SOUTH KOREAN LADY PRO IN SECOND PLACE ON SPANISH TOUR

South Korean Miss Byun Hyun Min continues to make the most of the 10 to 15 per cent advantage she gets off the tee in the Spanish Evolve Tour circuit in the Murcia region.
Runner-up in last week's event, she is lying second at the halfway point of this week's Hacienda Riquelme Open over 36 holes.
Byun, who plays off a slightly forward tee compared with her male rivals, shot a level par 72 to be six shots behind the German leader, Florian Fritsch.
The South Korean Player is one shot ahead of a string of English players, headed by Alex Belt in third place on 73, one ahead of Darren Renwick.
There are no Scots taking part in this competition.

LEADING FIRST ROUND SCORES
Par 72
66 Florian Fritsch (Germany)
72 Miss Myun Hyun Min
73 Alex Belt (England)
74 Darren Renwick (England)
75 Matt Evans (England), William Harrold (England)

SELECTED SCORES
76 James Housby (England), Gary King (England) (T7)
78 David Booth (England) (10th).80 Matt Webb (England)        

GLENMUIR WINTER SERIES PRIZEWINNING PROS AT CRAIGIELAW

The Paul McKechnie-Graham Fox partnership finished as joint winners with the David Patrick-Gareth Wright pairing in the rescheduled Glenmuir Winter Series four-ball, better-ball competition at Craigielaw. Both pairs finished on 10-under-par 71 and earned £600 per side. Chris Currie and Neil Fenwick were runners-up with a 62 and earned £350 between them. The next Glenmuir Winter Series event will be held at Dundonald Links on February 21. GLENMUIR WINTER SERIES Craigielaw GC, Aberlady Four-ball better ball foursomes Par 71 61 Paul McKechnie (Braid Hills) and Graham Fox (Rowallan Castle); David Patrick (Elie SC) and Gareth Wright (West Linton). £600 to each pairing. 62 Chris Currie (Caldwell) and Neil Fenwick (Dunbar) £350. 63 Andrew Oldcorn (Kings Acre) and Andrew Erskine (Ratho Park) £250. 65 James McKinnon (Irvine) and Stephen Gray (Hayston) £200. 66 Christopher Russell (RAW Course Design) and David Russell (Archerfield Links) £150.

NORTH-EAST ALLIANCE SWITCH TO BUCKPOOL

Wednesday's North-east Golfers' Alliance competition has been switched from Oldmeldrum to Buckpool because the conditions will be better for play at the Buckie seaside course. Tee times arranged for Oldmeldrum will apply.

GREAT SCOTT! DEREK SAYS YES TO CRAIGIELAW PLACE ON PAUL LAWRIE LADIES' TOUR

Craigielaw Lodge (accommodation on site), Clubhouse and part of the course at Aberlady, East Lothian - 30min from Edinburgh

By COLIN FARQUHARSON
PLGC SLOT co-organiser with Nicola Melville

Craigielaw Golf Club director of golf Derek Scott has completed the list of 14 venues for the inaugural Paul Lawrie Golf Centre Scottish Ladies Open Tour.
The Aberlady, East Lothian course will make up a Lothians double-header with Tour Championship venue Marriott Dalmahoy to ring down the curtain on the PLGC SLOT 2013 season in the autumn week commencing Monday, October 7.

"Well done to you, Nicola and Alan Tait for the work done todate on something so worthwhile," said Derek i(pictured left) in an E-mail this morning.
"Craigielaw would be happy to help and we can accommodate times from 11.30am on the Monday or Tuesday, October 7 or 8."

LATER NEWS:  Confirmed dates:
Monday, October 7: 18 holes at Craigielaw.
Tuesday, October 8: Possible practice day at Marriott Dalmahoy.
Wednesday-Thursday, October 9-10: 36-hole, two-day PLGC SLOT Tour Championship at Marriott Dalmahoy.
 

The Tour Championship will be the only two-day, 36-hole event on the PLGC SLOT calendar. All the rest are 18-hole one-day affairs.
We will be asking competitors throughout the season if they prefer that format, designed to cut accommodation, or whether they would like to see all the events expanded in 2014 to two days over 36 holes with the Tour Championship 54 holes over three days.
Strictly speaking, there is still one PLGC SLOT venue to be named, the one that will form a North-east double-header on May 6-7 with Deeside Golf Club, Aberdeen.
Nicola and I know the venue but our lips are sealed until an official Press Release is made. But you won't be disappointed. It is a links course reckoned to be one of the best new lay-outs in Scotland, even the world!

