PAUL O'HARA IMPROVES BUT STILL A LONG WAY BEHIND LEADER

Paul O'Hara moved up from jt 37th to a tie for 16th place with a second-round 69 for a 36-hole tally of two-under-par 142 in the EPD Tour event at Marrakesh, Morocco - the Al Maaden Classic.
The Motherwell man plundered the long holes. He birdied the par-5 fourth and the par-5 seventh to turn in two-under-par 34.
After a string of pars, O'Hara conjured up an eagle 3 at the long 16th but, unfortunately, at his last hole he gave back a hard-earned stroke with a bogey for 35 home and a 69.
With one round to go he 10 shots behind the Dutchman who won the British amateur championship at Turnberry, Reinier Saxton who has produced two scintillating rouns of 65 and 67 for a 12-under-par tally of 132.
Saxton is now a yawning gap of five shots ahead of his nearest rival, Germany's Max Kieffer who has scored 70 and 67 for 137.
In joint third place on 138 are two more Germans, Daniel Froreich (68-70) and Bernd Ritthamer (66-72) plus a Swiss, Ken Benz (66-72).
The only other Scot in the field, Neil Fenwick, missed the cut by miles - well, nine shots to be precise. Players had to score 145 or better for the first 36 holes to survive. Fenwick had rounds of 80 and 75 for 154.

TO READ ALL THE SCORES ON THE AL MADDEN CLASSIC WEBSITE

CLICK HERE

NORTH-EAST ALLIANCE TEE TIMES FOR NEWBURGH NEXT WEDNESDY

08.15 - A Campbell - R Fitzpatrick - P Morrison.
08.22 - G Leslie - C Cassie - B Harper.
08.29 - S Scott - G Geddes - C Ord.
08.36 - J Nicolson - B Nicolson - P Cornfield.
08.43 - G Allan - M Rendall - J Hamilton.
08.50 - L Prouse – J Dalgarno - C Nelson.
08.57 - P McIintosh - D Phillip- J Duncan.

09.04 - J Roberts - S Kennedy - J Reid.
09.11 - S Elrick - free - free.
09.18 - Free - free - free.
09.25 - M Brown - R Brown - S Davidson.
09.32 - S Mackie - I Bratton - G Paterson.
09.39 - J Mackintosh - T Slater - J McPherson.
09.46 - M Merchant - R Lamb - J Duff.
09.53 - A K Pirie - L Fowler - D A Fleming.

10.00 - H McNaughton - I Grant - D Bingham.
10.07 - G Homer - B Lumsden - B Lumsden junior.
10.14 - J Forrest - M Stewart - D Leslie.
10.21 - J Lumsden - C Farquhar - M Forster
10.28 - J Bothwell - I Strachan - D Llawrie
10.35 - D Bisset - J Murray - D Randall
10.42 - F Bisset - S Higgins - M Rogers
10.49 - J Jessiman - A Petrie - free
10.56 - D Nelson - A Graham - free

11.03 - Laura Murray - K Beveridge - J Callum.
11.10 - S Chalmers - C Stewart - C Brindley
11.17 - T Collie - R Orr - J Turner
11.24 - D Brown - M Lawrie - W McKenzie
11.31 - free- free- free
11.38 - free- free- free
11.43 - N K Parker - G Stevely - M Booth.
11.52 – free - free - free
11.59 - free - free - free

12.06 - D McKay - J L Gall - S Finnie
12.15 - J Hopwood - R O’Donnell - free
12.22 - D Wilson - M Jenkins - free

