ABERDEEN PENNANT LEAGUE TABLES, SPONSORED BY THE CULTS HOTEL

ABERDEEN PENNANT LEAGUE LATEST TABLES

(Sponsored by the Cults Hotel)

LEAGUE A

	P	W	D	L	Pts
Murcar Links	3	2	1	0	5
Banchory	3	2	0	1	4
Auchmill	4	1	1	2	3
Northern	3	1	0	2	2
Newmachar	3	1	0	2	2

LEAGUE B

	P	W	D	L	Pts
Portlethen	3	3	0	0	6
Caledonian	4	2	0	2	4
Royal Aberdeen	3	1	0	2	2
Hazlehead	3	1	0	2	2
Bon Accord	3	1	0	2	2

LEAGUE C

	P	W	D	L	Pts
Deeside	4	2	2	0	6
Nigg Bay	3	2	1	0	5
Peterculter	3	1	1	1	3
Stonehaven	3	1	0	2	2
Craibstone	3	0	0	3	0

MONTY TIES FOR NINTH IN DEBUT ON US SENIORS TOUR

FROM THE GOLF.COM WEBSITE

By GARY VAN SICKLE Senior Writer, Sports Illustrated 
FOX CHAPEL, Pennsylvania -- Timing is everything. As Kenny Perry holed the final putt of the Constellation Senior Players Championship, a tour official stood by the 18th green waiting to blow the warning siren to alert spectators that a rogue thunderstorm was about to hit the Fox Chapel Golf Club like a blitzing Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker.
The moment Perry's par putt hit the bottom of the cup, the official fired off the horn. So obviously, it was a good call by tour officials to move Sunday's final round up as early as possible. 
The leaders went off at 9:40 a.m. and finished with only minutes to spare before heavy sky rumbling and lightning flashes began and yet another batch of thundershowers arrived. 
It was a good week to build an ark, a tough week to hold a golf tournament. But it's in the books.
Perry won, ending a victory drought of 16 months and reasserting himself as the most likely king of the hill on the Champions Tour. Fred Couples and Duffy Waldorf tied for second and Colin Montgomerie, making his senior debut, tied for ninth.

