Winston Senior Open in Germany

 Beware the injured golfer! Fifer Manson leads 

  but  is 'playing through  pain barrier'

FROM THE EUROPEAN SENIOR TOUR WEBSITE
With a few amendments by Colin Farquharson 
Fife-born Gordon Manson says he is playing through the pain barrier after taking a share of the first -round lead at the 2016 WINSTONgolf Senior Open.
A naturalised Austrian after spending most of the past few decades in the country, first as its national coach, already has a win to his name this season in the Acorn Jersey Open last month, and is on the hunt for his third European Senior Tour title on the WINSTONlinks course at WINSTONgolf in Vorbeck, Germany.
Although tied at the top of the leaderboard with Englishmen Philip Golding, Gary Marks, *Paul Wesselingh and Peter Fowler of Australia, Manson said he was playing with an injury sustained at last week’s Swiss Seniors Open.
“In Switzerland I jarred my back coming out of the rough and I’ve been fighting it since,” said Manson. “I’m having physio on it before and after and a little bit of medication, which is something I don’t like to do, but I do need to look after it.
“I am playing through the pain barrier a little bit. Thankfully we’ve got a great physio out with us.”
Manson carded four birdies on the front nine as he went out in 33, and believes he left some shots out on the unique inland links course as he carded just one further birdie on the way home for a four under par 68.
“There was a lot of good work on the front nine,” he said. “I was four under after seven holes, hitting nice shots and making some ten-footers.
“I had a three putt on the eighth for a bogey, but I had a lot of chances on the back nine. I was hitting nicely to the green and giving myself a lot of chances for birdie. But I didn’t strike my putts too well and left a few short after the rain we had.
“When you get to four under so early, and then finish four under, it’s a little frustrating.”
After recording three top 20 finishes in the first three European events this season, Wesselingh was overjoyed to have carded his best round of the year so far as he also carded a four under par 68.
“I’m delighted with the score and the start to the year I’ve had,” said Wesselingh. “I love the course. You have to be focused and make sure your clubs are right, and make sure you don’t do anything stupid if you do go out of position.
“I played the course on Wednesday when it was blowing a gale, and I think that helped me today. I came out today and the course played better than it did then.
“It’s my lowest score of the year and I’m really happy with that.”
Home favourite Bernhard Langer birdied four of the last seven holes to finish on one under par, tied 12th, and fellow Masters Tournament champion and Ryder Cup star Ian Woosnam finished level par.
Magnus P Atlevi of Sweden, who graduated from European Senior Tour Qualifying School with Marks, is sixth after carding a three under par 69.
*Paul Wesselingh is in the field for the 2nd Aberdeen Senior Masters at Meldrum House Hotel and golf course, Oldmeldrum in Aberdeenshire from Tuesday through to Thursday next week.

LEADERBOARD
Par 72
68 G Manson, P Wesselingh, P Golding, P Fowler, G Marks
69 M Patlevi

OTHER SCOTS' SCORES
70 A Oldcorn (T7)
71 R Drummond (T12)
78 B Longmuir (T51)

TO VIEW ALL THE SCORES

CLICK HERE
 

news release from the R and A

DANIEL BERGER HAS WITHDRAWN FROM THE 145^TH OPEN AT ROYAL TROON

Daniel Berger has withdrawn from The Open and is replaced by Jamie Lovemark, United States.

The next three competitors on the reserve list are as follows:

1st Reserve: Colt Knost, United States

2nd Reserve: Jon Curran, United States

3rd Reserve: Kevin Streelman, United States

O Henry! Scott blitzes his way to within

 a shot of lead in Slovakia Challenge

Scott Henry birdie blitzed his way up to within one shot of the halfway lead with a nine-under-par second round of 65 in the D+D REAL Slovakia Challenge.

The Scot birdied the first, had an eagle 3 at the second and then got back on the birdie trail with back to back gains at the sixth and seventh on his way to an outward half of 31.

Henry shrugged off bogeys at the 10th and 11th to put together a brilliant finish with four successive birdies from the 14th to the 17th and an inward 34.