APRIL

18 Marriott Dalmahoy East Course, Edinburgh.

19 Ratho Park, Edinburgh

MAY

6 North-east links venue (to be announced very shortly).

7 Deeside, Aberdeen. 

JUNE

No events because of British women’s open amateur

Championship and Vagliano Trophy which will

Involve all the elite amateurs.

JULY

2 Downfield, Dundee.

3 Carnoustie Burnside

11 Blairgowrie Rosemount, Perthshire.

12 Alyth, Perthshire.

AUGUST

26 Fairmont St Andrews Torrance Course.

27 The Duke’s, St Andrews.

SEPTEMBER

23 Haggs Castle, Glasgow.

24 Drumpellier, Glasgow

OCTOBER

 7 Craigielaw, Aberlady  East Lothian.

8 Possible practice day at Dalmahoy
9-10  Marriott Dalmahoy Tour Championship (36 holes, 2 days), Edinburgh

SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES EXIST AT ALMOST
ALL THE EVENTS
Individuals or companies interested should E-mail
Colin Farquharson at Colin@scottishgolfview.com

ROCCO MEDIATE MAKES WINNING DEBUT ON US SENIORS TOUR

            ROCCO MEDIATE ... 17 under par for 54 holes

                          Picture by courtesy of Getty Images(c)

BOCA RATON, Florida (AP) -- Rocco Mediate birdied the 18th hole and finished with a 1-under 71 to win the Allianz Championship on Sunday.

He finished the tournament at 17-under 199 and became the 16th player to have a winning debut on the US Champions Tour.

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Final leaderboard
Mediate at home
Charles Schwab Cup
Event video
Course overview
TOUR on Facebook 

Mediate's 4-foot birdie putt came after Tom Pernice junior missed a 5-footer at No. 18 that could have forced a playoff.
Mediate started the day with a three-shot lead, lost it by the 14th hole, but regained it when Pernice bogeyed the par-4 17th from a greenside bunker. Mediate protected that lead with a birdie on the par-5 closing hole.
"I'm ecstatic," Mediate said. "I have been saying all week it's never easy. It shouldn't be easy. I was prepared to make that putt (at No. 18), but I didn't have to."
Pernice, who had a final-round 70, finished tied with Bernhard Langer (68) for second place.
Pernice was the last player to win his Champions Tour debut three years ago, but is still searching for his second title.
"I played better than any other day as far as ball-striking, but I just couldn't make enough putts," Pernice said. "Rocco played well; he deserved to win. He battled down the stretch."
Langer was within a shot of Mediate on the back nine, but also couldn't make any key putts. It marked Langer's fourth top-three finish in this event in the past five years. Langer won here in 2010.
"The course played really fast and firm," Langer said. "I actually hit the ball too far a number of times. But two three-putts really hurt."
Mediate won six times on the US PGA Tour and also lost a memorable play-off to Tiger Woods in the 2008 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines. 
Mediate shot a course-record 61 in the second round here Saturday to help him match Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player, among others, in winning his inaugural Champions start.
"This means as much to me as anything I've done," Mediate said.
Mark O'Meara (69) and defending champion Corey Pavin (69) were both six shots off the lead.
Mediate's first prize was $270,000, compared with Brandt Snedeker's $1,170,000 at Pebble Beach.
 
LEADING FINAL TOTALS
Par 216 (3x72)
Players from USA unless stated
199 Rocco Mediate 67 61 71
201 Tom Pernice junior 66 65 70, Bernhard Langer (Germany) 66 67 68
205 Corey Pavin 676 69 69, Mark O'Meara 69 67 69
207 Tom Lehman 68 73 66, Duffy Waldorf 74 66 67, Fred Funk 67 69 71

SELECTED TOTALS 
210 Mark Mouland (Wales) 68 73 69 (T19)
211 Roger Chapman (England) 67 75 69 (T27)
219 Sandy Lyle (Scotland) 73 73 73 (T60)
Field of 81 players  

BRANDT SNEDEKER WINS BY TWO SHOTS AT PEBBLE BEACH

    BRANDT SNEDEKER WITH THE PEBBLE BEACH NATIONAL PRO-AM TROPHY

                                   Picture by courtesy of Getty Images(c)

FROM THE US PGA TOUR WEBSITE
PEBBLE BEACH, California  -- With one last birdie, Brandt Snedeker finally had a chance to catch his breath at one of the best places in golf.
He was on the 18th tee at Pebble Beach with a three-shot lead Sunday as he gazed into the sun at an endless ocean and tried to grasp just how far he has come in the past few months. 

