Ryder Cup captain named by March,

says Paul McGinley

FROM GOLF DIGEST.COM

By RYAN LAVNER

Paul McGinley has told Sky Sports that he expects the 2016 Ryder Cup European team captain to be named by March. 
Darren Clarke is the odds-on favourite for the job, with Miguel Angel Jimenez essentially removing himself from consideration during a recent interview. 
McGinley, the victorious 2014 captain who is part of the five-man selection panel, said that he expects to have the next leader in place “within the next two months.”
“We’re just making sure we’ve got everything in place before a decision is made, and we’re getting closer and closer,” he told Sky Sports. “There’s a lot of information being gathered and we’re not a million miles away.”
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Ukraine golfers are reading this ....

The Ukraine is not the place to which you would want to go your holidays but, amazingly, we had 841 page views from, presumably, golf-minded people in that country last week. 

Even though, according to the European Golf Association website, Ukraine has only:

Total Golfers   547
Male: 394
Female: 46
Junior Male: 86
Junior Female: 21

Total Courses   4 

 
9 holes: 2

18 holes: 1
 

36 holes: 1

Driving Range: 1
 

Others: 6

+Another interesting readership fact. We had 570 page views from 

Norway last week. Possible answer to that is they are coming from 

British workers on Norwegian oil rigs.

+If you have called up www.scottishgolfview.com or 

www.kirkwoodgolf.co.uk from somewhere "different," E-mail 

Colin@scottishgolfview.com and tell him about it.

Augusta National named USA's No. 1 course

FROM Golf Channel Digital

Augusta National has reclaimed the top spot in Golf Digest’s 2015-16 ranking of America’s 100 Greatest Golf Courses. 
Pine Valley was ranked No. 1 in 2013, ending a four-year run by the Masters site. Pine Valley is now No. 2.
Here’s the rest of the top 10 on Digest’s biennial survey: 
3. Cypress Point
4. Shinnecock Hills
5. Merion (East)
6. Oakmont
7. Pebble Beach
8. National Golf Links of America
9. Winged Foot (West)
10. Fishers Island Club 
On America’s Greatest Public Courses list, Pebble Beach is No. 1, followed by Pacific Dunes, The Ocean Course, Whistling Straits and Pinehurst Resort, respectively. Nos. 6-10, in order: Shadow Creek, Bandon Dunes, Erin Hills, Bethpage State Park and TPC Sawgrass.
The magazine notes that there are only 24 courses that have appeared on every Top 100 list over the past 50 years. Among them: No. 3 Cypress Point, No. 5 Merion (East), No. 6 Oakmont, No. 7 Pebble Beach, No. 9 Winged Foot (West), No. 12 Seminole, No. 24 Riviera, No. 28 Pinehurst No. 2 and No. 50 Scioto.  

England quartet chase South American hat-trick in Peru, January 22 to 25 Double European Amateur champion Ashley Chesters (Hawkstone Park) and three more internationals will aim to complete an England hat-trick of victories when they compete in the South American Amateur Championship in Lima, Peru from January 22 to 25. Callum Shinkwin from Hertfordshire won the title in Colombia in 2013 while Lancashire’s Paul Howard triumphed, again in Colombia, a year ago. Now Chesters, Joe Dean (Lindrick, Yorkshire), Luke Johnson (King’s Lynn, Norfolk) and Michael Saunders (Dartford, Kent) have the chance of making it three-in-a-row by lifting the Arturo Calle Cup. Chesters, 25, (Image © Leaderboard Photography) won his first European Amateur title at El Prat in Spain in 2013 and successfully defended it at St Andrews last year, becoming the first player to win in successive years. It enabled him to top the Titleist/FootJoy England Golf Men’s 2014 Order of Merit having also finished runner-up in the Brabazon Trophy. Dean, 20, an England boy cap, has won the Lee Westwood Trophy for the past two years and also reached the quarter finals of the English Amateur Championship last summer. Johnson, 22, won the Berkhamsted Trophy and the West of England Stroke Play Championship last year and reached the last 16 of the English Amateur before making his full England debut in last September’s Home Internationals in Wales. Saunders, 24, made his full England debut in the 2013 Home Internationals at Ganton. A former winner of the Lagonda Trophy, last year he tied second in the same event while also finishing joint third in the Welsh Open Stroke Play. The South American Amateur Championship is a 72-hole stroke play event. Press Office England Golf pr@englandgolf.org01526 354500

New-hip Nigel makes Alliance comeback at Inverallochy tomorrow

The second half of the North-east Golfers' Alliance season tees off over Inverallochy's par-65 winter course tomorrow. Updated tees listed below - still room for some competitors, writes

Colin Farquharson.
It will be welcome back to Nigel "new hip" Parker, pictured left, playing Alliance golf for the first time since his operation.
And it will be "Hello" to Craibstone general manager Billy Sim and his teenage son Daniel who is a past winner of the Royal Aberdeen junior championship. They are playing in an all-Craibstone quartet at 10.48.

North-east Alliance tee times for Inverallochy tomorrow:

8-00 G Esson, C Campbell, A Campbell, A Smith 
8-08 C Cassie, B Harper, C Carnegie, G. Leslie
8-16 P. Morrison, R Masson, S. Dillon, G. Dillon
8-24
8-32
8-40 H. Roulston, M. Rendall, L. Roger
8-48 R. Brown, S. Davidson, A. Benton, M. Brown
8-56 T. Dingwall, K. Zeynalov, S. Kiloh, P. McKenna
 
9-04 R. Stewart, K. Nicol, B. Ritchie, P. McLean
9-12 K McGillivray, L Duncan, W Beattie, D Mackay
9-20 G Craig, J Duff, D Lawrie, M Smith
9-28 Available
9-36 Available
9-44 B Fyfe, D Craigie, C Grant, S Lawrie
9-52 J Scott, B Skene, R McConnachie
 
10-00 B Lumsden, G McDonald, T Robertson, D Wright
10-08 J Hopwood, Kimberley Beveridge, Keil Beveridge, Laura Murray
10-16 M. Forster,  D Fleming, L Vannet, A Gall
10-24 D. Lane, R Duncan, N Parker
10-32 G. Milne J. Duncan A. Graham M Duncan
10-40 D Leslie, G Homer, W Shaw, H McNaughton
10-48 B Sim,  D Sim, J Borthwick, P Low
10-56 G. Mackie R. Davidson S. Allison P. Walker
 
11-04 I. Grant J. Jessiman
11-12 S. Finnie, D. McKay, M. Booth
11-20 M. Winton S Thompson D. McDougall
11-28 G. Allan, J. Nicolson, S. Mackie, K. Duncan
11-35 Available
I