He is on 11 under par 133, one shot behind Norwegian  Espen Kofstad who kept his dreams of competing at this summer’s Olympic Games very much alive with a seven-under-par second round of 65 The Norwegian, who needs to finish in the top two at Penati Golf Resort to earn a spot at Rio 2016 ahead of Monday’s qualification deadline, proved to be up to the task as eight birdies and a single dropped shot helped him to 12 under par after 36 holes.
The 28 year old topped the Challenge Tour Rankings in 2012 but a couple of injury-plagued seasons looked to have left his Olympic hopes in tatters, before some fine early season form on the 2016 Road to Oman catapulted him up the Official World Golf Ranking.
With one eye on Brazil, Kofstad maintains that his focus is on maintaining his good form in Senica and not worrying about a top two spot.
“The Olympics was so unrealistic when I started the season, being 1500 in the world,” he said. “It’s awesome to think that I actually now have a chance having moved up so many spots in the world rankings already, and the arrow’s pointing the right way.
“I generally like to look at the leaderboard, and, playing last, it’s not really like you have a target in front of you, but I’m going to try to birdie all the holes and see where it takes me.
“I feel like I got a lot of things cleaned up from yesterday and I kept hitting the fairways and hitting the greens – if you hit the right part of the green you’re going to be close to the hole, so it was nice to be able to hit the iron shots within the bowl all the time.
“It’s an awesome course and I love a Jack Nicklaus design – big fairways and small greens, it’s perfect for me. I can hit a lot of fairways and hit a lot of greens and the greens are so pure.
“It’s nice to be injury-free and able to do some sort of planning. I still have to take it easy and not practise maybe as much as I’d like to, but it’s nice to be able to look forward and put all this behind me.”
Hot on Kofstad and Henry’s heels is first round leader Ryan Fox, who is also looking to secure his spot in the Olympics with a strong showing this weekend.
The New Zealander is in a head-to-head tussle with compatriot Mike Hendry – playing on the other side of the world in Japan this week – and is hopeful both that he can secure qualification himself and that Kofstad will join him.
“I’d love to go to the Olympics,” said the 29 year old. “It’s the pinnacle sporting event worldwide and I’d certainly love to go and represent my country.
“I’ve got a little bit of a battle on with Mike who’s playing out in Japan, and I think it’s going to come down to the wire – I might be a little bit lucky in knowing what I have to do on Sunday when he’s already finished.
“I’ve spoken to Espen about it a couple of times. He really likes the idea of going to the Olympics and obviously it’s good motivation for him this week so it’s good to see him putting some pressure on himself and playing well on top of it.
“I wouldn’t mind if he won to get in and I finished second, I could probably live with that and us both go to Rio, that would be pretty fun – hopefully we can both be up there on Sunday, challenging for a title and an Olympic berth.”
Alongside Fox in a tie for third are his playing partner from the first two rounds, England’s Aaron Rai, Frenchman Romain Langasque and Cormac Sharvin of Northern Ireland, a graduate of Stirling University and a former Irish amateur champion.
The round of the day went to Englishman Ben Stow, who made two eagles, six birdies and a bogey on his way to a course record 63 that took him to six under par overall.

HALFWAY LEADERBOARD
Par 144 (2x72)
132 E Kofstadt 67 65
133 S Henry 68 65
134 R Fox 65 69, A Rai 70 64, C Sharvin 70 64, R Langesque 66 68

OTHER SCOTS' SCORES
139 David Law 69 70 (T33)

SCOTS WHO MISSED THE CUT
141 and better qualified
142 Duncan Stewart 72 70
145 Ross Kellett 72 73
148 Paul Shields 77 71
153 Craig Sutherland 77 76

TO VIEW ALL THE SCORES

CLICK HERE

Richie Ramsay leading Scot in tied 10th place

Swede Noren is King of the Castle at halfway

FROM THE EUROPEAN TOUR WEBSITE
Sweden’s Alex Noren came home in just 31 strokes at Castle Stuart Golf Links today to snatch the halfway lead at the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open.
The four-time European Tour winner was four shots adrift of clubhouse leader Danny Lee when he carded a solitary  birdie at the 12th in an outward 35.
But gains at the second, third, sixth, seventh and eighth gave Noren a joint-best of the day 66 and eight under par halfway total at the Moray Firth coastline venue between Nairn and Inverness.
Lee, seeking a second European Tour title, having won the 2009 Johnnie Walker Classic as an 18-year-old amateur, also carded a flawless second round of 66 to share second place with England’s Eddie Pepperell – who eagled the 12th en route to a 67 – on seven under.

Italy’s Matteo Manassero, who broke Lee’s record as the youngest European Tour winner in 2010, South African Branden Grace, England’s Richard Bland and Spain’s Jorge Campillo all reached six under to share fourth on a day of ow scoring.

 In stark contrast, only two players had broken 70 on Thursday, but Noren – who finished third here in 2012 – believes he will need to go low at the weekend to win.
“I like this place,” he said. “It's a really fun course to play. A few very tricky holes and then a few holes where you can go for the green in two on the par fives and you can reach I think two greens today on the par four in one, which is very fun for us. Some weeks, we play courses where it's tough all the way around, and here, it's kind of a really nice mix, so I like it.

“Anything can happen on the weekend, but I'm looking forward to it. - Alex Noren

 
“It wasn't easy but I managed to hit some good shots. It got better and better – I played steady on the front nine, and then my last nine holes, I really got it going.
“It's always nice when you get it going and then another birdie maybe drops, and that's what happened today.”
Lee’s round meant good news for the people affected by the devastating floods which forced the US PGA Tour to cancel this week's Greenbrier Classic.
Denied the chance to defend his title, Lee decided to play in Scotland but donate money for every birdie (500 US dollars) and eagle (1,000 US dollars) he makes to the flood-relief efforts in West Virginia.
“I made a lot of birdies which is good,” he said. “It’s really unfortunate what happened to the West Virginia area. I’m donating a little bit of money so I’m happy I had a lot of birdies and hopefully I can put some eagles in there too.”

