TRIPLE BOGEY 8 KNOCKS DAVID JAMES BACK IN SPANISH EVENT

Scottish pro David James, not so well known in his home land these days, was lying joint third in a small field of 19 players at the end of the first day of the Spanish Hi5 Pro Tour event at Alltorreal Golf Club in the Murcia province of south-east Spain today.
James had birdies at the second, third, 12th and 14th on his way to a two-over-par 74.
He would have been a lot closer to the pacemaking Englishman, James Busby, who had a one-under 71, had he not run up a triple bogey 8 at the par-5 11th.
James also shed single shots to par at the first, fourth and 16th.
LEADING FIRST ROUND SCORES

Par 72
71 James Busby (England).
73 Thordur Gissurarson (Iceland).
74 Mus Debour (France), Robert Svensson (Sweden), David James (Scotland).

TO VIEW THE WHOLE SCOREBOARD 

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NEW LEADER IN SAMANAH CLASSIC AT MARRAKECH, MOROCCO

There's a new leader in the 72-hole eTour's Samanah Classic over the Jack Nicklaus-designed course at Marrakech, Morocco.
American Chris McCarten had a five-under-par, third-round 67 today to take up the running on the 12-under-par 204 mark.
Four players are snapping at his heels, two shots behind with 18 holes to go.
They are former British amateur champion Drew Weaver (68-69-69), long-time leader from Lubbock, Texas, Mikel Martinson (62-70-74), Gabriel Canizares from the famous Spanish golfing family (70-65-71) and American Chesson Hadley (68-67-71).
Check out all the scores on the tournament website:

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For a full report on the third day's play from eTour website

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YOU TOO CAN PLAY IN MOROCCO DURING OCTOBER

                         A view of the Samanah Country Club course at Marrakech, Morocco with the Atlas Mountains in the background.

REMEMBER, YOU TOO CAN PLAY THE SAMANAH COUNTRY CLUB COURSE IN OCTOBER THIS YEAR. IT'S ONE OF FIVE COURSES AROUND MARRAKECH BEING USED FOR THREE SEPARATE COMPETITIONS OVER FIVE DAYS AT THE 2ND MOROCCO GOLF FESTIVAL (October 8 to 15).

IF YOU LIKE YOUR GOLF A LITTLE BIT MORE COMPETITIVE AND YOU HAVE A LOW ENOUGH HANDICAP, THEN WHAT ABOUT THE INAUGURAL MOROCCO INTERNATIONAL AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIPS FOR MEN (max handicap 9), WOMEN (max handicap 11), SENIOR MEN (max handicap 15), AND SENIOR WOMEN (max handicap 18) AT AGADIR FROM OCTOBER 18 to 21?

Boys and girls can play in the men's and women's championships as long as their handicaps meet the requirements.

IF YOUR HANDICAP IS HIGHER THAN THAT, THEN YOU CAN PLAY THAT SAME WEEK IN THE AGADIR INTERNATIONAL AMATEUR TOURNAMENT OVER 54 HOLES

(max handicap for men 24, for women 36; no minimum/maximum age for either sex).

ALL THE DETAILS ARE ON THE HOME PAGE OF THE MENARA TRAVEL WEBSITE

 http://www.morocco4golf.com/

ANY QUERIES: E-mail Colin Farquharson, the Tounament Director for both weeks, at Colin@scottishgolfview.com

PLAY GOLF IN NORTH AFRICA FOR A WEEK ... BRAG ABOUT IT FOR A YEAR! 

SCOTS LOSE FOURSOMES LEAD IN SINGLES AGAINST S AFRICA

FROM THE SOUTH AFRICAN GOLF ASSOCIATION WEBSITE

The ten-man Protea team, playing Scotland in a two day amateur golf Test Match, at Leopard Creek near Malalane, had a good first day, ending up with a two-point lead over their more fancied opponents.

Enjoying the perfect golfing weather, the South Africans started slowly and finished strongly. In the morning Foursomes, the hosts won two matches to Scotland’s three. However, over the afternoon session, made up of ten singles matches, South Africa came back nicely to win 6½ points to Scotland’s 3½.

“We played with much more discipline and patience than we did against France,” said Colin Burger, the team manager and SAGA President, in explaining what he saw as being an improved performance by his charges.

“This a team event but if one had to single out any performances I must say Hendre Cilliers, playing in his first test match, did well to beat James White. So too did Jared Harvey to halve his match with Kris Nicol. Coenie Bester’s performance was fantastic; even that of Haydn Porteous taking Michael Stewart, the new Sanlam South African Amateur Champion, to the fifteenth hole was praiseworthy.”