TIGER WOODS, IAN POULTER BIG-NAME CASUALTIES ON DAY ONE

FROM THE DAILY TELEGRAPH WEBSITE
By KEVIN GARSIDE
It was always the dream of Ian Poulter to be bracketed with Tiger Woods. Not like this. Woods and Poulter were the highest profile victims of golf’s knock out punch on the opening day at the Accenture Match Play Championship in Tucson, Arizona.
Woods, a three-time winner of this title, and Poulter, the defending champion, were poleaxed at the first extra hole by opponents packing integrity if not profile. Step forward Thomas Bjorn and Stewart Cink, cheerleaders for golf’s great unheralded.
Poulter, who was two up with four to play, had some claim to bad luck. Woods was simply beaten by the better man on day day. Asked where he stood after another poor outcome in his third event of the year, Woods replied “pissed”, which in the American lexicon translates as disappointed.
Poulter reached for the same adjective to describe his emotions. Well, he is a resident of Florida.
Poulter’s frustration was rooted in opportunities missed. Woods was raging at the state of his game in the midst of another painful swing reconstruction.
“I had momentum going to the 19th hole and I blew it,” Woods said. “I missed a putt on 17 that I should hole every time.” Ifs and putts.
Poulter was battling himself from the off. As defending champion he was unhappy to be out first, just half an hour after sun up. Frost delayed the opening by 30 minutes to compound his frustration. At the sixth he had murder in his mind as the cameramen in the TV gantry at the back of the green prattled away on his takeaway.
Despite all of this, Poulter went ahead at the seventh, doubled his advantaged at the tenth and had a putt for the match on the last and still could not put Cink away.
“I really should have shut the match out. If you don’t hole the putts in this format you get punished. He putted me out of the match,” Poulter said.
Dove Mountain, Arizona, is in no sense a Celtic Manor.
For those prepared to brave the clock and the temperatures while waiting for Woods to tee it up in the civilised noon sunshine, there was much to admire in the dawn setting. No golf club, never mind one as pretty as this, has any business blooming in the arid, desert landscape.
Thank heaven someone was mad enough to throw enough soil down to thread 18 holes around the cacti and enough money down to water them. This was once the domain of indigenous American champion Geronimo and the Apache, and latterly has been given a heightened literary value in the austere novels of Cormack McCarthy.
Miles and miles of breathtaking nothingness stretches across the plain south to Tucson and on over the mountains to the Mexican border.
For one week only it is the territory of the world’s top 64 golfers. Poulter apart it was a good day for Europe’s Ryder Cup headliners. Luke Donald, playing only his second event of the year, was almost home by the turn.
Charley Hoffman was largely responsible for the lopsided score card, posting five bogeys on the outward nine to trail Donald by six holes.
The match was over on the 13th green with Donald, the victor by 6 and 5, the first in for lunch. “I like to win it pretty easily,” Donald said. No kidding, Luke.
Another enjoying a fine morning was Graeme McDowell. The US Open champion was coming off a month-long sojourn in the Florida sunshine. Athletes call it productive rest.

Despite dropping the first hole to a bogey, he was four up after seven and ran out a winner 4 and 3.

Ross Fisher progressed by the same margin against Robert Allenby, Rory McIlroy was a 4 and 2 winner against Jonathan Byrd and Lee Westwood accounted for Henrik Stenson 3 and 2.

Though Martin Kaymer smashed Seung-Yul Noh 7 and 6, Europe’s most impressive performer was arguably Matteo Manassero, the 17 year-old spoiling Steve Stricker’s 44th birthday on the 17th green. Poulter was already in the departure lounge at Tucson Airport when Manassero shook hands with Stricker.

As well-schooled Ryder Cup watchers will know, Cink is a golfing barnacle. As they say in these parts, he has no quit in him. A birdie at the 13th reduced the deficit to one and, after conceding the 14th to go two down again, another birdie at the 15th reduced the gap once more.

This is what makes the match play format so compelling, blokes like Cink clinging to hope with their teeth.

