FOTHERINGHAM WINS NORTH SCOTTISH 

ALLIANCE TITLE FOR SEVENTH TIME

North Scottish Alliance prizewinners. Left to right - Tom Madden (Elgin),  Jimmy MacDonald (Inverness), Robert McKerron (Forres), Bryan Fotheringham (Inverness) and Dave Johnston (Moray). MacDonald and Johnston won Class 1 and Class 2 handicap aggregate trophies. Picture by courtesy of RobinWilson.

 By ROBIN WILSON

Former Forres Golf Club member Bryan Fotheringham, having won nine club championship titles at Forres before moving to Inverness, used all his past knowledge of the tree-lined Muiryshade course to win his seventh North Golfers' Alliance championship on Saturday.

Fotheringham first lifted the Sir Hugh MacKenzie Trophy in 2000 and became the dominant winter golfer in the North over the past three seasons with back-to-back championship wins in 2012 and 2013, only to be deprived of the title last year by Elgin's Jordan Milne and this season upstaged by Moray's Kyle Godsman.

Godsman and two other prominent winners this season, Jeff Wright (Forres) and Gavin Hay (Nairn Dunbar) were absent from the championship as they are currently on a pre-season training golf week in Spain,   

With these three missing, having denied Fotheringham a scratch win all season -  he blaming a poor return from fine play to the greens, this was put aside on his old stamping ground and his putter came back to life as early as the first green where he single putted for birdie. 

Two more birdie putts dropped on the third and fifth greens for him to go three under par.

From a forward tee on the par five sixth hole he anticipated going to four under par but actually dropped back to three under after a wayward drive necessitated a penalty drop from a bush. The stroke was recovered with his fourth birdie of the day at the eighth, and he covered the outward nine holes in 33. 

The score was repeated over the next nine holes after beginning the inward half with his only three-putt of the round but he was back on the birdie trail at the 14^th and final holes for a four under par card of 66 to win by two from the 2006 champion, John Campbell (Grantown on Spey).

Campbell was one under par for each half, 35 and 33, finishing his round strongly with three 3s.

Defending champion Jordan Milne (Elgin) saw his hopes of retaining the title fade with a shabby start, a 7 at the first hole after requiring four to reach the green and compounding the errors with a three-putt from quite close. 

Torvean's club champion Bruce Thomson dropped a shot at the ninth hole for a one over outward 37 but, like Campbell, made up the ground on the run-in with three birdies over the final four holes, the 15^th, 16^th and 17^th for a two under 34 and a third place 69.

Thomson was closely followed into fourth place by Fortrose and Rosemarkie's Alan Cameron whose gross 70 (33-37) was matched after equal halves of 35 by the current Forres club captain, Robert McKerron.

 McKerron's 70 turned into a nett 68 to win the Bank of Scotland Quaich in the low handicap section. 

In the higher handicap group a gross 77 (39-38) less a handicap of 9 won the Jim Thom Quaich for Elgin's Tom Madden on a better inward half count-back over Moray's Aron Casey.

The senior championship's J A B Little Trophy was won by local member Jim Simpson with a gross 71 and the handicap J M C  Gourlay Salver went to Fortrose and Rosemarkie's Donnie MacLeod  with nett 71 off 12.

LEADING SCRATCH

Par 70
66 B R Fotheringham (Inverness)
68 J S D Campbell (Grantown)
69 B J Thomson (Torvean)
70 R A L Cameron (Fortrose and Rosemarkie), R Mckerron (Forres)
71 K Thomson (Moray), G H Hay (Grantown), J Simpson (Forres);
72 D Joel (Inverness), R H Stewart (Torvean);
73 K Barnett (Torvean), A J Duncan (Elgin), J L Milne (Elgin), D Hector (Elgin);
74 S Johnston (Elgin), G Allan (Moray), P Mathieson (Grantown), J Shaw (Boat of Garten), A Henry (Inverness);
75 D Gordon (Inverness), W Donnelly (Fortrose and Rosemarkie), M McAllan (Elgin)
76 P Masson (Rothes), B Cruickshank (Spey Bay), S Wilson (Inverness), J A Grant (Grantown), A Hutchison (Inverness)
77 T Madden (Elgin), I Murray (Boat of Garten), M Mcdonald (Boat of Garten), L Reid (Fortrose and Rosemarkie), C Gaittens (Fortrose and Rosemarkie)
78 C C Macdonald (Elgin), R Stewart (Nairn Dunbar), R Harrower (Boat of Garten), L Stewart (Grantown)
79 N McWilliam (Elgin), I Macaulay (Elgin), A Casey (Moray), R Kinnaird (Grantown), D McGrouther (Inverness), W Hutchison (Inverness), G Stephen (Torvean), D Johnston (Moray), J K England (Moray)
80 A Macintosh (Torvean), J R Ingram (Boat of Garten), D F Sharp (Boat of Garten)
81 G Cruickshank (Spey Bay), A Waterson (Grantown), L Duncan (Elgin), R Mackie (Rothes), I Laing (Grantown), F Mackellar (Grantown), M Lyall (Torvean), A Imrie (Inverness)

LEADING HANDICAP
Class 1 (seven and under)
68 R McKerron (Forres) (2) bih, A Henry (Inverness) (6)
69 S Johnston (Elgin) (5)
70 A Hutchison (Inverness) (6), R H Stewart (Torvean) (2), G H Hay (Grantown) (1), K Barnett (Torvean) (3), G Allan (Moray) (4);
Class 2 (eight to 18)
68 T Madden (Elgin) (9) 
69 A Casey (Moray) (10)
70 M Lyall (Torvean) (11)
71 R Quinn (Boat of Garten) (13), G Stephen (Torvean) (8)
Seniors Scratch
71 J Simpson (Forres) 

Seniors Handicap )

71 D M Macleod (Fortrose and Rosemarkie)(12)

 

HANDICAP AGGREGATE WINNERS
Class 1 - Dave Johnston (Moray) (Burnett Trophy).
Class 2 - Jimmy MacDonald (Inverness) (Bill McQueen Trophy).