THE MAN COLLECTS GOLF COURSES LIKE OTHERS COLLECT BAG TAGS

Like it or not, the new Master of the Golf 

Universe is Donald Trump

FROM THE GOLF DIGEST WEBSITE
By RON WHITTEN
Forget Jack and Arnie, Tiger and Phil. The Master of the Golf Universe is now Donald Trump. I came to that realization during an extended telephone conversation with the man on April 29. 

Trump was telling me how he'd just closed on the purchase of the famed Turnberry Resort in Scotland the previous evening. "It really wasn't on the market," he said, "but I made (resort owner) Leisurecorp a very attractive offer."
Trump told me his contract with the Dubai corporation prohibited him from revealing the purchase price. The London Independent reported the deal at $63 million. If true, that's darned cheap.

Now, this was just months after his purchase of Doonbeg in Ireland.  He'd previously bought the Ritz Carlton Golf Club in Florida, now renamed Trump National Jupiter, and had Jack Nicklaus revise his design there. He has Tom Fazio redoing his original 18 at Trump National Washington D.C., what had been Lowes Island Club on the shores of the Potomac.
The man collects golf courses like I collect bag tags.
He builds them, too. Trump has Gil Hanse constructing a course in Dubai. Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw have contracted to do one for him on the old Kluge Estate near Charlottesville, Virginia. Martin Hawtree is set to do another 18 at Trump International Scotland once Trump succeeds, as he insists he will, in defeating a plan to establish a windmill farm just off the coast of his Aberdeenshire resort (According to reports, Trump also can look forward to hosting the 2022 PGA Championship at his Trump National Bedminster course in New Jersey). Hawtree may also redesign the Greg Norman course at Trump International Golf Links Ireland (the old Doonbeg).        
"The big problem Greg had at Doonbeg is that he wasn't allowed to use the good land, the real dunes" Trump says. 
"Because of some snails. We're going to get permits to use that land, to put some holes in the best dunes. That will make a big difference."
As for Turnberry, Trump says he hasn't yet decided whether he'll rename it, but give him another 24 hours. "It's a great course, but the resort would do better with my name on it," he says. "To golfers, my name means quality."
He'll definitely gut the Turnberry Hotel, Trump says, and may have Hawtree remodel Turnberry's Kintyre Course, but won't touch the Ailsa Course, site of many memorable British Opens, without the approval of the R and A.


I asked Trump for his response to the claim that he's buying Turnberry simply to buy a spot on the Open rota. "I'm buying one of the great golf properties of the world," he said. "The Open just happens to be part of it."
I suggested to him that most financial analysts must think he's nuts, buying into golf at the time of a bear market. "Yeah, but I'm buying into a bear market at really good prices," he said. Indeed, he picked up the Kluge Estate in Virginia from bankruptcy and other golf courses he's picked up in recent years, including Doral, were distressed properties.
I then asked him if he were concerned that he might be overextending himself.  "Listen, my primary business is real estate, not golf," he said. "I also have a tremendous business in television. I buy these golf courses out of cash flow. None of them have any mortgages."
There's no concern on the part of his family that he's squandering the kids' inheritance. Sons Donald Jr. and Eric and daughter Ivanka are all part of the business. 
Indeed, it was Ivanka who negotiated the purchase of the Doral resort for a "bargain basement" $150 million just weeks after giving birth to a daughter.
No one else presently in golf seems as bold and as well-funded as Trump.  
That's why I call him Master of the Universe. Personally, I'd prefer someone far more humble, someone more dedicated to affordable golf and to promotion of the game for future generations. 
(To his credit, Trump says the new municipal course his company will operate in the Bronx, Trump Golf Links at Ferry Point, will offer free golf lessons this summer to youngsters.)


But beggars like me can't be picky. I want the game I love to survive and if it takes a gilded edge to accomplish that, so be it.
At the close of our phone conversation, Trump offered to show me his books sometime, to prove that all his golf operations are profitable. I plan to take him up on that. Not because I don't believe him, although it does seem fanciful that his courses are making money when most others right now are money pits. I just want to know how he does it. I want to learn from The Master. 

