FIRST NORTH OR NORTH-EAST WINNER OF TITLE IN 14 YEARS

  Barry Brooks with the championship trophy and the Blairgowrie clubhouse as a backdrop
                               Picture by courtesy of Kenny Smith.

BARRY BROOKS WINS SCOTTISH 

SENIORS' TITLE BY SIX STROKES


By COLIN FARQUHARSON
Colin@scottishgolfview.com
Aberdonian Barry Brooks maintained the lead over the last 36 holes to run out a comfortable six-stroke winner  of the Scottish senior open amateur stroke-play championship over the Rosemount course at Blairgowrie Golf Club today.
Brooks had scores of 70, 69 and 74 for a three-under-par total of 213.
Three Englishmen tied for second place - Alan Mew (Stoneham), whose closing 71 was the joint best last round, Roy Smethurst (Crewe) and Stephen East (Moortown).
Brooks was Aberdeen Links champion in 1992, playing out of the Northern Golf Club. He is now a member at the exclusive members' club, Meldrum House, at Oldmeldrum, Aberdeenshire. He is the first member of that golf club, which was founded in 1997, to win a national title.
After the second-round slump by the clear first-day leader, Ian Brotherston (Dumfries and County) from an opening 67 to an 83, Brooks led by four shots from Ian Hutcheon, winner of the title in 2003, 2004 and 2007, at the start of the final round.

The Monifieth maestro's bid for a fourth over-55s' title were buried under 41 shots to the turn on his way to a five-over 77.
Hutcheon, pictured right by courtesy of Steve Ellis, uncharacteristically, opened with a triple bogey 7 and then bogeyed the second, fourth and seventh - six shots shed over the first seven holes.
Out in 41, he covered his last 11 holes in one under par with a bogey-free run and a solitary birdie at the 14th.
Brooks too did not play nearly as well as he had done over the first two days. Whereas on Wednesday and Thursday, he covered the outward half in three-under 33, Brooks, bogeying the second and fifth, required 37 shots for the first nine in the last round and did not have a single birdie.
Barry is the first winner of the prestigious title from the North or North-east of Scotland since Norman Grant (Moray) won at Falkirk Tryst in 2000.
 Richard Latham (Woodhall Spa), the defending champion, finished sixth on 221.

SCOTTISH SENIOR OPEN AMATEUR STROKE PLAY CHAMPIONSHIP
Blairgowrie GC Rosemount course
FINAL TOTALS
Par 216 (3x72)
213 B Brooks (Meldrum House) 70 69 74.
219 A Mew (Stoneham) 75 73 71, R Smethurst (Crewe) 76 71 72, S East (Moortown) 70 76 73.
220 I C Hutcheon (Monifieth) 71 72 77
221 R Latham (Woodhall Spa) 73 74 74.
223 L Chancellor (Inverness) 74 76 73, D Pearson (Royal Dornoch) 74 77 72.
224 C Banks (Stanton on the Wolds) 72 79 73.
225 R Partridge (Wildernesse) 75 79 71, M Reid (Sonning) 73 75 77
226 C Christy (Kilmacolm) 78 74 74, B Smith (Hamilton) 79 71 76
227 A McClure (Longhirst Hall) 73 76 78, P Slater (Sandiway) 70 82 75, J McManus (Uphall) 75 75 77
229 B Humble (Kilspindie) 77 73 79, M Wigley (Bude and N Cornwall) 75 77 77
228 B Edgar (Blackpool North Shore)70 81 77, J Watt (Edzell) 73 81 74, A Carman (Coventry) 77 75 76, R Wood (Long Ashton) 78 75 75, D Dickson (Lochmaben) 72 69 77, I Brotherston (Dumfries and Co) 67 83 78, J Johnston (Lanark) 72 79 77.
230 C Mitchelson (Prenton) 77 77 76, D Gardner (Broomieknowe) 72 78 80, T Patterson (Sunningdale) 77 75 78, G Rodaks (Pitreavie) 74 77 79, G MacDonald (Glenbervie) 74 77 79, A Campbell (Glenrothes) 78 73 79
231 A O'Neill (West Lothian) 77 77 77, Robert Stewart (Tulliallan) 77 77 77, D Niven (Newbury and Crookham) 76 78 77, D J Miller (Kilmarnock Barassie) 77 76 78, S Fawcett (Southport and Ainsdale) 77 75 79, L Gordon (Turnhouse) 77 76 78, D Nelson (Northernden) 71 78 82
231 L Salariya (Forfar) 75 78 79.
232 A McBride (Bedlingtonshire) 79 76 77, P Adams (Hollywood) 75 78 79, I Angus (Duff House Royal) 81 74 77, W. Erskine (Kilsyth Lennox) 79 76 77.
233 R S Millar (Cochrane Castle) 71 83 79, M Fell (Copt Heath) 74 79 80.
234 A Elder (Kirkcaldy) 77 77 80
235 R Forde (Scotscraig) 74 81` 80, A P S Brewer (Denham) 76 78 80.
237 R Gray (Irvine) 80 75 82.