Trying to cut the corner off the dog-leg 17th, Cink found sand. His escape also landed in a bunker. Poulter was short with his second, played a poor chip and had no cameramen to blame. Though Cink was long out of the bunker he had a ten footer to square the match with one to play. The barnacle was all over it.
Resuits in draw order:

FIRST-ROUND


BOBBY JONES BRACKET
L Westwood bt H Stenson 3 and 2.
N Watney bt A Kim 5 and 4.
K Choi bt R Goosen 1 hole.
R Moore bt F Molinari 3 and 1.
M Manassero bt S Stricker 2 and 1.
C Schwartzel bt R Ishikawa at 20th.
L Donald bt C Hoffman 6 and 5.
E Molinari bt M Laird 3 and 2.


BEN HOGAN BRACKET
P Mickelson bt B Jones 6 and 5.
R Fowler bt P Hanseon 1 hole.
M Kuchar bt A Hansen at 22nd.
B Van Pelt bt L Oosthuizen 2 holes.
G McDowell bt H Slocum 4 and 3.
R Fisher bt R Allenby 4 and 3.
S Cink bt I Poulter at 19th.
Y Yang bt A Quiros at 20th.


GARY PLAYER BRACKET
M Kaymer bt S Noh 7 and 6.
J Rose bt Z Johnson 2 and 1.
R Karlsson bt H Fujita 5 and 3.
H Mahan bt S O'Hair 4 and 3.
R McIlroy bt J Byrd 4 and 2.
B Crane bt A Scott 4 and 2.
R Palmer bt J Furyk 2 holes.
M Jimenez bt Y Ikeda 2 and 1.

SAM SNEAD BRACKET
T Bjorn bt T Woods at 19th.
G Ogilvy bt P Harrington 4 and 3.
M Wilson bt D Johnson at 19th.
B Watson bt B Haas 3 and 2.
P Casey bt R Green at 19th.
J Day bt K Kim 3 and 2.
E Els bt J Overton at 19th.
J B Holmes bt C Villegas 4 and 2.

TEENAGER REID, FINNIE SHARE NE ALLIANCE 1-2 SCRATCH PRIZES

By COLIN FARQUHARSON
Colin@scottishgolfview.com
Peterhead teenager Jamie Reid, clubhouse leader at Fraserburgh with a two-under-par 68 for most of the day, was deprived of his first outright victory in a North-east Golfers' Alliance competition by late finisher Stewart Finnie (Caledonian).
Scratch man Finnie also posted a 68 to share first and second prizes with two-handicap Cruden Bay member Reid who had four birdies (at the sixth, seventh, 11th and 13th, sandwiched between two bogeys (at the second and 17th) in halves of 34.
Finnie also had four birdies and two bogeys on his scorecard but spread out differently. Stewart bogeyed the third and eighth in an outward 35 and birdied the fourth, sixth, 15th and 16th. These late sub-par figures were to prove crucial to his success.
Another Cruden Bay player who had reasons to be cheerful was club chef John Roberts. A six-handicapper, Roberts returned a scratch 70 (36-34) to share third place with former Scottish seniors match-play champion George Paterson (Northern) who is going to have a fantastic score when he managed to play the front nine in par or under.
Once again he was over par at the turn - two over this time with bogeys at the first, second and fourth, countered by only one birdie (at the sixth) before he turned in 37. Coming home in two-under 33, Georgie birdied the 10th, 13th and 18th, having only one additional bogey, at the 17th.
Five players finished on the 71 mark, including Scott Larkin (Royal Aberdeen) and Fergus Bisset (Banchory) who, playing together, bizarrely both had double bogeys at the long sixth and short 14th.
Scottish international Laura Murray (Alford), playing off the same back tees as the men, hit her best form with a 72 - the same score as her boyfriend Keil Beveridge, who is a teaching pro on the Inchmarlo Golf Centre staff.
Laura, who had bogeyed the first, second and fourth, made such a good recovery that she was heading for a par-matching 70 with three holes to play, having birdied the sixth, ninth and 13th. But she bogeyed the 16th and 17th for halves of 36. 
"Laura putted very well," said Keil.
George Paterson (Northern) had the best scratch score by any senior (55 years or over in the field. His round of 70 was five shots better than the next man in this category - former Walker Cup man Sandy Pirie (Hazlehead).
Dave Wilson, the NE Alliance joint secretary, announced during the evening that Steve Lawrie (Portlethen), credited with a gross 72 (net 66) on this website earlier in the day, had been disqualified "for signing for the wrong score."
Later: Joss Turner (Kemnay), who had been the winner of Class 1 with a net 68 off nine, notified Dave Wilson that he was disqualifying himself as he had discovered he had played off the wrong handicap - 9 instead of 8. The revised Class 1 list of prizewinners is shown below.