AYRSHIRE NAME SCOTTISH CHSHIP LINE-UP

GOLF BRIEF
CREDIT CAL CARSON GOLF AGENCY
QUERIES TO COLIN FARQUHARSON
TEL 01224 869782

AYRSHIRE NAME TEAM FOR SCOTTISH AREA CHSHIP

The Ayrshire six-man line-up for the Scottish men's area team championship at Old Ranfurly and Ranfurly Castle golf clubs from May 16 to 18 is:

John Shanks (Irvine)

Tommy McInally (Loudoun)

Keith Hamilton (Ayr Belleisle)

Malcolm Pennycott (Whiting Bay)

Michael Smyth (Royal Troon)

Stuart Robin (Prestwick St Cuthbert)

ends

ERSKINE'S ANDREW McCOLL PREVAILS IN EXTRA HOLES

  

DRAMATIC END TO RENFREWSHIRE 

JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL

RENFREWSHIRE GOLF UNION

PRESS RELEASE

 turnberry.db@gmail.com

  

The junior champions of the golf clubs in the Renfrewshire Golf Union fight it out annually at Paisley Golf Club for the Champion of Champions title.   

The event, sponsored by Greenlaw Garage, came to a nail biting end last weekend. 

In the first semi-final, Lee Wingate of Ranfurly Castle GC defeated Scott Ewing of Elderslie GC by a convincing 5 and 3.  In a much tighter match, Erskine’s Andrew McColl finally overcame Stephen Wilson of Greenock Whinhill GC with a birdie 2 at the 17th to win 2 and 1.

As anticipated, the final was an exciting affair with Lee taking an early lead with a birdie at the long third hole.  That hole was to feature later in the day!   

Andrew won at nine and 10 to take the lead for the first time but Lee fought back with a wedge to six inches at the 12th, conceded for the birdie.  Having gone one down at fourteen, having hit his drive out of the park, Andrew responded with a great birdie at the 16th and, after 18 holes, the match was all square. 

The first two extra holes were halved in par then drama at the long third where both players found the water from the tee and struggled to get back in position.  Eventually, Andrew sank a six foot putt to be crowned champion.

Picture shows Andrew McColl receiving the trophy from Ian Laing of tournament sponsors Greenlaw Garage

ROBIN WILSON'S NORTH OF SCOTLAND NEWS ROUND-UP

  Left to right: David Grindell, North District official Ali Paterson, Cameron Franssen (picture by Robin Wilson).

INVERNESS BOYS TO THE FORE 

IN NORTH JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIP

Inverness Golf Club's rich crop of young golfers filled four of the top six places in the J and C Fotheringham-sponsored North of Scotland boys' championship at Torvean golf course, Inverness last Sunday.

Euan Munro from the Caithness course at Reay prevented an Inverness 1-2-3 finish as winning the Spence Trophy for the first time was 18-year-old Cameron Franssen.

The clash of dates with the SGU's Scottish Hydro Junior Tour at Moray GC on Saturday and Sunday  reduced the entry for Torvean and subsequently there were no entrants from the North-east District whose juniors are also entitled to play for the Spence Trophy. 

But after missing the Scottish Hydro Junior Tour's Saturday 36-hole cut over Moray's New course with two cards of 78, Franssen was given a belated entry for his more familiar Torvean course on Sunday.

Returning a first round, one-over-par card of 70 (35-35), Franssen (18), the elder of the two Inverness golfing brothers, found himself holding only a one-shot first-round lead from clubmate and defending champion David Grindell, also 18.  Elgin's Andrew Moir had the best of the outward counts with a one under par 33 but three bogeys over the last four holes raised his inward half to 39 for a share of second place.

Reay's Munro and Franssen had the best of the second-round scores, both 71. It elevated Munro to third place after his opening 77 while Grindell fell back to 75, leaving the in-form Franssen cruising to a comfortable six-shot win on 141.

Moir added a second-round 72 to lead the Under-16 years section on 147, followed by Finlay Asher (The Nairn) (76-76), and third was his clubmate Hamish McColm, who showed the most improvement of the day - a first-round 86 cut down to 72 on the second circuit.

Twenty-five handicapper Steven Pears (Nairn Dunbar) found the much shorter Torvean course very much to his liking. He had a net 59 in the first round and followed it up with a nett 65 to lead the handicap scores. 

