HARRINGTON WINS US PGA GRAND SLAM TOURNAMENT

PADRAIG HARRINGTON WON THE US PGA'S GRAND SLAM TOURNAMENT

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SCORES FROM BMW MASTERS IN CHINA

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TIGER TRAILS BY THREE AT KUALA LUMPUR

NEWS RELEASE FROM ASIAN TOUR

Kuala Lumpur October 25: American Troy Matteson produced a magical eight-under-par 63,  thanks to four closing birdies including a closing hole “slam-dunk”, as he put the shade on Tiger Woods in the first round of the US$6.1 CIMB Classic on Thursday.

Matteson revelled in steamy conditions at the Mines Resort and Golf Club to lead by one stroke from countrymen Brian Harman, Robert Garrigus and Jeff Overton, who finished runner-up here last year.

In form Indian Gaganjeet Bhullar, who has won twice on the Asian Tour in the past two months, was a further stroke back with American Tom Gillis while 14-time Major champion Woods, Malaysia’s Danny Chia and Jbe Kruger of South Africa were amongst those in tied seventh place on 66.

 

Woods, the tournament’s top draw, lit up his back nine with five birdies to end the day three behind the leader. He struggled with a cold putter on his outward nine, missing two short putts on eight and nine to turn in level par before lighting up his inward stretch with five birdies.

 

“I would love to hop into an ice tub right now,” said a sweaty Woods, who is returning to Malaysia for the first time since his triumph in the World Cup of Golf in 1999.

 

“I felt in control on the back nine. Towards the end of the front nine, I was hitting it really well. Just missed a couple of short putts on eight and nine but I was hitting it really well. Just continued it and it felt really good on the back nine.  I hit some really good shots.

 

“Turning at even par, I felt like I just got run over there.  It felt like I had to shoot something at least three , four under par on that back nine, and I happened to get one more, which is nice.  It's going to take something like 20-plus to win the tournament, so got to be aggressive and go get it.”

 

Two-time PGA Tour winner Matteson, making his debut at the CIMB Classic which is sanctioned by the Asian Tour and PGA Tour, was flawless and closed out his round in style with a birdie from the greenside bunker.

 

“The pin is really tricky on 18.  I thought I hit a pretty good shot in there, and it just barely landed over the bunker and trickled back in the bunker, left me on the upslope.  I knew I'd be doing good if I could leave myself seven or eight feet for par, and it bounced and slam dunked in the hole,” he said.

 

“The course is great. The grass is a lot like what I play back home. You've got to play your way around here.  You can't just hit driver on every hole, you've got to make some decisions, you've got to hit some irons, you've got to hit some 3 woods,” added Matteson.

 

Overton, who shot a course record 62 at the Mines Resort last year, was four-under through 14 holes before holing a 20-foot eagle on 15. “I got to play with Danny Chia and he was making birdies and we were just both kind of going back and forth. And then all of a sudden I made the eagle, basically drove the green on the short par four, and when that sucker went in, it was really exciting.  It was just an all-around fun day,” said Overton.

 

Garrigus, a winner on the PGA Tour, turned in 30 and hit a splendid eagle three on the 11^th hole when his four iron approach from 258 yards landed three feet from the hole. “Gosh, that was probably one of the prettiest four irons I've ever hit in my life,” he said.

 

“I just smoked the four iron, hit it to three feet, made eagle, then made a great par save on the next hole. I think those three holes really kept the round going, then birdied a couple coming in.”

 

Defending champion Bo Van Pelt shot a 70 to lie in tied 30^th place.

 

Scores after round 1 of the 2012 CIMB Classic being played at the par 71, 6,909 Yards Mines Resort Golf Club course (a- denotes amateur):

63 - Troy MATTESON (USA).

64 - Brian HARMAN (USA), Jeff OVERTON (USA), Robert GARRIGUS (USA).

65 - Tom GILLIS (USA), Gaganjeet BHULLAR (IND).

66 - J.B. HOLMES (USA), Ricky BARNES (USA), Danny CHIA (MAS), Greg Chalmers (AUS), Jbe' KRUGER (RSA), Tiger WOODS (USA).

67 - Kevin NA (USA), Pat PEREZ (USA), Kevin STADLER (USA).

68 - Brendon de JONGE (ZIM), Martin LAIRD (SCO), Ben CRANE (USA), David LIPSKY (USA), Jason DUFNER (USA).