Monty, pictured, earned $64,800 for rounds of 69, 70, 68 and 65, adding up to an eight-under total of 272 - his best aggregate for a long time.
Compatriot Sandy Lyle finished joint 22nd on 270 with socres of 70, 69, 71 and 66. Sandy earned $30,510 so a good weekend for two senior Scots. 
As for good timing, Perry needed this win, his first senior circuit major title. He'd just kicked away the Senior PGA Championship on the final nine last month at Bellerive in St. Louis and, of course, still has bittersweet memories of losing the Masters and the PGA Championship. It's a little hard to believe, given his ability, that the personable Perry, from Franklin, Kentucky, somehow had never won a major title. Well, now he has.
"I thought I was snakebit," Perry said. "I messed up down the homestretch at Bellerive and I lost that Masters and PGA in playoffs. There was so much heartbreak. I remember what Phil said at Merion when he was talking about the U.S. Open and he said, All I feel is heartbreak. I feel your pain, Phil."
The fact that Perry still talks about those major losses tells you they haven't faded far into his memory bank.
"Bellerive wasn't as big as the other two," Perry said. "That was a big course that set up perfectly for me. I just fell apart the last day. I lost my rhythm and lost shots right, then I hit a couple shots long. Today, my word was patience. I geared back."
Because the Fox Chapel course, a classic Seth Raynor design, was so soft after a week of on-again, off-again rain, it was difficult for players to control the spin on their approach shots. Perry adjusted his game plan to the conditions and tried to hit longer clubs into the greens, using three-quarter swings to take some of the backspin off the ball. It paid off. While Couples and Waldorf mostly lost the backspin battle all day, Perry kept hitting it close.
"I hit a lot of shots I wasn't comfortable with today," Perry said. "I was hitting 110-yard pitching wedges and a lot of three-quarter swings. I wasn't comfortable with them but they turned out well."
Thanks to Perry, the Senior Players will have a nice highlight video. There was a 20-foot birdie putt at the 11th hole that he stroked a bit too hard. Luckily, it poured in the center of the cup and went down because it would've trundled well past. "That was a bonus," admitted Perry, who took home $405,000 for winning.
He missed a pair of six-footers for birdie at 14 and 15 but at 16, he spun back a wedge to two inches for a breathe-in birdie, then nestled a 6-iron shot to three feet at the par-3 17th, Fox Chapel's famous Biarritz green with a swale crossing its midsection. The 17th was missing some of its teeth Sunday as it played 187 yards, well short of the regular 231-yard tee marker.
 And Perry owns this hole. Last year in Sunday's round, with the same tee and a similar pin location, he made a hole-in-one. This time, he dropped his 6-iron shot to two feet for birdie to keep a two-shot edge over Couples, who had hit a nice shot to six feet and made a clutch birdie to stay temporarily within striking distance.
Couples and Waldorf reached the par-5 18th green in two but Couples had a long, curvy eagle putt that he stroked to five feet. His birdie try lipped out, however, and Perry, who had played to just in front of the green in two, putted to five feet, missed his birdie and tapped in for par and the win.
"The last nine was like a dog race," Perry said. "I said yesterday it was going to take a low score to win. Those are the best three rounds I've put together in a senior tournament 63, 63, 64. I knew I had to make birdies today. And when you don't make a bogey on the weekend in a major, you've got a good chance. I hit it beautifully today."
One man's timely win is another man's heartbreak. This time, Couples was on the short end of some bad luck and poor putting. Fred has two issues. One, it's unlikely his back troubles are going to let him wake up and feel good for four straight days of tournament play.
 For another, he gets erratic on putts inside five feet. Both problems showed up on the weekend. Couples finished off a rain-delayed 62 Saturday morning in the second round in which he'd been seven under par through 11 holes the previous day. He just didn't seem to have it Saturday afternoon until a late flurry of birdies reinserted him into the mix.
Sunday, he couldn't make much happen. At least, nothing good.
For serious bad luck, take the eighth hole ... please. Fred's approach flew slightly long. It might have spun back and been all right ... except it hit a sprinkler head, caromed high and in the air and zoomed over the green, leaving him a short par-3 back to the hole. Even in the face of misfortune, Fred is still the coolest man in golf. He watched the crazy outcome, barely held up his hand to waist level, palm up, in the classic "What the heck?" pose and slightly shook his head. That bad bounced turned into a bogey.
That was hardly a death blow. Not with ten holes left. In fact, he poured in a lengthy birdie putt on the next hole and offered a mock smile, as if to indicate, "Sure, now it goes in."
The final nine was a three-man race after Waldorf scorched the front nine for 29 and took a one-shot edge.
At the 10th, Fred wedged close to a back pin but watched his ball yo-yo back, catch and slope and stop 30 feet away. He had to sink an eight-footer to save par.
He nearly drove the green at the par-4 12th, pitched it five feet past and stroked a weak putt that drifted off the cup's right edge. He bombed a drive over the trees and the corner at 13, a left-to-right dogleg, and spun another approach shot back to some 40 feet.
He finally did make a four-footer for birdie at the 14th, tying for the lead when Perry missed his own four-footer for birdie. The 15th began Fred's demise. It's a downhill par 4 to a creek, then slightly back uphill to a sharply sloped green. Waldorf spun his shot off the false front, 20 yards back down the fairway and made the bogey that dropped him back. Fred hit a nice shot to eight feet, Perry spun a wedge off slope behind the pin to five feet. Couples tried to pound hit birdie putt in but hammered to too hard. The ball burned the edge of the cup and rolled three feet past. Perry then played too much break and missed his birdie putt on the left. Then Fred lipped out his par putt.
Perry had a one-shot lead and you know the rest. He stuffed it tight for birdies on the next two holes to close out his opponents. It was a nice way to justify after all the TV air-time he scored Friday. At Fox Chapel? Nope. He scored preferred seats at PNC Park right behind home plate to watch the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Milwaukee Brewers in a Friday night baseball game. His cell phone kept ringing from friends who called to say they saw him on the telecast. The game was shown nationally by Fox Sports and his seat, just off to the side of home plate, had him in the background on nearly every pitch.
"I enjoyed the game," Perry said. "Boy, the Pirates infield must be the best defense in the league. That Jordy (Mercer) and (Neil) Walker kid, they turned some great double plays. It was good to get away from golf and relax. I had a great time."
This week, Perry will make a return appearance on the US PGA Tour. Because he has an endorsement deal with the Greenbrier Resort, he'll play in this week's Greenbrier Classic in White Sulfur Springs, W. Va. He made the cut last year but he isn't approaching the PGA Tour with any lofty expectations.
"I've already smelled all the roses there," Perry said with a grin. "I'm not too worried about my results."
He knows his future is on the Champions Tour and he's finally got his first major. The next two senior events, the Senior British Open and the Senior U.S. Open, are also majors.
"I'm hoping the floodgates have opened," Perry said.
For once, his timing was off. After a week of rain, some of it heavy, he could've chosen a world other than "floodgates."