The  distant travellers from the West, Kyle Pirrie (Isle of Skye) and Scott Lawrie (Fort William) followed the winner with 125 and 127 respectively.

NORTH of SCOTLAND BOYS' CHAMPIONSHIP

Torvean GC, Inverness

CSS Rd 1 69. Rd 2 68

Scratch Aggregate (H R Spence Trophy) 

141 C Franssen  (Inverness) 70 71.  

147 D Grindell (Inverness) 72 75 

148 E Munro ( Reay) 77 71

155 J Penwright (Inverness) 83 72, M Schinkell (Orkney) 79 76, E  Gill (Inverness) 78 77

Under 16

Scratch

147 A Moir (Elgin) 72 75

152 F Asher (The Nairn) 76  76

158 H McColm (The Nairn) 86 72

Handicap 

S Pears (Nairn Dunbar) (25) 124;  K Pirie (Isle of Skye) (23) 125;  S Lawrie (Fort William) (18) 127 

ALAN CAMERON BACK ON NORTH DUTY

In form Fortrose and Rosemarkie golfer, Alan Cameron (pictured by Robin Wilson), one half of the duo that won the recent Black Isle Foursomes, gave the North District selectors a reason to approach the forthcoming Scottish area team championship with optimism after an outstanding score over The Nairn championship course last weekend to win the Finlay Cup.

The Cup is a handicap one yet scratch player Cameron won it with a gross and nett 66, bettering the next best gross score by six. 

Cameron's iron play and putter were the key to his play.  Two birdie 2s on his outward card plus further birdies at the second and seventh and eighth holes and just one dropped shot added up to a four- under-par outward half of 32. 

After his sixth birdie of the round at the 10th hole he collected another birdie 2 on the 11th green. With one inward half dropped shot at the 14^th he repaired this with a following hole birdie 3 to get him home in two under par 34 for an outstanding round of 66.

After a lengthy absence from the North team Cameron will accompany North Alliance champion Bryan Fotheringham (Inverness), his namesake Fraser Fotheringham (The Nairn), and the trio of Jordan Milne  (Elgin), Jordan Shaw (Boat of Garten) and Jeff Wright (Forres)  at the Scottish area team championship from May 16 to 18.

Ranfurly Castle and Old Ranfurly golf courses will host the three-day event with the 16 area teams reducing to eight after two stroke-play rounds for Saturday and Sunday's match play. 

Fife are the current champions. North have not won the title since 2000.

FINLAY CUP SCORES AT NAIRN

Handicap ( CSS 73 home and away) 

R A L Cameron (Fortrose and Rosemarkie) 66; T Hinde (The Nairn) 67; N MacKenzie (Inverness), M MacLeod ( The Nairn) 69.

Scratch – S Ritchie (The Nairn) 72; B Thomson (The Nairn), K  Donnelly (Nairn Dunbar) 73. 

Over-50s – C MacLeod (The Nairn) 6.

TARTAN TOUR'S NEW 54-HOLE EVENT AT DUNDONALD LINKS

    ROBERT ARNOTT WITH THE CHAMPIONSHIP TROPHY. PICTURE BY ANDY FORMAN

SENIOR ARNOTT SHOWS HE CAN STILL

BEAT THE BEST ON TARTAN TOUR

By COLIN FARQUHARSON
Colin@scottishgolfview.com
Robert Arnott's conditional status on the European Seniors Tour - gained with a top-14 finish at the over-50s Q School on the Algarve in February, may give him only limited opportunities but why should the Bishopbriggs Golf Range pro worry when he can still outplay the cream of the Tartan Tour on his day.
Arnott won the £6,000 first prize in the new £39,510 P and H Championship over three rounds at the Dundonald Links today (Wednesday), having already pocketed £1,300 for being the leading senior after 36 holes at the Ayrshire venue.
Robert was rock steady with three rounds of 69 for a 10-under-par total of 206.
In his final circuit, Arnott surrounded bogeys at the eighth, 10th and 13th, with birdies at the second, long third, long fifth and seventh, followed by a strong finish to hold David Orr (Mearns Castle), Louis Gaughan (Bathgate) and Graham Fox (Clydeway Golf) at bay down the home straight.
Arnott covered the last five holes in three under par, thanks to birdies at the long 14th, short 15th and long 17th.
Orr (67), Gaughan (69) and Fox (69) tied for second place, a shot behind Arnott, on 207 and earned £3,666 each.
Orr had six birdies and one bogey in his best round of the week; Guaghan was four under par for his last eight holes and Fox was one over par for his last seven holes.