69 - Ryan PALMER (USA), Chris KIRK (USA), Bob ESTES (USA), Charlie WI (KOR), Jimmy WALKER (USA), Sean O'HAIR (USA), Kyle STANLEY (USA), Carl PETTERSSON (SWE), Masanori KOBAYASHI (JPN).

70 - William MCGIRT (USA), Johnson WAGNER (USA), Bill HAAS (USA), Scott HEND (AUS), John HUH (USA), Prom MEESAWAT (THA), Bo VAN PELT (USA), Marcus FRASER (USA).

71 - NOH Seung-Yul (KOR), Cameron TRINGALE (USA), Anirban LAHIRI (IND), Nick WATNEY (USA).

72 - Trevor IMMELMAN (RSA), John SENDEN (AUS), Thaworn WIRATCHANT (THA).

73 - SIDDIKUR  (BAN).

74 - Shaaban HUSSIN (MAS).

75 - Marc LEISHMAN (AUS), Scott PIERCY (USA).

HUTCHEON WINS NE ALLIANCE AT CRUDEN BAY

Tartan Tour No 1 Greig Hutcheon (Banchory) won the North-east Golfers Alliance at Cruden Bay with a three-under-par 67 which included an eagle 2 at the driveable par-4 third hole and birdies at the sixth, seventh, eighth and 11th in halves of 33 and 34.
He had bogeys at the fifth, ninth and 10th in winning the top scratch award by four shots from Scotland international Adam Dunton (McDonald Ellon) and another amateur, Andrew Campbell (Deeside).
Dunton was two under on the fourth tee after birdieing the second and third but he was three over par for the rest of the round with no further birdies and bogeys at the fifth, ninth and 13th in halves of 36 and 35.
Campbell birdied the eighth and 10th in halves of 37 and 34.
Last weeks winner by a five-stroke margin, Fraserburgh's Jordan Findlay (Paul Lawrie Golf Centre) had gone off the boil and returned a 12-over-par 82.
Greg Hutcheon and Class 1 and 2 handicap section winners  Phil Morrison (Oldmeldrum),  and retired professional Ian Smith (Hazlehead), won the three Ron Menzies Memorial Trophies. Ron was the NE Alliance secretary when he died in October 2010.

NORTH-EAST ALLIANCE
Cruden Bay
Par 70
LEADING SCRATCH
Par 70
67 G Hutcheon (Banchory).
71 A Dunton (McDonald Ellon), A Campbell (Deeside).
72 J Hopwood (Royal Aberdeen).
74 K Duncan (McDonald Ellon), J Duff (Newmachar), K Nicol (Fraserburgh), P Morrison (Oldmeldrum).
75 S Finnie (Caledonian).
76 Justin Duff (Fraserburgh).
77 B Mitchell (McDonald Ellon).
78 D Brown (Kemnay), P McLean (Paul Lawrie Golf Centre), D Macandrew (Royal Aberdeen), G Munro (Fraserburgh), L Fowler (Royal Aberdeen).
81 G Paterson (Northern).
82 B Nicolson (Auchmill), J Findlay (Paul Lawrie Golf Centre), L Prouse (Hazlehead).
83 C Moir (McDonald Ellon).
84 P Murray (Banchory), K Watson (Deeside).
85 G Milne (Newburgh), J Duncan (Banchory)
86 I D Smith (Hazlehead), M Harling (Inchmarlo).
87 F Bisset (Banchory).
89 R Brown (Newburgh).
90 B Lumsden (Northern).
94 S Dillon (Kemnay).

HANDICAP PRIZEWINNERS
Class 1 - P Morrison (Oldmeldrum) (5) 69; L Fowler (Royal Aberdeen) (6) 72;
S Finnie (Caledonian) (1), B Mitchell (McDonald Ellon) (3) 74; L Prouse (Hazlehead) (6) 76.
Class 2 - I D Smith (Hazlehead) (11) 75; M Harling (Inchmarlo) (11) 75; B Lumsden (Northern) (14), S Dillon (Kemnay) (18) 76; R Brown (Newburgh) (12) 77.