LEADING FINAL TOTALS
Par 280 (4x70)
Players from USA unless stated otherwise

261 Fred Perry 71 63 63 64 ($405,000).
263 Fred Couples 66 67 67 68, Duffy Waldorf 66 67 66 64  ($216,000 each).
SELECTED TOTALS
271 Bernhard Langer (Germany) 72 69 63 67 (8th) (486,400).

272 Colin Montgomerie (Scotland) 69 70 68 65 (T9) ($64,800).



275 Roger Chapman (England) 69 69 69 68 (T18) ($36,720).
276 Sandy Lyle (Scotland) 70 69 71 66 (T22) ($30,510)
282 Mark Mouland (Wales) 72 72 68 70 (T39) ($12,420)  
TO VIEW ALL THE FINAL TOTALS

CLICK HERE

MARTIN WINS MONDAY PLAY-OFF ON WEB.COM TOUR

FROM THE WEB.COM TOUR WEBSITE
NEWBURGH, Indiana – Third-year pro Ben Martin two-putted for par on the first play-off hole Monday morning (USA time) to win the Web.Com Tour's United Leasing Championship presented by Professional Transportation, Inc. and collect his first career win.

CLICK HERE FOR 
Results Money list Full coverage

The Web.com Tour was formerly the Nationwide Tour.
Martin drew the leadoff spot in a four-man playoff and played the treacherous 18th hole perfectly. A 3-wood into the fairway was followed by a 6-iron on the green and two putts for a par-4 that was good enough to beat Joe Affrunti, Ashley Hall and Billy Hurley.
The four were tied at 11-under 277 following the end of regulation play Sunday but a nearly four-hour rain delay didn’t leave them enough daylight for the overtime session.
“I woke up at 5:30 this morning and was ready to go,” said Martin, who posted a 5-under 67 Sunday. “I knew they were calling for rain but we’re used to playing this waiting game.”
The four had to wait a little longer when morning rains pushed the scheduled start of the playoff back an hour and 20 minutes as maintenance crews worked feverishly to make the 18th hole playable at Victoria National Golf Club, which saw more than nine inches of rain fall during the week.
“When I drew a number and saw it was number one I was pretty pleased,” said Martin, who wound up collecting a check for $108,000 and moved to No. 4 on the money list. “It’s such a tough drive because right is in the water and left is in the rough or the bunker.
I was happy to get it out of the way and that probably did put a little pressure on them.”
Affunti was next on the tee and watched his drive bounce out a fairway bunker and into some heavy rough. Hurley and Hall followed with disastrous shots that found the water that guards the entire right side of the hole.
“I knew walking off the tee that I was a little bit in command,” said Martin. “I didn’t want to get ahead of myself.”
Hall’s hopes were dashed when he hit a second ball into the water. Hurley laid up to about 80 yards and all Affrunti could do was hack out of the rough to about 100 yards. That left Martin with the advantage.
“I’m sure all four of us sitting up there on the tee would have taken a four if they would have given it to us,” he said. “It’s a tough hole and four is always a good score. I didn’t know if I would win it with a four but I probably wasn’t to going to lose it.”
Martin’s shot from 185 yards was a hair left of his target but settled in the middle of the green about 20 feet from the cup.
Martin’s birdie putt caught an edge of the cup but settled within tap-in range. Hurley rolled in a 12-footer for bogey and Affrunti missed his par attempt from 8 feet.
That left it up to Martin.
“I had about 12-14 inches to tap in but that’s still nerve wracking. I played the hole the way I visualized it,” said Martin, who became the Tour’s eighth first-time winner in 14 tournaments this year.
 “It’s still sinking in. It’s a great feeling. You just try to get a little better every year and that’s what I’ve done since junior golf and up through college. I can see the progress. It’s just a process out there of doing the little things that I need to do to get better and trusting the results will come.”
Final notes:
-- The start of the playoff was delayed by morning rain and thunderstorms. Play began at 9:05 and concluded at 9:21 a.m.
-- Ben Martin collected a check for $108,000 and pushed his season total to $208,305. He moved from No. 21 to No. 4 on the money list.
-- Martin entered the week with five top-15 finishes in his past seven starts. He tied for fourth at the Rex Hospital Open a week ago.
-- Martin is in his second full season on the Web.com Tour. This was his 40th career start on Tour.