There was that big win at the TOUR Championship by Coca-Cola to claim the $10 million prize as the FedExCup champion.
He played in his first Ryder Cup.
In his past nine tournaments, he has six finishes in the top three, including back-to-back weeks as the runner-up to Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods.
Snedeker wasn't about to let anyone get in his way at the AT and T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.
"Just hard to put into words, to have a stretch of golf like I had the last couple of months," Snedeker said after his two-shot win. "Something you dream about. Something you think that you can do, but you don't really know until you actually put it together. And I have.
"I'm really enjoying this, and hopefully can parlay this into the best year of my career."
He was the best all week at Pebble Beach, finishing at 19-under 267 to break by one shot the tournament record. Mickelson (2007) and Mark O'Meara (1997) each had a 20-under 268 when Poppy Hills was still in the rotation.
Snedeker, who increased his lead to 700 points in the FedExCup standings at 1,282, built his advantage in the final round by playing the opening seven holes in 5 under. He fired at the flag on the par-3 17th to set up his last birdie and closed with a 7-under 65, his 10th consecutive round in the 60s.
A tap-in par on the 18th gave him a two-shot win over Chris Kirk, who stayed in the hunt all day without ever putting too much pressure on Snedeker.
The hottest player in golf, Snedeker finally has a trophy to show for it.
"The last two weeks, playing great but running into two Hall of Famers, really motivated me to go out and prove that I can handle the lead," he said.
With his fifth career win -- and fourth over the past 22 months -- Snedeker improved to a career-best No. 4 in the world, making him the second-highest American in the world ranking behind Woods.