 CRUDEN BAY SCORECARD
Par 70
OUT: 4-4-4-3-4-5-4-4-4 - 36
   IN: 4-3-4-5-4-3-3-4-4 - 34

TOP SCORECARDS

GREG HUTCHEON 67
OUT: 4-4-2-3-5-4-3-3-5 - 33
   IN: 5-2-4-5-4-3-3-4-4 - 34

ADAM DUNTON 71
OUT: 4-3-3-3-5-5-4-4-5 - 36
   IN: 4-3-4-6-4-3-3-4-4 - 35

ANDREW CAMPBELL 71
OUT: 4-4-4-3-4-6-5-3-4 - 37
   IN: 3-3-4-5-4-3-3-4-5 - 34 

JOEL HOPWOOD 72
OUT: 5-5-4-3-4-6-4-3-4 - 38
  IN:  3-3-3-5-4-3-3-6-4 - 34 

CALLUM NICOLL TOP SCOT IN DUBAI OPEN

Former Tartan Tour pro Callum Nicoll, now based in the Middle East, was the leading Scot in the latest MENAH Tour event, the Shaikh Maktoum Dubai Open at Al Badia Golf Club, Dubai this week. Nicoll shot a three under par 54-hole total of 213 (69-73-71) to finish joint 12th behind the winner, Welshman Stephen Dodd who had rounds of 68, 68 and 69 for 11-under-205. Dodd won by two strokes from joint runners up Englishmen Zane Scotland and Martin LeMesurier. Home-based Scots Gavin Dear (Murrayshall) 216, Greg Nicolson (Mortonhall) 218 and Duncan Stewart (Grantown on Spey) 223 finished down the field. LEADING FINAL TOTALS Par 216 (3x72) 205 Stephen Dodd (Wal) 68 68 69 207 Zane Scotland (Eng) 68 71 68, Martin LeMesurier (Eng) 70 67 70 210 Sebastian Heisele (Ger) 67 69 74, Mohammad Munir (Pak) 69 66 75, Fredrik Quicker (Swe) 64 77 69, Lindsay Reynolds (Can) 70 71 69 211 Peter Richardson (England) 75 70 66, Sean McNamara (Ire) 74 70 67 212 Max Williams (Eng) (am) 72 69 71, William Harrold (Eng) 69 69 74 213 Callum Nicoll (Sco) 69 73 71, Ian Keenan (Eng) 72 68 73 Yasin  Ali (Eng) 70 69 75, Michael Barrett (Eng) 70 75 69 214 Ross Bain (Sco) 71 67 76, James Housby (Eng) 69 70 75. OTHER SCOTS SCORES 215 Tom Buchanan 66 72 77 216 Gavin Dear 72 75 69 218 Greg Nicolson 73 72 73 220 David Gray 74 70 76 222 Simon Dunn 73 72 77 223 Duncan Stewart 77 69 77.

NE ALLIANCE TEE TIMES FOR WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 31

NEWBURGH on YTHAN GOLF CLUB
(switched from scheduled venue of McDonald Golf Club, Ellon)

Start times

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 31
08.15  B Harper - C Cassie - K Watson                                     
08.22  G Leslie - D McKay - R Fitzpatrick                                                                                                 08.29  G Munro - D Macandrew - F Clarke                                  
08.36  A Campbell - C Campbell - G Mitchell                                                          
08.43  M Winton - S Thomson - D George                                                             
08.50  D Brown - L Morgan - free                                                             
08.57  H Roulston - L Roger - S Dillon                                    
09.04  J D Hamilton - M Rendall - G Paterson                                
09.11  Claire Prouse - L Prouse - J Dalgarno                                          
09.18  C Lamb - R Lamb - E Kennedy                                
09.25  M Brown - R Brown - S Davidson                                                                                                                                                               &nbs 09.32  B Nicolson - J Nicolson - M Forster                                                                                      09.39  P Cornfield - F Nelson - K Beveridge                                                                                                  09.46  J Duff - A Dunton - K Duncan                                                                                                09.53  M May - P Anderson - C Nelson                                                                                            10.00  P McLean - F Forrest - N Stewart                                                                                                 10.07  D Leslie - G Homer - W Shaw
10.14  B Lumsden - E Adams - H McNaughton
10.21  P Cheyne - D Wright - S Scott
10.28  L Fowler - D Fleming - M Albeston
10.35  S Mann - S Dunn - S Mackie
10.42  I Grant - M Smith - P Leech
10.49  G Milne - J Duncan - M Rogers
10.56  J Jessiman - A Petrie - D Lawrie
11.03  J Murray - D Bisset - D Randall
11.10  G Hutcheon - F Bisset - C Brindley
11.17  J Hopwood - B Mitchell - G Lafferty
11.24  J Borthwick - N K Parker - P Guthrie
11.31  K Nicol - J Findlay - free
11.38  Free - free - free
11.45  Free - free - free
11.52  Free - free - free
11.59  I Taylor - M Harling - M Booth
12.06  M Duncan - S Finnie - D McKay

*Because of clock change, last tee time is 12.06