BIG NAMES AT OPEN LOCAL QUALIFYING AT LOTHIAN VENUES

NEWS RELEASE FROM THE R and A
Former Ryder Cup captains Colin Montgomerie and Mark James lead a strong field at Local Final Qualifying (LFQ) for The Open Championship tomorrow.

The 2010 and 1999 European captains will be joined in the 288-man field by former Ryder Cup players Jarmo Sandelin, Paul Broadhurst and Peter Baker, three-time European Tour winners Andrew Oldcorn , Pablo Martin and Peter Hedblom, Alastair Forsyth, who has won twice, and veteran American Scott Dunlap.

Twelve places in The Open, which will be played at Muirfield from 18-21 July, are on offer at the 36 hole qualifying event which is being played over four East Lothian courses: Dunbar, Gullane No 1, The Musselburgh and North Berwick.

Fresh from a strong showing in the Constellation Senior Players Championship on the Champions Tour in the US where he finished tied 9th, Monty said he was hoping to make his first appearance in The Open since 2010 when he finished tied 68th.

“The Open is the biggest championship in the game and we all want to play in it,” added the 50-year-old Scot. “Any time it’s played in Scotland it’s a bit extra special for me and I’m hopeful I can qualify and take my place at Muirfield.”

The eight-time European Tour Order of Merit winner will tee off at 8.40am and 2.10pm at Gullane No 1 in the company of young Scot Zack Saltman, whose brothers Lloyd, the Silver Medal winner at the 2005 Open and Elliot, are also seeking to qualify at Musselburgh and Dunbar respectively, and England’s Max Orrin, who reached the semi-finals of last month’s Amateur Championship at Royal Cinque Ports.

James (59), the winner of 18 European Tour events whose best finish in The Open was tied third at Royal St George’s in 1981, tees off at 9.00am at Gullane No 1 and will be looking to make his first appearance in The Open since 2000.

Having won last week’s Regional Qualifying event at Bruntsfield, Oldcorn (53) is aiming for a repeat of 26 years ago when he came through LFQ to qualify for The Open at Muirfield. 

Also in the field at Gullane are Spaniard Martin, who became the first amateur to win an event on the European Tour at the Estoril Open de Portugal in 2007, and who has won two further Tour events, Forsyth, who won the Madeira Islands Open in 2008, Dunlap, who finished in a tie for 10th at The Open in 1999, and former Walker Cup player Steven O’Hara, who played in The Open at Royal Lytham and St Annes last year.

Former Ryder Cup players Baker and Broadhurst head the field at North Berwick along with Sweden’s Hedblom, who won the 2009 Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles. Former Amateur Champion Iain Pyman, who won the Silver Medal at The Open in 1993, is also in the field. Fifer George Murray, who finished in a tie for third at the 2011 Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, will be hoping to qualify to make his debut in The Open Championship.

