BELLY-PUTTER SHOULD BE BANNED - SAYS WINNER IAN BRATTON

By COLIN FARQUHARSON
Colin@scottishgolfview.com  

Newburgh club pro Ian Bratton shot a three-under-par 68 to chalk up his third win of the North-east Golfers' Alliance season at Murcar Links today.

But whereas his early-season successes were achieved with a conventional putting style, this was his first since he switched to a belly-putter.

"I've been using it for a month and what a difference it makes. I had only 29 putts today. Having said that, they're going to have to ban the belly-putter," said Bratton (pictured) whose first prize was worth £100 (which kicks in when the field reaches the 80 entries mark).

"It's not really a golf stroke. By anchoring the putter in your mid-riff you are able to get a so-smooth pendulum swing you can never duplicate with a normal putting stance. It should be declared illegal and probably will be within the next two or three years," said Bratton who was two over par after bogeys at the first and third.

He covered the remaining 15 holes in five under par, five birdies, including three in a row, coming in a purple patch of seven holes from the fourth to the 10th.

Bratton, who is still waiting for an operation on his left wrist which was, as usual, quite painful by the end of his round, headed a field of 85 in spring-like temperatures but a bit of a breeze by a single shot from Inchmarlo Golf Centre staff pro Ryan Fitzpatrick.

Fitzpatrick's eagle 2 at the 17th, where he played a four-iron off the tee, perhaps conscious of the new bunkers at this hole, and holed a nine iron approach from 136yd range, left him needing a birdie at the last to win and a par to tie. Instead he missed the green with his second and took three more to get down for a bogey 5 and a 69. 

Former North-east Alliance champion Bill Urquhart, making a rare appearance these days, finished third over his home course with a round of 70. He came home in 32 with birdies at the 11th, 14th and 17th.

Perhaps Bill has caught the Alliance bug again. I see he is down to play again next week at Montrose Links.

+Nigel Parker should perhaps have a go with the belly-putter after putting into a BUNKER at the 18th green on what is his home course. Just off the green in two, Nigel finished up with a triple bogey 7 after putting into a bunker. I've seen it done at the Road Hole (17th) on the Old Course, St Andrews but never anywhere else.

LEADING SCRATCH
Par 71. Yardage: 6,516

68 I Bratton (Newburgh)

69 R Fitzpatrick (Inchmarlo).

70 W S Urquhart (Murcar Links).

71 L Vannet (Carnoustie Links), B Nicolson (Auchmill), S Larkin (Royal Aberdeen).

72 K Nicol (Fraserburgh).

73 C Nelson (Mackenzie Shop), G Paterson (Northern), S Finnie (Caledonian), G Nethercott (Deeside), J Duff (Newmachar), C Dempster (Inchmarlo), K Duncan (McDonald Ellon), R McKen (Newburgh).

74 T Mathieson (Murcar Links), D Macandrew (Royal Aberdeen), J Mitchell (Fraserburgh), M Lawrie (Kemnay), F Clarke (Newmachar).

75 A Smith (Turriff), A Campbell (Deeside).

76 J Nicolson (Auchmill).

77 B Harper (Newburgh), R Lamb (Newmachar), C Alexander (Murcar Links).

78 K Watson (Deeside), M Forster (Cruden Bay), A Gall (Deeside), D Fleming (Portlethen), G Milne (Newburgh), J Forrest (Murcar Links).

79 J Hopwood (Carnegie), D Leslie (Northern), M Merchant (Newmachar).

80 C Brown (Kemnay), Laura Murray (Alford), M Duncan (Murcar Links), L Fowler (Royal Aberdeen). L Roger (Royal Aberdeen).

81 E Kennedy (Newmachar), J Duncan (Newburgh), A Graham (Aboyne), J Murray (Banchory), W McKenzie (Berryhill DR).

82 Claire Prouse (Hazlehead).

83 C Carnegie (Kemnay). J Thomas (Newmachar).

84 H Roulston (Stonehaven), D Wilson (Duff House Royal).

85 R Brown (Newburgh), S Davidson (Northern), B Lumsden (Northern), P Cheyne (Northern), F Bisset (Banchory), D McKay (Caledonian).

86 J Dalgarno (Hazlehead), M Booth (Kemnay), D Nelson (Aboyne), N K Parker (Murcar Links), R Orr (Auchmill).

87 P Morrison (Oldmeldrum), G Homer (Northern), W Shaw (Banchory).

88 D Bisset (Banchory), C Duffus (Kemnay).

89 J Scott (Peterculter), H McNaughton (Cruden Bay).

90 J Forrest (Northern).

91 P Cornfield (Auchmill), K Stephen (Northern).

92 J Jessiman (Oldmeldrum), D Wright (Northern).

94 M Brown (Newburgh).

95 M McLean (Murcar Links).

97 C Brindley (Banchory).

108 P Leach (Oldmeldrum).

HANDICAP PRIZEWINNERS

Class 1 - M Lawrie (7) 67;  B Nicolson (Auchmill) (1) 70; M Forster (Cruden Bay) (7), G Paterson (Northern) (2), J Forrest (Murcar Links) (7), C Alexander (Murcar Links) (6), A Smith (Turriff) (4) 71. 

