HUGH HUNTER'S CLACKMANNAN COUNTY NEWS

MIXED FORTUNES FOR TOP COUNTY GOLFERS

There were mixed fortunes over the weekend tournaments for local golfers.  In the Scottish seniors' spring meeting over the Montrose championship links, Tulliallan’s Bob Stewart finished well down the field with rounds of 85 and 77.

Bob will be hoping for a better performance on June 7-8 in the East seniors' championship at Forfar.             .

In the Welsh open amateur stroke play, Alloa’s Jamie Aitken had high hopes when he started with a fine 72, but fell away in the second round with an 84, missing the cut by five shots. 

Scott Borrowman (Dollar) also missed the cut (151) with rounds of 77 and 78.

Best performance came from Alva’s Lawrence Allan in the Scottish Hydro Junior Tour event. Showing great consistency over the Roxburghe course, Lawrence finished in sixth place with rounds of 73-73-75-73 for a six-over-par aggregate of 294.

Over his four rounds he ran up an excellent 11 birdies, but these were cancelled by a greater number of bogeys. For once he avoided any double bogeys or worse, and his performance will consolidate his position in the 2012 Scottish boys' Order of Merit.

SCOTTISH STROKE-PLAY AT BARASSIE

There is a big test for both Scott and Lawrence this coming weekend in the Scottish men's open amateur stroke-play championship at Kilmarnock Barassie.

Lawrence has good memories from last year when he captained the Scottish schoolboys to victory against England, winning his own match in the process. The local players are in a high quality field - no fewer than  85 from the 144 strong field come from outwith Scotland. That’s more than 50% of the field for the first time. 

There are 19 entries from France and 16 of the field play to a handicap of plus 4 or better. Alloa’s Jamie Aitken is 10^th reserve for the event.

BIG CHALLENGE FOR CALLUM

Tulliallan’s Callum Macaulay finished 34^th in the latest Challenge Tour event in Belgium, winning just over €1000. He is still in the top 20 Challenge Tour rankings, but really needs a bit of a boost to stay there and make the full European Tour for 2013. 

Callum is entered with six other Scots in the Tecina Golf event in the Canary Islands. It's then back to mainland Europe for a succession of events and a quick dash to the Scottish Challenge in a few weeks.

COUNTY EVENTS COMING UP

 June 3 Patton Trophy - Open Mixed Foursomes (Alloa)

 June 4 County match-play semi-finals (Tillicoultry, 5.30pm_)

 June 6 Senior Open (Tillicoultry)

 June 7 County match-play final (Alloa, 5.30pm)