P AND H CHAMPIONSHIP 
Dundonald Links, Gailes, Ayrshire
FINAL TOTALS
Par 216 (3x72)

206 R Arnott (Bishopbriggs) 69 69 69 (£6,000)
207 D Orr (Mearns Castle) 70 70 67, L Gaughan (Bathgate)  69 69 69, G Fox (Clydeway Golf) 68 70 69 (£3,666 each)
209 G Hutcheon (Paul Lawrie GC) 70 72 67, P McKechnie (Braid Hills) 71 69 69 (£2,250 each).
210 A Oldcorn (Kings Acre) 71 69 70 (£1,750).
213 G McBain (Kemnay) 71 72 70 (£1,500)
214 K McNicoll (Gullane) 73 69 72, A Brown (Archerfield Links) 70 69 75 (£1,125 each).
214 M Loftus (Mearns Castle) 71 74 70, C Currie (Caldwell) 68 76 71, P Wardell (Whitekirk) 70 7 2 73 (£816 each).
216 J McGhee (Bishopbriggs) 74 74 68, C Kelly (Cawder) 73 73 70, M Kerr (Marriott Dalmahoy) 76 78 72, Brian Marchbank (unatt) 72 72 72 (£625 each)

217 D Patrick (Kingsfield) 74 72 71, S McAllister (S McAllister Golf) 73 73 71, C Robinson (Portpatrick Dunskey) 76 70 71, P O'Hara (Clydeway Golf) 68 76 73 (£444 each).
218 R Rafferty (Monte Rei) 72 72 74, C Lawson (Wellsgreen) 72 71 75 (£370 each).
219 C Gordon (Edinburgh GC) 74 74 71, R Leeds (Turnberry Hotel) 73 74 72, M King (Kingsfield) 73 72 74, F Mann (Carnoustie GC) 70 73 76, G Brown (Montrose Links) 72 70 77 (£330 each).
220 S Taylor (Bothwell Castle) 75 73 72, D Broadfoot (Kirkcudbright) 77 68 75, S Savage (Dalmuir) 71 72 77 (£290 each).
221 J McKinnon (Irvine) 76 72 73, J Erskine (Portpatrick Dunskey) 72 74 75, J Lomas (Caprington) 73 73 75 (£260 each)
222 G McFarlane (Clober) 74 74 74, C Matheson (Falkirk Tryst) 73 73 76, G Paxton (Ralston) 73 72 77 (£231 each)
224 A Welsh (Cathkin Brages) 75 73 76, A Crerar (Panmure) 74 72 78 (£217 each)
225 M Patterson (Kilmacolm) 75 72 78 (£210)
226 D Wood (Hirsel) 76 72 78 (£205)
229 S McLaren (Blairgowrie) 71 71 87 (£200).

SMALL FIELD SO FAR FOR MURCAR LINKS NEXT WEEK

LATE ENTRIES ACCEPTED FOR PAUL 

LAWRIE LADIES TARTAN TOUR EVENT

Late entries are being accepted from lady professionals and single-figure handicap amateurs for the Paul Lawrie Golf Centre Ladies' Tartan Tour 36-hole event at Murcar Links GC next week (May 8-9).

The PGA in Scotland number to call to file a late entry is: 01767 661840
Saltire Energy, through
its supremo, Aberdeen
man Mike Loggie, are the major sponsors of the 
tournament which has a £6,000 prize fund with the winner receiving £2,500 unless she is an amateur,

in which case her prize, under the Rules of Amateur Status, would be limited to a voucher with a maximum value of £500.
Approximately, the top 10 aggregates will win money or prize vouchers.

