview.com. Similarly, if some clubs are wrongly given, the appropriate members should send correcting E-mails.

 HANDICAP
Class 1 – D Fleming (Portlethen) (5) 66; M Forster (Cruden Bay) (6); R Lamb (Newmachar) (4), P Morrison (Oldmeldrum) (6) 69; Sean Lawrie (Portlethen) (1), G Geddes (Auchmill) (6), C Cassie (Nigg Bay) (6) 70.
Class 2 – A Petrie (Oldmeldrum) (10) 67; N K Parker (Murcar Links) (10), I Strachan (Royal Aberdeen) (12), S Davidson (Northern) (13) 70; J Jessiman (Oldmeldrum) (14), D Lawrie (Inchmarlo) (14), G Homer (Northern) (11) 71.


BUCKPOOL PAR:
OUT: 4-4-5-4-4-3--4-3-4--35. IN: 4-4-4-3-4-3-5-4-4--35. Total par 70.

KRIS NICOL 65
OUT: 5-4-4-5-4-4-4-2-4--36. IN: 4-3-2-3-4-3-4-3-3--29.
JORDAN FINDLAY 67
OUT: 4-4-5-4-5-3-3-3-4--35. IN: 4-4-4-3-4-3-4-3-3--32.
DAVID LAW 69
OUT: 4-4-4-4-4-3-4-3-4--34. IN: 4-4-4-3-5-3-5-3-4--35.
IAN BRATTON 70
OUT: 4-4-4-4-5-3-4-4-4--36. IN: 3-4-5-3-3-3-5-5-3--34
JOHN DUFF 70
OUT: 4-4-5-4-5-4-3-3-4--36. IN: 4-4-3-3-4-4-6-3-3--34
DAVID FLEMING 71
OUT: 4-4-4-5-4-3-4-3-4--35. IN: 5-4-5-2-5-3-5-3-4--36
Interesting card:
JOEL HOPWOOD 76
OUT: 5-5-8-6-5-4-4-3-3--43. IN: 4-5-3-3-4-3-4-3-4--33.