HUTCH PIPPED ON POST AT WESTERN GAILES

By COLIN FARQUHARSON Colin@scottishgolfview.com  Just when it looked like Greig Hutcheon was going to chalk up a third win in four days on the Tartan Tour, the Banchory tour pro was pipped on the post for the £1,000 top prize in the Western Gailes Sprint Series tonight. Hutcheon had been the long time leader in the clubhouse with a four-under-par 67 - five birdies, one bogey - and darkness was falling fast after 8.30pm when Graeme Brown (Montrose Links) in the second last threesome to finish in a field of 81 returned a superb score of six-under 65. Brown reduced Western Gailes' not-to-be-sniffed-at outward nine holes to 29 shots - seven under par, with birdies at all bar the third and eighth. Suddenly, Brown went off the boil after that memorable run. From the sublime to the ... well, a not so ridiculous inward half of eight pars and a bogey at the 12th for one-over 36 home to win by two shots from Hutcheon, winner of the Deeside pro-am on Friday and the Drumpellier pro-am on Saturday but "only" joint 14th at Easter Moffat on Sunday. Still Hutcheon's runner-up prize of £750 was more grist to the mill in the race for the PGA Scotland money title for 2011. Kenny Hutton (Downfield) and Mark Kerr (unattached) earned £490 each for sharing third place on 68. Hutton deserves a medal for shooting under par after starting with a pair of double bogeys. The man from Muir of Ord wiped out the dismal start by being six under par from the fifth to the ninth with an eagle at the sixth and birdies at the fifth, short seventh and ninth. Coming home, Hutton birdied the short 13th, short 15th and also the 18th with only one more shot dropped, at the par-5 14th. There is one more Spring Series qualifying competition - at The Roxburghe on September 23 - after which the leading 36 in the table, based on the finishing-order points gained from their best two rounds in the series, will go forward to the 36-hole final at The Duke's Course, St Andrews, on October 3 and 4. Leading scores Par 71 65 Graeme Brown (Montrose Links) £1,000. 67 Greig Hutcheon (Banchory) £750. 68 Kenny Hutton (Downfield), Mark Kerr (unatt) £490 each. 69 Ross Cameron (McDonald Ellon), Ken Campbell (Machrihanish), Steven Duncan (Carnoustie) £308 each. 70 Jason McCreadie (Buchanan Castle), Robert Arnott (Bishopbriggs), Graham Fox (Rowallan Castle), Lindsay Mann (Carnoustie Links) £212 each. 71 Mark Loftus (Adam Hunter Golf), Alan Lockhart (Ladybank), Tom Buchanan (Duddingston), Garry Forrester (St Andrews Golf School), James McGhee (Duddingston), Neil Fenwick (Dunbar) £82 each. 72 Alastair Mackenzie (Renaissance Club), Scott Henderson (Kings Links), Craig Ronald (Carluke), Greg McBain (Gamola Golf). Note: prize money ended at those on 71.