"Sneds is officially the best golfer on the planet right now," Ian Poulter tweeted from home in Orlando, Florida. "Some serious golf he is playing."
In five starts this year, the 32-year-old from Nashville already has a win, two second-place finishes and a third. He never had much of a chance against Woods at the Farmers Insurance Open or Mickelson at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, who each had big leads going into the final round.
Snedeker was tied with James Hahn, a 31-year-old rookie from the Bay Area, and seized control with an eagle and three birdies on the opening seven holes. Snedeker responded to his only bogey, a three-putt at No. 9, by rolling in birdie putts on the next two holes.
Hahn was looking forward to learning something from his debut in the final group, and he saw Snedeker put on a clinic.
"I learned that he is a better guy than he is a golfer. The dude is world class," Hahn said. "He's obviously one of the best, if not the best golfer right now, and possibly for the last year. But how he conducts himself as a person on an off the golf course, that's also world class. He deserved to win today. ... I'm sure if you ask him, it was never a doubt that he was going to win the golf tournament."
Snedeker concurred.
"I definitely didn't want to do anything but win today," he said. "I was out there for one purpose and one purpose only, and I was extremely focused all day. I did a great job of staying patient and I did a great job of playing the golf course the way you're supposed to play it."
He now heads off to a vacation on Maui before returning for the stretch run leading to the Masters.
Winning a major is the next step for Snedeker, who has emerged as a veritable threat wherever he plays with a confident putting stroke and a dramatic increase in hitting fairways off the tee.
Kirk never got closer than two shots of the lead, missing an 8-footer on the 16th that could have put some pressure on Snedeker. He closed with a 66 to finish at 269, a score that would been good enough to win all but four times at Pebble Beach since this event began in 1937.
"We've had a lot of tournaments like that on TOUR this year where somebody has really just kind of blitzed the field," Kirk said. "I felt like I played well enough to win a golf tournament and came up a little bit short."
Hahn wound up with a 2-under 70 and tied for third with Jimmy Walker (66) and Kevin Stadler (65). The day wasn't a total loss for Hahn. He previously tied for fourth at the Humana Challenge in partnership with the Clinton Foundation, and his tie for third gets him into the Northern Trust Open at Riviera next week. He hasn't missed a cut this year and is already 11th in the FedExCup standings. 
 The only drama on a pristine day on the Monterey Peninsula came from Patrick Reed. His 12-foot birdie putt on the final hole gave him a tie for seventh with Fredrik Jacobson, and kept Jacobson from qualifying for the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship by 0.0002 points.
The final spot in the 64-man field based on the world ranking instead goes to Shane Lowery of Ireland, who did not play this week.
Even better for Snedeker was leaving with two trophies. He and his amateur partner, Nashville investor and longtime friend Toby Wilt, tied for first in the pro-am. Wilt endowed a golf scholarship at Vanderbilt University, and Snedeker was the first recipient.
Snedeker has come a long way and might just be getting started.
"I would love to be known as the best American golfer," Snedeker said. "I've got a long way to go to do that, but this is a great start to the year. Couldn't have scripted much of a better one, except for maybe winning the last two weeks if the guys (Woods and Mickelson) hadn't played."
Mickelson, the defending champion, hit two more balls in the ocean on the 18th hole, but at least this time he didn't slip on the rocks. He closed with a 72 and tied for 60th.
Snedeker kept to his strategy of attacking the opening seven holes, the key to scoring at Pebble Beach.
He hit a 4-iron that caught the collar of the green and rolled to 4 feet on the par-5 second hole for an eagle, matched birdies with Hahn on the fourth hole, and then hit a 3-wood that skirted the collar of the green on the par-5 sixth and settled 20 feet away for a two-putt birdie.
From there, the FedExCup champion had to worry about the rest of the field. Kirk, Walker and even Retief Goosen all tried to make a run, and it looked as though Snedeker might help them out when he gunned his birdie putt past the hole and off the green at the ninth for a bogey.
Snedeker made five bogeys this week, and answered with a birdie four times. He rammed home a 25-foot birdie on the 10th, and then followed that with a 15-foot birdie on the 11th to expand his lead to four shots.
Scotland's Russell Knox, who had the lowest score (64) in the first round, finished T28 with subsequent rounds of 73-71-72 for a six-under-par total of 280. 
The Jacksonville Beach, Florida-based man from Inverness earned $47,125 and is 120th on the US Tour money list. He has played in two events this year, having missed the cut in the first one.  
 About the winner: Brandt Snedeker
+Earned first prize of $1,170,000 and is US PGA Tour money table leader with a total of $2,859,920. 

• Earns fifth career US PGA Tour  win at the age of 32 years, 2 months and 2 days in his 171st career start. Second player in his 30s to win on TOUR in 2013 (Tiger Woods/Farmers Insurance Open).

• Moves from No. 6 to No. 4 in the Official World Golf Ranking, passing Justin Rose (5) and Louis Oosthuizen (6).

• Best finish in five previous starts at AT and T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am was T21 (2010).

• First winner of AT and T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am to post all four rounds in the 60s since Vijay Singh (2004).

• Becomes first player to follow up two consecutive runner-up finishes with a win (dating back to 1990).

• In 19 rounds thus far in 2013, has 16 rounds in the 60s and 18 under-par rounds.

• Has had a round in the 60s in 16 of his last 17 rounds on TOUR. A 75 in the second round of the Farmers Insurance Open is his lone over-par round.

• Is 33/37 for sub-par rounds on the US PGA Tour dating back to the first round of the Wyndham Championship in August of last year. The week before the Wyndham Championship, he missed the cut at the US PGA Championship.  LEADING FINAL TOTALS Par 286 (2x72, 2x71) Players from USA unless stated 267 Brandt Snedeker 66 68 68 65 269 Chris Kirk 71 68 64 66  272 Kevin Stadler 69 69 69 65, Jimmy Walker 68 71 67 66, James Hahn 71 65 66 70 273 Jason Day (Australia) 68 68 70 67. 274 Fredrik Jacobson (Sweden) 71 66 70 67, Patrick Reed 68 69 67 70. 275 Patrick Cantlay 66 70 72 67, James Driscoll 72 67 67 69, Retief Goosen (South Africa) 71 68 67 69 SELECTED TOTALS 280 Russell Knox (Scotland) 64 73 71 72 (T28) 281 Greg Owen (England) 65 75 73 68 (T30) 283 Lee Westwood (England) 68 70 75 72 (T46) 285 Phil Mickelson  69 71 73 72 (T60)