Fortrose and Rosemarkie Golf Club – 100 Years Older than was thought?

By ROBIN WILSON

The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, oracle on golf statistics, registers the age of golf clubs by their first constituted minutes making Wick Golf Club the oldest in the North, 1870, and pre-dating Dornoch by some seven years. 

But Fortrose and Rosemarkie Golf Club already had documented records contained in the statistical account of Rosemarkie, dated 1793, that golf was played on or around the links in that year have now been supplied with further printed evidence of an earlier existence of a club in the two villages. 

It came to the club via Neil Laird, Publisher Scottish Golf History, who, during a search of golf clubs and societies in the British Newspaper Archive stored in the National Library of Scotland, found reference in a newspaper called The Caledonian Mercury which was published three times a week from 1720 to 1867.

The newspaper announced that The Fortrose Golf Society were holding a General Annual Meeting to be held at Williamson's Tavern with dinner at 4pm on Wednesday 3^rd July 1793. 

The Tavern is long lost and forgotten in the history of Fortrose or Rosemarkie and no reference to its existence can be found but the date is some 95 years before the current Fortrose & Rosemarkie Golf Club was instituted and some 91 years after earlier reference to golf at Channory Point was recalled by Alec Main's in his golf club's centenary history of 1988.

It is interesting that a same search in the newspaper archives revealed that the course where the Fortrose & Rosemarkie course designer James Braid was born in 1870, Earlsferry in Fife,  was inviting all its members to a dinner on Tuesday 1st May 1787.

Michael MacDonald, secretary to the Fortrose & Rosemarkie Golf Club is delighted with the news but unlikely to change the club's history completely. He said “It is a marketing tool that we can use and I intend to do so on club merchandise and publicity to attract more visitors and members”.

                         Thee iconic Fortrose and Rosemarkie golf course on Channory Point

 Hinton and Canizares share lead in Saudi Arabia  as Paul Doherty takes week off

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Craig Hinton and Gabriel Canizares shot matching seven-under 65s today share the lead after the first round of the American Express Dirab Golf Championship on the MENA Golf Tour.

Playing in the day’s very second group, England’s Hinton took full advantage of benign morning conditions at Dirab Golf and Country Club, reeling off one eagle and six birdies against a lone bogey while Canizares of Spain went bogey-free as the duo moved three shots clear of rising English amateur James Allan.

Prince Khaled Saud Al Faisal spearheaded the Saudi challenge with a two-over 74 after making the turn at two under as Morocco’s Ayoub Lguirati fired a three-under 69, highlighted by three birdies in a row from the 14th

Said Hinton:“It’s one of my best rounds on the MENA Golf Tour. This is one course where wind doesn’t come into play and that helped,” said Hinton, who played on the Asian Tour in 2014.

“I picked up three birdies on the front nine which kind of built up the momentum and kept the things going,” said the Englishman whose round included an eagle on the par-five, 13th after he birdied the 11th and 12th. 

“I hit my seven iron from 190 yards to within six feet and holed the ensuing putt,” said Hinton who finished with a birdie after dropping the lone shot at the 17th.

“The key to going low on this course is to keep the ball in play. You can find yourself in big trouble if you miss the tree-lined fairways which are quite narrow,” said the 27-year-old from Thame, Oxfordshire. 

Two under at the turn, Canizares picked up five shots during a five-hole stretch on the back nine, studded with an eagle on the par-five, 15^th, to round off a great day at work.

Elsewhere, Spain’s Xavier Puig joined English amateur Elliott Oxlade and Morocco’s Lguirati in a tie for the fourth after returing a three-under 69, one ahead fellow Spaniard Mariano Ochoa, South Africa’s Thriston Arthur Lawrence and England’s Chris McDonnell. 

Scot Paul Doherty, a winner on the MENA Tour this season and current leader of the Order of Merit with $16,000, is not playing in this week's event. 