At The Musselburgh, former Ryder Cup player Sandelin will be in the field alongside the 2010 St Andrews Links Trophy champion Matthew Southgate. 

At Dunbar, Jin Jeong, the 2010 Amateur Champion at Muirfield, will be seeking a return to the famous East Lothian links along with the 2012 Amateur Champion Alan Dunbar and 2011 runner-up Michael Stewart.

Entry to the LFQ venues is free of charge. For the full draw for Local Final Qualifying at Dunbar, Gullane No1, North Berwick and The Musselburgh visit TheOpen.com.

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HUGH HUNTER'S CLACKMANNAN COUNTY NEWS ROUND-UP

 Alloa Golf Club team captain Andrew Whitelaw with the trophy and team members after the success in the Jubilee mixed foursomes.

 ALLOA TAKE JUBILEE MIXED FOURSOMES

First played in 1963, the Clackmannan County Mixed Foursomes has always been an enjoyable event in its 50 year history.  The first winners were Alloa and they repeated their success last weekend 50 years on at Schawpark  With five out of the County Clubs competing, the Alloa team won by an emphatic 13 shots. The original event was on a scratch basis, but in modern times, net scores are used which theoretically gives every couple an equal footing.

The win by Alloa completes a double since their team took the men’s foursomes title earlier in the season.

 FULL RESULTS

 (Best three out of four net scores to count)

 1 ALLOA 212 (Ian Ross and Morag Hunter 65; Andrew Main and Alison Boyes 76.5; Jim Allan and Tracey-Anne Whitelaw 75; David Abernethy and Janie McMahon 72)

2 DOLLAR 225

3 TILLICOULTRY  227.5

T4 ALVA, BRAEHEAD 235  

LAWRENCE TOPS COUNTY CONTINGENT.

 In the East of Scotland Championship which is a Scottish Golf Union Order of Merit event, the locals had a mixed time.  Alloa’s Jamie Aitken with rounds of 75 and 76 missed the cut set at 148, but Scott Borrowman (Dollar) and Lawrence Allan (Alva)  made it through to the last 36 holes. 

Best placed at the end of the 72 hole event was Allan finishing 10th equal at 7 over par (72, 75, 71, 73) with Borrowman further back at 13 over par (72, 75, 75,76). The winner was Jamie Savage (Cawder) after a play-off against Scott Stewart-Cation (The Duke's) after they finished on one-over-par 285.

 

   A BIT OF IRISH CHEER FOR CALLUM

 The Irish Open was a mixture for Callum Macaulay -  considerable flashes of brilliance neutralised by some over-par scores.  He opened with a  one over par 73, and when he stood three over par in the second round, it looked like a missed cut.

However, his fighting spirit brought him back to level par, including a birdie at the last, and that was right on the cut line. He fell back in round three with a four over 76, but in the last round he finished with a flourish scoring 69, including five birdies in the last six holes. That run was spoiled with a double-bogey 5 at the short 17th.

Both Scott and Callum are in action at the final local qualifying for the Open Championship at Muirfield.
Callum goes straight into the field at North Berwick, while Scott made it through for the final qualifying with a 70 at Bruntsfield Links and is playing at Musselburgh.   
Both will be up against strong opposition in the 36 hole events, and competition is certain to be strong for the few places on offer in the Open Championship starting list.

       

   LOCAL EVENTS COMING UP

  Entry forms should now be in the local Golf Clubs for the 36 hole Clackmannan County Stroke Play event to be held at Alloa on July 28.  The event is used as a qualifying competition of local Clubs to represent a Clackmannanshire club in the Scottish Club Championship to be held in September at Luffness Golf Club.  

Hopefully there will be a strong field of the top County players. The event is good value, and can be an enjoyable day out on a good local golf course.

 Next weekend is the Alexander Trophy at Braehead where clubs from Stirlingshire and Clackmannan compete for the annual trophy.  Five Clackmannan clubs will compete alongside seven from Stirlingshire, starting at 10am on July 7.

 There is an OPEN GREENSOMES at Tillicoultry and the HUGH McDONALD invitation at Braehead, both on July 6.