CRAIGMILLAR PARK OPEN ON THIS COMING SATURDAY AND SUNDAY

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What do Sir Nick Faldo, Scott Jamieson, Marc Warren, Steven O’Hara, and Lloyd Saltman all have in common?

The answer is they have all won the Craigmillar Park Open.

Past winners have included golfing legends and talented young guns. Names you will recognize are Ronnie Shade, Charlie Green, Andrew Oldcorn, George McGregor and Craig Watson.

This 72 Hole competition takes place over a fine parkland course with breathtaking views across Edinburgh and out to East Lothian. Its inauguration was 1961 and it is the annual opening event of the Scottish Order of Merit season, qualifying for world amateur ranking points. It is regularly attended by many of the leading amateur golfers in Scotland, Ireland and from across the border. Last year it even included a player from Switzerland.

This year’s quality field will tee off from 7am on Saturday 13^th April and is limited to only 78 players. Entry for places is based on handicap and the standard of entries has been so high some years that qualification has been balloted at plus 1 !!

Craig Watson was a winner in 1997 and later that year he won the British Amateur at Royal St. Georges, Sandwich, Kent beating Trevor Immelman in the final round by 3 & 2.   

(Immelman later went on to win The Masters in 2008)

Craig commented following his win in Kent "I played the Sandwich final oblivious to the fringe benefits but I got to play in the Open at Troon, the Masters and also the Walker Cup at Quaker Ridge near New York”

Craig played in the 1998 Masters and was joined by a young Matt Kuchar who had won the US Amateur.

When Craig arrived in Augusta that year the weather was unusually cold and in the BBC coverage Craig was interviewed by Dougie Donnelly.

Craig said in the interview that if “he wanted to play in cold and windy conditions he could have just entered the Craigmillar Park Open” putting the competition on the map.

Last year’s 2012 Craigmillar Park Open presented a closely contested fourth and final round; the leading three man group were able to maintain their scoring success to finish the competition with the top positions. Play was tight throughout, going to last putts on the final green when Graeme Robertson was able to hold his nerve and hole his par putt for a round of 67 and take the full honours on 267 (13 under). Finishing one shot behind on 268 was Craig Watson, whose final round score of 64 (6 under) was the low score of the round. He was followed, a further shot off the pace, by Allyn Dick on 269. One shot more on 270, and equal 4th place, were 2010 winner Matthew Clark (Kilmacolm) and course record holder (60 - 2011) James White (Lundin).

Competitions like this don’t just happen without good planning and organization and all involved are preparing for what they hope will be another gripping competition in April.

Why not come along to Craigmillar Park and see golf’s future stars up close.

The club welcomes visitors and entry will be free. Catering will be available in the clubhouse each day.

See the Craigmillar Park Golf Club website for details of directions.

http://www.craigmillarpark.co.uk/pages.php/how_to_find_us.html

The competition entry form can be found on the Craigmillar Park Golf Club and S.G.U.websites and must be completed and sent with the Entry Fee of £40.00, to arrive at the club no later than Friday 22nd March 2013.

http://www.craigmillarpark.co.uk/files/documents/6247cbdc-6fa0-11e2-8ab8-bc305bd9eec9.pdf