There is a £25,000 special prize, put up by the Atholl Hotel, Aberdeen management, for the first player, pro or amateur, to hole her tee shot at Murcar Links' short fifth hole over the two days of the competition.
Bill Hogg of the sponsors stresses that there will be TWO prizes of £100 for nearest-the-pin tee shots at the short fifth, i.e. one in the first round and the second in the second round. 
Entries so far: 

Jane Turner           Craigielaw GC

Karyn Burns	kbgolf Indoor Golf Academies
Emma Fairnie	Gullane Golf Club
Nicola Ferguson (am)	Milngavie Golf Club
Jorden Ferrie	Kirkintilloch Golf Club
Katy McNicoll	Carnoustie Golf Links
Laura Murray	Paul Lawrie Golf Centre
Martine Pow	Selkirk Golf Club
Georgina Snow	Turnberry Hotel
Heather Stirling	Unattached
Emilee Taylor	Holmhall
Michele Thomson	Scotland
Lauren Watson (am)	Deeside
Jess Wilcox	Blankney Golf Club

OPENING-DAY WINS FOR INVERALLOCHY AND CRUDEN BAY

PAUL LAWRIE ABERDEEN JUNIOR

PENNANT LEAGUE RESULTS

Opening results in the Paul Lawrie Golf Centre Aberdeen Junior Pennant League:
Section C
Inverurie 0, Inverallochy 5
Royal Aberdeen 2 1/2, Oldmeldrum 2 1/2
Section D
Cruden Bay 5, Deeside 0

SUNDAY, MAY 4 FIXTURES
Section A
Aboyne v Stonehaven
Banchory v Murcar Links
Section B
Hazlehead v Peterculter
Section C
McDonald Ellon v Royal Aberdeen
Oldmeldrum v Inverurie
Section D
Portlethen v Cruden Bay

AMERICAN TYCOON REPUTED TO HAVE PAID £35 MILLION

TRUMP CONFIRMS PURCHASE OF 

TURNBERRY HOTEL RESORT

                             Donald Trump (right) and his son (Cal Carson Golf Agency picture)

FROM THE GOLF CHANNEL WEBSITE

By WILL GRAY

American billionaire businessman Donald Trump confirmed Tuesday that he has purchased Turnberry Resort, one of the nine courses currently in the Open Championship rotation.
“It was an opportunity, as far as I was concerned,” Trump told Golf.com. “Turnberry is considered one of the greatest courses in the world. It’s a special place. It’s an important place.”
The course was previously owned by a subsidiary of the Dubai government, which purchased the course for £52 million pounds (approximately $87.5 million) in 2008. 
While the sale price has not been disclosed, a Daily Telegraph report earlier this week indicated Trump was in line to acquire the links resort for £35 million pounds (approximately $59 million).
Located in Ayrshire along Scotland's southwest  coast, Turnberry has hosted the Open Championship four times, most recently in 2009 when 59-year-old Tom Watson lost in a playoff to Stewart Cink. 
It first hosted the season’s third major in 1977, when Watson beat Jack Nicklaus in what became known as the “Duel in the Sun.”
The Open will return to Royal Liverpool in England this summer, and the only confirmed future venues are St. Andrews (2015) and Royal Troon (2016).
It appears only to be a matter of time, though, before The Donald achieves his greatest ambition - to host the oldest major championship in men's golf.
While he oversaw a significant renovation to one of his most recent golf resort acquisitions - Trump National Doral in Miami - the real estate mogul indicated that any changes to Turnberry would come in consultation with the R and A.
"I’m not going to touch a thing unless the Royal and Ancient ask for it or approve it," Trump said. "I have the greatest respect for the R and A and for (chief executive) Peter Dawson. I won’t do anything to the golf course at all without their full stamp of approval.”
+It is Donald Trump's second major purchase of a golf course on this side of the Atlantic since he announced that no more money would be invested on his Trump International Links at Balmedie on the Aberdeenshire coast because of the siting of windturbines in the North Sea and visible from the course. He bought Doonbeg Hotel and golf resort on the west of Ireland out of receivership.