SCRATCH SCORES
Par 70. Yardage: 6,308
68 J Reid (Cruden Bay), S Finnie (Caledonian).
70 J Roberts (Cruden Bay), G Paterson (Northern).
71 R Fitzpatrick (Inchmarlo) p, J Duff (Newmachar), F Bisset (Banchory), S Larkin (Royal Aberdeen), S Chalmers (Banchory) p.
72 A Campbell (Deeside), C Nelson (Mackenzie Club) p, Laura Murray (Alford), K Beveridge (Inchmarlo) p.
73 Steve Lawrie (Portlethen).
74 S Mackie (Auchmill), J Hopwood (Carnegie) p.
75 A K Pirie (Hazlehead), Sean Lawrie (Portlethen).
76 J Duncan (Newburgh), M Forster (Cruden Bay), D McKay (Caledonian), D Wilson (Duff House Royal), M Jenkins (Duff House Royal).
77 B Harper (Newburgh), G Munro (Fraserburgh), M Lawrie (Kemnay).
78 L Fowler (Royal Aberdeen), D A Fleming (Portlethen), R Lamb (Newmachar), D Leslie (Westhill), S Higgins (Royal Aberdeen), C Stewart (Kippie Lodge) p, C Duffus (Kemnay), W McKenzie (Berryhill DR) p.
79 C Cassie (Nigg Bay), G Geddes (Auchmill), L Prouse (Hazlehead).
80 P Morrison (Oldmeldrum).
81 M Merchant (Newmachar), N K Parker (Murcar Links).
82 P Cornfield (Auchmill), S Kennedy (Craibstone), D Bisset (Banchory), D Nelson (Aboyne), T Collie (Kemnay).
83 R Orr (Kemnay).
84 C Ord (Auchmill), B Lumsden (Northern), M Booth (Kemnay), C Duffus (Kemnay).
85 K Duncan (Cruden Bay), H McNaughton (Cruden Bay), N Stewart (Northern).
86 I Strachan (Royal Aberdeen), A Graham (Banchory), R O’Donnell (Oldmeldrum).
87 M F Rogers (Kemnay), J Jessiman (Oldmeldrum).
88 John Mackintosh (Auchmill), J Forrest (Northern), M Ord (Royal Aberdeen).
89 J Short (Peterculter), J L Gall (Caledonian).
90 D Lawrie (Inchmarlo).
91 M Smith (Inverurie), J Murray (Banchory).
92 R Brown (Inverurie), G Stevely (Murcar Links)
93 J Lumsden (Auchmill).
98 I Grant (Insch).
Disqualified: Joss Turner (Kemnay).

OFFICIAL PRIZEWINNERS
Scratch - 1 S Finnie and J Reid, 3 J Roberts and G Paterson, 5 J Duff, S Chalmers, R Fitzpatrick and S Larkin.
Handicap
Class 1 - Steve Lawrie (Portlethen) (6) 67;  F Bisset (Banchory) (2), D McKay (Caledonian) (7), S Mackie (Auchmill) (5) 69; M Forster (Cruden Bay) (6) 70.
Class 2 - P Cornfield (Auchmill) (15), S Higgins (Royal Aberdeen) (11) 67;
B Lumsden (Northern) (14) 70; S Kennedy (Craibstone) (11), R Orr (Kemnay) (12), K Duncan (Cruden Bay) (14), N K Parker (Murcar Links) (10) 71.