Class 2 - L Roger (Royal Aberdeen) (12) 68; J Murray (Banchory) (10), B Lumsden (Northern) (14) 71; S Davidson (Northern) (13) 72; R Brown (Newburgh) (12) 73.

TEE TIMES FOR NEXT WEDNESDAY AT MONTROSE 

Base club for cards, returns: Montrose Mercantile

Everyone starts from first tee.

1 08:17 Cassie, Charlie /Harper, Brian /Watson, Keith

2 08:24 Mackay, David /Campbell, Andrew / Smith, Albert

3 08:31 Munro, Gordon /Macandrew, Donald /Bratton, Ian

4 08:38 Davidson, S /Brown, Raymond /Brown, Mike

5 08:45 Mathieson, Terry /Nethercott, Graeme

6 08:52 Prouse, Claire/ Prouse, Lawrence /Dalgarno, John

7 08:59 Roulston, Harry /Rendall, Michael /Roger, Leslie

8 09:06 Lamb, Robert /Merchant, Manson

9 09:13 Kennedy, Euan /.Duff, John

10 09:20 Scott, Jim /Paterson, George

11 09:27 

12 09:34 McNaughton, Hamish /Hosie, John

13 09:41 Vannet, Lee /Nelson, Colin /McIntosh, Paul

14 09:48

15 09:55

16 10:02 Forrest, Jackie /Stewart, Norman /Gall, Alan

17 10:09 Fleming, David /Fowler, Les /Forster, Martin

18 10:16 Duncan, Jim /Milne, Gordon /Forrest, John

19 10:23 Jessiman, John /Petrie, Alister /Bingham, David

20 10:30 Hopwood, Joel /Graham, Loren /Adam, Chris

21 10:37 Leslie, David/ Lumsden, Ben /Shaw, Willie

22 10:44 Cheyne, Peter /Wright, Dick /Stephen, Kenny

23 10:51 Bisset, Fergus /Larkin, Scott /Nelson, David

24 10:58 Murray, Laura /Beveridge, Keil /Graham, Alister

25 11:05 Smith, Mike /Grant, Ian /Guthrie, Peter

26 11:12 Brown, Chris/ Lawrie, Mark /Duffus, Colin

27 11:19 Collie, Tommy /Brown, David /Turner, Joss

28 11:26 Murray, Jim /Bisset, David /Brindley, Chris

29 11:33 Carnegie, Craig /Booth, Mike /Parker, Nigel

30 11:40 Leech, Peter /McKenzie, Willie /May, Martin

31 11:47 Ross, Allan /Ross, Gary /Ingram, Keith

32 11:54 McKay, David /Gall, Jim /Finnie, Stewart

33 12:01 Esslemont, Ian/ Nicol, Kris

34 12:08 McKen, Ross /Duncan, Keith

35 12:15

36 12:22 Alexander, Clark /Urquhart, Bill /Borthwick, John

37 12:29 Wilson, David /Cornfield, Paul /Nicolson, John

TOP SCORECARDS AT MURCAR LINKS TODAY


Par 71. 
OUT: 3-3-3-4-2-3-3-3-3: 36. IN: 5-4-3-4-5-4-3-4-4: 35

IAN BRATTON 68. 
OUT: 5-4-5-4-3-4-3-3-3: 34. IN: 3-4-3-4-5-4-3-4-4: 34

RYAN FITZPATRICK 69

OUT: 4-4-5-4-3-4-4-4-3: 35. IN: 4-4-3-4-5-4-3-2-5: 34

BILL URQUHART 70

OUT: 5-3-4-4-4-5-5-4-4: 38. IN: 4-3-3-4-4-4-3-3-4: 32

LEE VANNET 71

OUT: 4-3-4-4-3-4-5-4-3: 34. IN: 4-4-4-5-5-3-3-5-4: 37

BRIAN NICOLSON 71

OUT: 3-4-5-4-3-3-4-4-4: 34. IN: 4-5-3-4-4-4-4-5-4: 37

SCOTT LARKIN 71

OUT: 5-4-5-4-3-4-4-4-2: 35. IN: 4-4-3-5-4-5--3-4-4: 36

KRIS NICOL 72

OUT: 4-4-4-6-3-4-4-3-4: 36. IN: 4-3-3-4-7-4-3-4-4: 36