 

NEW BOOK REVEALS GENIUS AND COMPLEXITY OF GOLF DESIGNER

THE WARTS AND ALL LIFE STORY OF 

TRAIL-BLAZER ROBERT TRENT JONES

  FROM GOLF DIGEST WEBSITE
   By RON WHITTEN


Most books about golf course architecture are lush coffee table volumes full of glossy calendar-art photographs. The texts are invariably gushy with praise, particularly if the subject is a long-departed demigods of the design game like Donald Ross, Alister MacKenzie or C.B. Macdonald, with little objectivity since the object is always to promote the architect and his art. I should know. I once wrote a book like that on designer Joe Lee.
A Difficult Par (Gotham Books, 2014, $32.50), the new biography on legendary golf architect Robert Trent Jones, is not that kind of book.
 It's thick, nearly 500 pages, with the only colour photography being a shot of Spyglass Hill on the dust jacket.
 The text is full of facts not fluff. Those looking for yardage book-style descriptions of the global layouts of Trent Jones will be disappointed. Those looking for a rich examination of the seven-decade career of one of the game's most important figures will be rewarded.
The book does touch on the Trent Jones style of design. Indeed, the title refers to Trent's basic philosophy that golf should be a "hard par, easy bogey." But the book doesn't dwell on course design.
Not for lack of interest on the part of the author, James R. Hansen, who certainly knows golf. He captained his college golf team and has served for nearly two decades as a course rating panelist for the publication Golfweek. 
But Hansen is also a scholar, a professor of history at Auburn University and author of a previous biography on astronaut Neil Armstrong. 
Hansen obviously recognized there was a far more compelling story regarding Trent Jones than just describing his work. He dug deep for information in the business and personal papers of Trent Jones, which are now stored in the Cornell University archives, and prodded hard in interviews and correspondence with Trent's family and associates.
The tale Hansen weaves in A Difficult Par is in many ways astonishing. Jones was a high school dropout who still managed to take classes at Cornell in the 1920s to prepare himself to become the greatest golf architect in the world. 
He invented his middle name to distinguish himself from champion golfer Robert Tyre Jones Jr. He married a young woman, Ione Tefft Davis, who had far more business savvy than he and kept his design business solvent for decades. 
He cultivated friendships with the rich and famous and capitalized on them. He garnered publicity by becoming the architect pros loved to hated. He made foolish investments, especially after the death of his wife, that nearly bankrupted him. 
Late in his life, he was rescued from professional obscurity and financial oblivion by the head of the Retirement Systems of Alabama, who hired his company to create nearly overnight a 20-course tourist attraction called the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail.

Jones with Johnny Farrell in 1954. Photo by Getty Images

Every detail is there, from the intimate love letters between Trent and Ione before their marriage to the cold calculated letter of dismissal sent to long-time design associate Roger Rulewich in late 1995, just after Rulewich had completed the Trent Jones Trail.
Hansen clearly had the cooperation of Trent's two sons, Robert Trent Jones Jr. and Rees Jones, both hugely successful golf architects on their own. But that didn't keep him from revealing what are probably some of the worst-kept secrets in golf design, that the Jones boys feuded early and often and engaged in something of a tug-of-war for their father's attention and affection. Between the two sons, Bobby comes off as the more calculating, trying in the early 1970s to convince potential clients that he was THE Robert Trent Jones, later muscling in on one of his father's proudest moments - creation of the first golf course in Russia - and ultimately orchestrating the closure of his father's firm in the 1990s. (Hansen implies that Bobby, not Trent, penned the termination letter to Rulewich.)
Rees has his flaws documented, too. Perhaps the most curious is his reaction to some of his father's designs. After establishing his reputation by the restoration of The Country Club for the 1988 U. S. Open, Rees proceeded to remodel, not restore, a number of his father's designs for subsequent major championships.
While the dysfunction of the Jones family is a considerable (some might say juicy) part of the book, its purpose is to emphasize what I think is the overriding theme: Robert Trent Jones made golf course design into a genuine profession. He was part P.T. Barnum, part Alfred Hitchcock. Once successful, Trent was more interested in signing the next deal than completing the last job. Indeed, in their early years in the business, both Bobby and Rees handled entire jobs credited to their father. Later, Trent's associates like Rulewich and Cabell Robinson would ghost-author courses that looked and played like Robert Trent Jones designs and bore the Trent Jones designer label. Trent never once got on a bulldozer to shape a feature himself, because he wanted to be perceived as a captain of industry, not part of the working class.
Some present-day golf architecture fans might scoff at the Trent Jones legacy, but without it, their heroes, from Pete Dye and Jack Nicklaus to Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, Tom Doak and Gil Hanse, would probably not be in the profession. 
Trent made it an important and lucrative business in the first place. Indeed, Hansen subtitled his book, Robert Trent Jones and The Making of Modern Golf.
Let's not fool ourselves. Even Doak and Hanse are busy these days chasing down the next job, leaving others to handle the day-to-day completion of some courses. They just retain tighter supervision over the work than Trent often did.
If you have any passion for golf design, A Difficult Par should be the next book you read on the subject. It puts so much into perspective.

