WINDTAMER ISAACS LEADS YOUNG PROS FIELD BY THREE SHOTS

By COLIN FARQUHARSON

Colin@scottishgolfview.com 

Nairn Dunbar assistant Malcolm Isaacs slipped clear of the field with a one-under-par 70 on a horrendous day of wind and rain for the first round of the Scottish Young Professionals championship at West Lothian Golf Club, Boness.

Isaacs was the only young man in the field of 95 to get under par and, almost unbelievably in conditions described by tournament director Roy Murray as “absolutely awful” he was three under par with only four holes to play, having birdied the third, 12^th and 14^th and kept a bogey off his card.

But the weather got to him before the finish and he bogeyed the 15^th and 16^th. He leads by three shots going into the second of four rounds. His nearest rivals on 73 are Neil Fenwick (Dunbar), who played well in last week’s Northern Open), and Sam McLaren (Crieff).

David Patrick (Elie Sports Centre), winner of the title for the past two years and chasing the record of four in a row by the late great Bobby Walker between 1960 and 1963, had a 74 with three shots dropped over the last three holes.

He shares fourth place with Welshman Gareth Wright (West Linton), for so long a front runner at the Northern Open – he had a triple bogey 7 at the 16^th – and Michele Thomson (McDonald Ellon), former Scottish women’s amateur champion and Curtis Cup player in 2008.

Glasgow’s Graeme Fisher had a hole in one with a wedge downwind at the 131yd 15^th but it did not do him much good. He had a quadruple bogey at the 17^th and finished with an 86.

Leading first round scores

Par 71

70 Malcolm Isaacs (Nairn Dunbar)

73 Neil Fenwick (Dunbar), Sam McLaren (Crieff).

74 Gareth Wright (West Linton), Michele Thomson (McDonald Ellon), David Patrick (Elie SC).

75 Craig Armstrong (Burntisland), Chris Brown (Kemnay), Fraser Clarke (Newmachar), Goordon Hillson (Dunbar), Nikki Christie (Carnoustie), Stuart Boyle (The Belfry).

76 David Broadfoot (Dumfries and Co), Terry Mathieson (Murcar Links), Stuart Williamson (West Kilbride), Duncan Bain (Aberdour).

77 Dumfries and Galloway), Heather MacRae (Gleneagles), Shaun Clark (Elie SCGraeme Brown (Montrose Links), Gregor Wright (Ladybank).

78 Iain Stoddart (Uphall), Chris Law (Kings Links), Jim Poyser (Renaissance),  Fraser Dunlop (Renaissance), Ewan Grimes (Carrick on Loch Lomond), Chris Robinson (Dumfries and Galloway).