TODAY'S TOP 13 SCRATCH SCORES BY SENIORS (55 years and over)
70 George Paterson (Northern).
75 Sandy Pirie (Hazlehead).
76 Martin Forster (Cruden Bay), David McKay (Caledonian), Mike Jenkins (Duff House Royal), Davie Wilson (Duff House Royal).
78 Les Fowler (Royal Aberdeen), Stewart Higgins (Royal Aberdeen).
81 Nigel Parker (Murcar Links).
82 David Bisset (Banchory), David Nelson (Aboyne).
85 Norman Stewart (Northern).
86 Ian Strachan (Royal Aberdeen).
+If you are a senior golfer and you had a scratch score of 86 or less today but your name is not in that "Top 13" list, then E-mail me your name and club - Colin@scottishgolfview.com

FRASERBURGH SCORECARD (par 70): OUT: 4-4-4-4-3-5-3-4-4--35.
                                                          IN:  4-4-4-4-3-5-4-3-4--35

JAMIE REID 68
OUT: 4-5-4-4-3-4-2-4-4--34. IN: 4-3-4-3-3-5-4-4-4--34.
STEWART FINNIE 68
OUT: 4-4-5-3-3-4-3-5-4--35. IN: 4-4-4-4-3-4-3-3-4--33.
GEORGE PATERSON 70
OUT: 5-4-4-5-3-4-3-4-4--37. IN: 3-4-4-3-3-5-4-4-3--33.
JOHN ROBERTS 70
OUT: 4-4-4-4-4-5-3-3-5--36. IN: 4-4-4-4-2-4-4-3-5--34.
RYAN FITZPATRICK 71
OUT: 5-4-4-4-3-5-3-4-4--36. IN: 5-4-5-4-2-4-4-3-4--35
JOHN DUFF 71
OUT: 5-4-3-4-3-5-3-4-4--35. IN: 4-4-4-4-4-4-4-3-5--36
FERGUS BISSET 71
OUT: 4-4-3-4-4-7-2-4-4--36. IN: 4-4-3-4-5-4-4-4-3--35.
SCOTT LARKIN 71
OUT: 4-4-4-4-3-7-2-3-4--35. IN: 3-4-4-4-5-5-4-3-4--36.
STEVEN CHALMERS 71
OUT: 4-5-4-3-3-5-3-4-6--37. IN: 4-4-3-4-2-5-5-3-4--34
LAURA MURRAY 72
OUT: 5-5-4-5-3-4-3-4-3--36. IN: 4-4-4-3-3-5-5-4-4--36.
COLIN NELSON 72
OUT: 5-4-4-4-3-5-2-4-4--35. IN: 4-4-4-4-4-4-5-4-4--37

NEWMACHAR 4-DAY TOURNAMENT TO MARK 21st ANNIVERSARY

NEWS RELEASE
Newmachar Golf Club is pleased to announce it will be holding a four-day open, from Tuesday to Friday, August 9 to 12, 2011, to mark its 21st anniversary.
Format for this event will consist of two qualifying rounds on the Hawkshill course, where the top 16 in each section (one scratch and two handicap sections) will progress to the knock-out match-play stages.
Consolation rounds for non qualifiers will take place over the Swailend course on the Thursday and Friday.
The value of the total prize fund will be over £3000, with the match-play winners taking home vouchers to the value of £400 for scratch and £350 in each of the handicap sections.
Leading qualifiers and individual qualifying round winners, in each section, will take win £50 and £30 vouchers respectively. Consolation round prizes will start at a £120 voucher for the winner, down to £40 for 5th place.
Entry Fee will be £35 for members and £70 for visitors
Due to an encouraging initial response and questions, Newmachar are now accepting bookings.
Please contact Newmachar Golf Club on 01651 863002 (option 1) for further details.
Booking is not guaranteed until entry fee is paid
(Note: the club reserves the right to adjust the prize money if the level of entries is below maximum).
Website: www.newmachargolf.club.uk