Send for Sherlock Holmes - : Colin Farquharson cannot find the solution on his own

THE MYSTEROUS CASE OF STIRLING  
ARMOUR AND THE DOUGLAS McD PHILIP TROPHY

Cults Hotel owner Alastair Hutcheson, nephew of the late Douglas McD Philip, pictured with (left) the S C Armour Salver and (right) the Douglas McD Philip Trophy of which Armour was the first winner in 1957 at Hazlehead.

By COLIN FARQUHARSON
Colin@scottishgolfview.com
In 1956 Stirling Armour won the Royal Aberdeen club championship.
In 1957 Stirling Armour was the first winner of the Douglas McD Philip Trophy, a tournament set up by Douglas McD Philip who was an Aberdeen Football Club director.
His brainwave was to set up a match-play tournament, to be played at Hazlehead, early in a new golf season and featuring the champions from the previous year of the Aberdeen golf clubs - Bon Accord, Caledonian, Victoria, Royal Aberdeen, Murcar, Hazlehead and Nigg Bay.
From memory, I think that if for any reason the club champion was unavailable for the tournament played on weekday evenings, then the beaten finalist could step in.
Fast forward 56 years ... and a salver with the inscription
 
S C ARMOUR
Douglas McD Philip Trophy 1957
 
turned up at a silent auction at Aberchirder's Marnoch Church Social Club.
There were no bids for the tarnished trophy and it might well have finished up in the bucket but for
Duff House Royal Golf Club member Sally Morrison, a member of the church social club committee, who contacted me and asked if I had heard of S C Armour and the Douglas McD Philip Trophy.
To cut a long story short, I told her I did and asked her to send me the salver so that I could do
a bit of detective work to see if I could explain the origin of the salver.
Unfortunately, here we are several months later ... and I am no nearer coming up with the solution that I was on Day 1.
I contacted Alastair Hutcheson, owner of the Cults Hotel, near Aberdeen, and a nephew of the late Douglas McD Philip. He was a grandson of Deeside Golf Club member Paddy Philip who was a brother of Douglas McD Philip.
In the early 2000s it was Alastair Hutcheson who kept the Douglas McD Philip Trophy match-play tournament for club champions going. But it proved harder and harder to get a field of club champions together. They just didn't want to play in it! More of that later.
Back to Stirling Armour.
I have two theories about the S C Armour salver.
1 Stirling or one of his family had it made as a permanet memento of his success in the inaugural Douglas McD Philip Trophy tournament. The board, tray-like salver which was presented to the winner every year was returned to the organisers for engraving, ec before the next year's tournament. So Armour would not have had a trophy to put on his mantelpiece unless he had one made himself.
Which is one explanation.
2 Perhaps the Douglas McD Philip Trophy was not ready in time to be presented to Stirling Armour after his win in the first tournament in 1957. Hence the need for a stopgap trophy ... which could be the one that turned up unwanted at the silent auction in Aberchirder. But, having checked, I can confirm that S C Armour is the first name on the "real" Douglas McD Philip Trophy.
If there are any relations of Stirling Armour alive and well and reading this, could they please get in touch with me at Colin@scottishgolfview.com
They might be able to throw some light on the subject
The Douglas McD Philip Trophy was played for the last time in 2007 at Deeside - where Alastair Hutcheson is a member.
 The tournament had lost the attraction it had in the late 1950s and for the next 30 or 40 yearfs when I, and other P and J golf writers, reported on it early each golf season.
Now Alastair is hoping that the North-east District SGU officials will be willing to play a significant part in resurrecting the tournament for the Douglas McD Philip Trophy. There already is a North-east District Champion of Champions' tournament at the END of each season and it is a match-play affair.
NE District secretary George Young (Inverallochy) is to raise the subject at the next meeting of the NE District committee to see what can be done.
 It is a splendid trophy worth contesting and Alastair Hutcheson and the Cults Hotel would be quite willing to sponsor it.
George Young thinks that the way forward might be to convert it to a stroke-play tournament for club champions and not just the original Aberdeen clubs. It could be opened up to include the club champions for the previous year from all the clubs that contest the district's Journal Cup team tournament.

E-mail Colin@scottishgolfview.com if you know anything about Stirling Armour and also if you 
have any bright ideas for the future of the Douglas McD Philip Trophy tournament. 

 
Stirling Armour in action in the 1957 Douglas McD Philip Trophy match-play tournament at   Hazlehead.
Picture by courtesy of Aberdeen Journals Ltd.