ONLY NINE SCOTS WILL BEAT CUT TO LEADING 50 AND TIES

ELLIOT SALTMAN SHARES LEAD AS

MONTROSE EVENT CUT TO 2 ROUNDS

By COLIN FARQUHARSON
Colin@scottishgolfview.com
Elliot Saltman (Archerfield Links) and Englishmen Jason Timms (Wychwood Park) and Steve Uzzell (Hornsea) head a field of 153 players with 28 players still to finish their first rounds in  the Eagle Orchid Scottish Masters event on the PGA EuroPro Tour at Montrose Links.
The scheduled 54-hole tournament, hit by fog on the first day and misty rain on the second, has been cut to 36 holes.
A total of 28 players will resume their uncompleted first 18 holes at 6.30am Wednesday morning.
There will then be a cut to the leading 50 and ties who will contest the final round for the £10,000 first prize in a £40,000 tournament.
Each player's entry fee is £275 and there are 153 in the field. 
Saltman played only six holes - but birdied four of them - before the first major suspension of play on Tuesday. He birdied the 10th when he finally did get restarted today and was five under par until he came off the rails with successive bogeys at the 15th, 16th and 17th. 
He needed a birdie at the last - and got it - to secure a share of the pole position at three under par.
Timms was six under par with three to play but had a bogey at the 16th and a double bogey at the 17th in halves of 33-35. Uzzell had a consistent 34-34.
Only nine Scots look like qualifying for the second and final round - Elliot Saltman, David Law (Paul Lawrie Golf Centre) and Fraser McKenna (Balmore) on the par 71 mark, and Paul Doherty (Vale Hotel), Callum Macaulay, Wallace Booth (Comrie) on 73, and, on the limit mark of 74, Zack Saltman (Archerfield Links), Ross Cameron (Saltire Energy) and Neil Fenwick (Dunbar).

TO VIEW ALL THE SCORES

CLICK HERE

LEADERBOARD
Par 71 

68 Jason Timms (Wychwood Park), Elliot Saltman (Archerfield Links), Steve Uzzell (Hornsea)
69 Paul Reed (Bristol and Clifton), Darren Lloyd (S Africa), Gary Wolstenholme (Eng).
70 Gary King (Tyrrells Wood), Dale Whitnell (Forrester Park), Graeme Clark (Doncaster).
OTHER SCOTS' SCORES 
71 Fraser McKenna (Balmore), D Law (Paul Lawrie GC).
73 Jack Doherty (Vale Hotel), Callum Macaulay (Tulliallan) 36-37, Wallace Booth (Comrie).
74 Zack Saltman (Archerfield Links), Ross Cameron (Saltire Energy), Neil Fenwick (Dunbar). 
MISSED THE CUT
75 Graham Forbes (Bob Torrance School), Calum Smith (Royal Musselburgh), Graham Rankin (Drumpellier), Mark Rae (Aberdeen DS), Jordan McColl (Scotscraig), Paul Shields (Kirkhill).
76 Sam Binning (Ranfurly Castle), Eric Ramsay (Carnoustie GC).
77 Kris Nicol (Paul Lawrie GC), Craig Lawrie (Paul Lawrie GC), Jordan Findlay (Paul Lawrie GC), Neil Henderson (Renaissance).
78 Callum Trahan (Gleneagles), Scott Crichton (Aberdour)
79 Ted Innes Ker (ISPS), Malcolm Isaacs (Newmachar). 
80 Conor O'Neil (Mearns Castle).
84 Sam Kiloh (Paul Lawrie GC).
87 James Hendrick (Pollok)
Retired (after 12 holes): Ross Bell (Downfield)