With fourteen points to play for tomorrow it is still anyone’s test match. With the South African’s looking much steadier than in earlier test matches, at this stage, a win against the strong Scottish team is not out of the question.

Scotland finished strongly in the morning foursomes to lead 3-2 going into the afternoon singles.

South Africa led in four of the five foursomes at the turn but Scotland put three wins on the board, thanks to Michael Stewart and Ross Kellett (2 and 1 winners), Scott Gibson and Paul Shields (2 and 1), Kris Nicol and Greg Paterson (5 and 4).

Stewart, Gibson and Shields were Scotland's most successful players with two wins each from two outings.

DAY 1 RESULTS

S0UTH AFRICA 8 1/2, SCOTLAND 6 1/2

Foursomes (S African names first) (2-3)
R Dreyer and J Harvey lost to M Stewart and R Kellet 2 and 1.
B Stone and R Nortje bt J Findlay and P McLean 3 and 2.
C J du Plessis and R de Smidt bt D Law and J White 1 hole.
D Hammond and H Porteous lost to S Gibson and P Shields 2 and 1.
C Bester and H Celliers lost to K Nicol and G Paterson 5 and 4.

Singles (6 1/2-3 1/2)

Porteous lost to Stewart 3 and 1.

Bester bt Law 1 hole.

Du Plessis bt Findlay 2 and 1.

De Smidt bt McLean 5 and 4.

Dreyer lost to Shields 7 and 6.

Nortje lost to Gibson 5 and 4.

Celliers bt White 2 holes.

Hammond bt Paterson 1 hole.

Harvey halved with Nicol

Stone bt Kellet

SCOTLAND'S 100 PER CENTERS ON OPENING DAY

SCOTT GIBSON..........................................PAUL SHIELDS ......................MICHAEL STEWART

LOMBARD TAKE OVER SPONSORSHIP OF PRO-CAPTAINS' EVENT

NEWS RELEASE ISSUED BY THE PGAGolf club captains will have the opportunity to team up with their PGA professional and chase a dream final after leading UK asset finance provider Lombard’s return to golf.
One of the PGA’s major tournaments has been renamed The Lombard Challenge after securing a three-year sponsorship deal from leading UK asset finance provider Lombard.
The Lombard Challenge, a PGA Pro-Captain tournament, which is open to all golf clubs in the UK and Ireland, has received significant investment from the heavyweight financial institution, which celebrates its 150th anniversary this year.
The new deal sees Lombard and the PGA reigniting their partnership, with Lombard having previously sponsored the PGA National Pro-Am Championship – known as The Lombard Trophy – between 1995 and 2006.
Lombard’s return will see the Grand Final prize fund increase from £7,500 to £25,000, plus greater opportunities for PGA professionals and their club captains to reach the final of The Lombard Challenge with 10 qualifying tournaments - an increase of three - across the PGA’s seven regions.
The final is set to return to the PGA Sultan course at Antalya Golf Club in Turkey, which hosted the event for the first time in 2010. The final will be played over 36 holes on November 25 and 26.
PGA chief executive Sandy Jones said: “It is great to welcome back Lombard to the PGA stable of sponsors given our previous long and successful partnership.
“Lombard took the PGA National Pro-Am Championship to new heights, making it the largest event of its kind in Europe. I am sure that The Lombard Challenge, with increased prize funds and more opportunities to reach the final will have an equally invigorating and inspirational impact on the tournament.
"I am confident that the PGA professionals who have previously competed in Lombard events will testify to their excellence and will be urging their captains to compete in this year’s event.
“The relationship between the PGA professional and captain is one of the most important at any club and The Lombard Challenge is a marvellous opportunity for both to put their club on the map by reaching a national final.
"Antalya Golf Club is a fabulous venue for a final and I'm sure competition will be as fierce as ever as teams bid to be one of the lucky 10 to make it through."
This will be the 14th staging of the tournament. Last year it was won by Newport-based Parc Golf Academy pro Richard Dinsdale and captain Steve Hook. Dinsdale, by coincidence, was the last winner of The Lombard Trophy.

DOUGLAS LOWE FUNERAL SERVICE ON MONDAY, MARCH 14

The funeral service for Herald golf writer Douglas Lowe, who died on Sunday, will be held on Monday, March 14 (2.15pm) at the West Kirk, Helensburgh (situated in the town centre close to the town square).
The church service is to be followed by a private family cremation. Thereafter, the family are hosting a reception at Helensburgh Golf Club to which all are invited.
The family requests that donations be sent to Macmillan Nurses or Marie Curie Cancer Care rather than flowers.

