NORTH MEN OUT TO MAKE NATIONAL HEADLINES IN SCOTTISH AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP AT ROYAL DORNOCH

By ROBIN WILSON  

Forty years have elapsed since a North golfer last won the Scottish men's amateur championship which tees off at Royal Dornoch today.

He was Hugh Stuart of Forres and he won the national title  at  Prestwick in 1972.

Since the Scottish Golf Union launched the match-play competition in 1922 to find Scotland's best amateur golfer, there have only been two other North winners, Jack Bookless of Inverness in 1929 and Major David Blair of Nairn in 1953.

The SGU flagship events returns to Royal Dornoch on Sutherland's east coast for only a third time. It has attracted a capacity entry of 256 to one of the world's best golf courses. 

Golf has been played on the Dornoch Links since 1616, the club founded in 1877 and the first lay-out credited to Old Tom Morris but most of the present course only came into use at the end of the  World War II when the Ministry of Defence returned the lower links that that they had  been using as an airstrip.

The trophy, first played for ninety years ago, bears the names of some famous winners including the legendary Ronnie Shade, five wins in a row during the 1960's, and veteran Charlie Green, a back to back champion in 1982-83, as well as some names of more recent years, Colin Montgomerie, 1987 at Nairn, and Stephen Gallacher in 1992.

Royal Dornoch's first staging of the championship in 1993 produced a winner in Dean Robertson (Cochrane Castle) and seven years later Steven O'Hara (Colville Park) was victorious.

With the championship at Dornoch, not unexpectedly it has attracted a very good entry of 24 members of northern golf clubs, the host club providing eight of them, four each from Fortrose and Rosemarkie and The Nairn, two Moray Golf Club members and one each from Elgin, Nairn Dunbar, Forres, Tain, Reay and Inverness.

The 24 are a mixture of youthful endeavour and experience,  mature golfers in Bryan Fotheringham (Inverness) and Fraser Fotheringham (Nairn), both having international experiences at different levels.

Scratch golfer Neil Hampton, the present  Royal Dornoch General Manager, when the event was last at Dornoch took the eventual winner to the final green in round three.

The two Fotheringhams, unrelated, and Hampton  remain well equipped to go some distance in the draw while young players  such as the Burgess brothers, Andrew and Sean from Nairn, Tom Dingwall (Nairn Dunbar), Jeff Wright (Forres), Jordan Milne (Elgin), Lyle McAlpine (Royal Dornoch) and the Fortrose and Rosemarkie trio of Chris Gaittens, Lewis Reid and Corin Stewart will all have the opportunity of hitting the national rather than the local headlines. 

Play begins at 6.45am on Monday morning and first North golfer into the fray is North Golf Alliance champion Dougie Thorburn (Reay). His tie against Scott Brown (Turnberry) starts at  6.53am.  There is one all-North tie in round one, Kyle Godsman (Moray) drawn against Lyle McAlpine (Royal Dornoch).

There is no defending champion as last years winner David Law (Hazelhead) has joined the professional ranks, leaving Fortrose and Rosemarkie's Lewis Reid the big chance to pull off the first upset when he tackles the No. 1 seed, Graeme Roberson (Glenbervie) in round one.

Nairn's Cameron Nelson could also make a name for himself when he plays the number three seed, Stirling student Jack MacDonald (Kilmarnock Barassie) on Tuesday's continuation of the first round. 

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