 

 FIRST-ROUND LEADING SCORES

 par 72

65 Craig Hinton (England) and Gabriel Canizares (Spain)

68 James Allan (England) (amateur)

69 Ayoub Lguirati (Morocco), Elliott Oxlade (England) (amateur), Xavier Puig (Spain)

70 Mariano Ochoa (Spain), Thriston Arthur Lawrence (South Africa), Chris McDonnell (England)

71 Trevor Marshall (New Zealand), Luke Joy (England), Sixto Casabona-navarro (Spain), Fredrik Lindblom (Sweden)

70 Shafiq Masih (Pakistan), Tom Boys (England), Victor Bertran (Spain), Ramon Mestre (Spain)

Rescheduled event at Burnside: Entry fee only £5

Carnoustie calling boys and girls to play 

Junior Open on Monday, October 12

FROM FRASER MANN
The Carnoustie Junior Open will be played on Monday, October 12 on  the Burnside Course. The event was rescheduled this year due to a clash of dates and we still have a number of places available.
The event is open to both boys and girls of 18 years and under who hold an official handicap, 28 for boys , 36 for girls.
Entry fee is £5
Please phone  01241 802277 to enter or for more information.
The Burnside course is a great test of golf. Although not as long as the championship course it offers a great challenge to all golfers.

Fraser Mann
Carnoustie Links Junior Co-ordinator

Dalrymple and McKinney Sunday best at Elmwood

By WALTER BURNS
Sunday's Scottish Junior Golf Tour event at Elmwood was the first in our series of “Three Way Match-play” events - the match-play style made for an exciting  day with a lot of close matches.

Team Torrance won the team event with an average of 1.2 holes up.  Team Monty were second with an average of 0.2 holes up.

Matthew Dalrymple and Rory McKinney jointly won the individual event with an average of 5 holes up each.

Jack Lockhart, the Scottish U14 Champion, won the skills challenges.

Leading Scores

+5 Matthew Dalrymple (Old Ranfurly), Rory McKinney (Pitreavie)

+4.5 Callum Leeson (Pitreavie)

+4    Blaine MacFadyen (Kirkintilloch)

+3.5 Jack Broun (Belleisle)

+3    Jamie Fulton (Muckhart)

+2.5 Aamar Saleem (Ladybank)

 

 

Next event: Monifieth, October 18, Super-Strokeplay 9:9Golf.

 

Walter Burns

Scottish Junior Golf Tour

Mob: 07951 103 827

Email: walter@scottishjuniorgolftour.co.uk

Web: www.scottishjuniorgolftour.co.uk

 

Student golf news is on www.kirkwoodgolf.co.uk

      Michael Hunt 

SCOTTISH MID-AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP
The Duke's Course, St Andrews
 FINAL TOTALS

Michael Hunt from Pleasington Golf Club, Blackburn beat Scot Paul Moultrie (Royal Troon) in a play-off for the title.

Michael Hunt 76 + 77 + 70 223 Pleasington 
Paul Moultrie 76 + 75 + 72 223 Royal Troon
Richard Johnston 72 + 79 + 73 224 Glenbervie
Martin Young 75 + 78 + 73 226 Brokenhurst Manor
 A J King 74 + 79 + 75 228 Garforth
 J P Miller 76 + 75 + 77 228 Fulford
James Bunch 77 + 78 + 74 229 Prestwick
Andy Oates 75 + 78 + 77 230 Worksop
Charles McKay 76 + 79 + 76 231 Letchworth
Peter Sheehan 74 + 74 + 83 231 Ballybunion
 Stuart Mason 79 + 76 + 77 232 Cawder 
Andrew Day 73 + 79 + 80 232 Ferndown 
John Ralston 77 + 74 + 81 232 Shotts
Iain Yule 79 + 77 + 77 233 Middleton Hall
Mark Reeve 76 + 76 + 82 234 Saffron Walden
Richard Essex 78 + 81 + 76 235 Pastures Golf Club
 Jonas Broberg 82 + 72 + 81 235 Sollentuna
 Jason Saunders 77 + 82 + 77 236 Littlestone Golf Club
 Simon Toplis 77 + 80 + 79 236 College Pines
Timo Huuhtanen 80 + 77 + 80 237 Helsinki 
Andrew Crawford 85 + 77 + 77 239 Ponteland
Jason Brown 81 + 82 + 79 242 Close House
Steve Watton 82 + 79 + 83 244 Enville Golf Club
Julian Hayward 80 + 80 + 85 245 Rockliffe Hall
Derek C Goldsmith 82 + 82 + 82 246 Wearside
Mark Smith 84 + 83 + 82 249 Elsenham 
Jason Morris 84 + 77 + 95 256 Boughton
Jeff Robinson 82 + 84 + 94 260 Hadley Wood
Brendan Sparks 86 + 92 + 88 266 Enville
Chandrasena Menmenda 89 + 88 + NR NR