Tribute from Arizona University student James Byrne, the highest Scot in the RandA World Amateur Rankings"Very sad news about Dougie Lowe. My memories of him are of a very friendly, personable man who clearly had a passion for Scottish golf. Hopefully golf in Scotland can push on and achieve great things in his honour."

TOO MANY UNITED STATES' VENUES IN WGC CHAMPIONSHIPS

FROM THE IRISHTIMES.COM WEBSITE
By BRIAN KEOGH in Miami

When the top four players in the world rankings and 10 of the top-20 are European, it seems a little incongruous that a World Golf Championship (WGC) event has not been played on European soil since 2006, when Tiger Woods won the American Express Championship at The Grove.

But world No 4 Graeme McDowell, pictured, who is among the favourites for this week’s WGC Cadillac Championship over the famed TPC Blue Monster at Doral, Florida, acknowledges that finding alternative venues outside the US creates a logistical nightmare for the players and the International Federation of PGA Tours.
The demise of the World Cup as a WGC event and the promotion of the HSBC Champions in Shanghai to WGC status at the end of 2009 means three of the four events in the series are now staged in the US.
Yet despite that move, and with 33 of the world’s top-50 hailing from outside the US, the grumbling about a US-centric golfing world goes on.
Just two weeks after the Accenture Matchplay in Tucson, and with the WGC Bridgestone Invitational set for Firestone Country Club in Ohio the week before the US PGA Championship in August, finding a non-US venue is a headache that won’t go away any time soon.
McDowell is not a fan of the course at Dove Mountain, where he was ousted from the match-play in the third round just two weeks ago.
Tucson’s four-year contract is up, but while the event still appears likely to go ahead there again next year, McDowell sees no way of moving it out of the US in the near future.
“My feelings are that the match-play is the wrong one to do that with,” McDowell said of a possible move to Australia, Europe or Asia. “It is a long way to fly to China to get beaten in the first round.
“Of course, Tucson is a long way to go for everyone, but at least you have Los Angeles the week before and the Florida swing the week afterwards.
“A lot of the top-50 in the world will be going on to play the Florida swing anyway.
“Having the match-play in the States makes geographical sense, but with the international flavour of golf right now it is important that the WGCs become world events.”
Making that happen will be difficult in the extreme with the US PGA Tour about to enter negotiations on a new television contract, with the current one due to expire next year.
Attracting major sponsors is increasingly difficult and staging an event outside US prime time TV slots is not attractive to the powers at Ponte Vedra Beach.
“It’s pretty hard when you start thinking about it as an overall schedule,” McDowell said. “Scheduling is a problem because you have got to think about WGCs as top-50 (player) events and the guys in the top-50 are going straight to the majors.
“It’s difficult to take them anywhere else.
“Maybe they could turn the likes of the Scottish Open into a WGC, the week before the British Open. It’s tough to get the blend right.
“But there seems to be a kind of rivalry there between the tours. I understand the US PGA Tour want to protect themselves and their members, and so do the European Tour. It is the eternal debate and it is tough to get it 100 per cent right.”

SUDDEN RETIREMENT OF OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP ORGANISER HILL

FROM THE SPORT.SCOTSMAN.COM WEBSITE
http://sport.scotsman.com/
By MARTIN DEMPSTER

David Hill, the man who has effectively organised the Open Championship for the last 30 years, last night announced his retirement from the position as the R and A's Director of Championships with immediate effect.
The decision, which has come out of the blue, was announced by Peter Dawson, the R and A's Chief Executive, and leaves the St Andrews-based organisation minus a vital cog in its wheel with this year's Open Championship, at Royal St George's, just over four months away.
"David Hill, the R and A's Director of Championships, has announced his decision to retire, with immediate effect," said the announcement. "David's R and A career spanned over 30 years of responsibility for staging the Open Championship and other R and A events."
Dawson, Hill's boss since he took over the reins following the retirement of Sir Michael Bonallack, added: "With David's retirement, we are losing a man with vast experience, whose immense contribution to the development of The Open has been invaluable. He leaves us with our thanks and very best wishes."
Addressing what the immediate effect Hill's sudden departure would have, Dawson added: "The R and A Championship Department will now report to me until a more permanent re-organisation is announced."

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