HALFWAY LEADERBOARD
par 144 (2x72)
136 A Noren 70 66
137 D Lee 71 66, E Pepperell 70 67
138 M Manassero 71 67, B Grace 71 67, R Bland 70 68, J Campillo 72 66

SCOT'S SCORES
140 Richie Ramsay 72 68 (T10)
142 Russell Knox 72 70, Marc Warren 73 69 (T19)
145 *Gareth Wright 74 71, Jack Doherty 72 73 (T49)
146 Jamie McLeary 74 72, David Drysdale 72 74 (T64)
 *Yes, we know Gareth Wright is a Welshman but he lives in Scotland and plays the Tartan Tour!
SCOTS WHO MISSED THE CUT
147 Scott Jamieson 76 71, Craig Lee 71 76, Peter Whiteford 76 71
149 Colin Montgomery 78 71
150 Jimmy Gunn 77 73
151 Sandy Lyle 78 73
152 Kris Nicol 79 73
154 Andrew McArthur 80 74, Paul Lawrie 81 73, Alastair Forsyth 83 71.

TO VIEW ALL THE SCORES

CLICK HERE

Scotland v Sweden in final of European men's 

 

team championship at Chantilly

 

Scotland are through to the final of the European men's amateur team championship at Chantilly Golf Club, France.

They scored an emphatic 5-2 win over Italy in the semi-finals and will now play Sweden who beat Denmark 4.5-2.5.

Grant Forrest and Robert Macintyre (3 and 2) and Connor Syme and Craig Howie (1 hole) gave Scotland a 2-0 lead from the foursomes.

Forrest lost by 3 and 1 in the singles but wins by MacIntyre (4 and3), Howie (2 and 1) and Syme (5 and 4) assured the Scots of a crack at the title on Saturday.

Jamie Savage lost his singles by 7 and 6

SCOTS BOYS LOSE AGAIN IN AUSTRIA

Scotland lost their match for the second day in a row at the European boys' team championship in Austria and must beat Czech Republic in their final match to avoid finishing last in the top flight.

The Scots were beaten 3-2 by Sweden.

Eric McIntosh and Marc Watt won the foursomes 2 and 1 and Jamie Stewart won 6 and 5 in the singles to put the Scots 2-0 ahead.

But it went pear shaped after that with Rory Franssen losing by 5 and 4, Darren Howie losing at the 19th and Sam Locke going down by 2 and 1.

The final will be between Germany and France.

Five Scots make the cut in Dusseldorf Open

Five Scots have survived the second-round cut in the German PGA Development Tour's Dusseldorf Open - but they are a long way behind the leader by four, Germany's Hinrich Arkenau who is on 12-under-par 128 (65-63).
Daniel Kay is tied 11th with rounds of 70 and 67 for 137, a shot ahead of Ross Cameron (68-70) who is sharing 15th place.
Chris Robb (66-73) and Sam Kiloh (70-69) are tied 21st on 139.
Kevin Duncan is joint 39th on 141 (69-72).
He made it on the limit qualifying mark.
Phil McLean (69-74) missed out on 143 and Alexander Culverwell was well outside qualifying with rounds of 74 and 75 for 149.

LEADERBOARD
Par 140 (2x70)
128 H Arkenau (Ger) 65 63
132 A Schwartz (Fra) 63 69

SCOTS' SCORES
137 D Kay 70 67 (T11)
138 R Cameron 68 70 (T15)
139 C Robb 66 73, S Kiloh 70 69 (T21)
141 K Duncan 69 72 (T39)

MISSED THE CUT (141 and better qualified)
143 P McLean 69 74
149 A Culverwell 74 75






TO VIEW ALL THE SCORES

CLICK HERE

Glenbervie report and leading totals

Ronnie Clark wins Central Scotland

Seniors Open by five strokes

 By GORDON THOMSON

Ronnie Clark (Erskine) continued his domination of the Central Scotland Seniors Open with a fourth consecutive win at Glenbervie today.  (Friday).

His excellent second round of 67 gave him an aggregate total of 137 and a five shot win over his closest challenger, Andrew Stracey (Denham).

Order of Merit leader Graham Bell (Downfield) added a second 72 to take third place on 144 with Aberdeen businessman Nick Robson (Meldrum House) filling fourth place on 146. 

Tom Sirel (Largs), 71 years old, was unable to match Thursday's excellent score of 70, going out in 41 but he returned home in a level par 36 for a total of 147 and fifth place.

David Gardner (Broomieknowe) and Lindsay Blair (Grangemouth) tied for sixth place on 148.

English Senior internationalist Stracey, who won the North Seniors in May, again showed his liking for his regular visits north of the border. He fired five birdies in a fine second round of 69 to set an early target of 142 as one by one the main overnight challengers dropped away.

Playing in the last match, Clark had other ideas as he raced to the turn in 31 with four birdies, A dropped shot at the 10th hole was a slight setback which he overcame with further birdies at the 15th and 17th holes before the slight disappointment of a dropped shot at the tricky last hole.

This was another fine performance which takes Ronnie a step closer to his aim of repeating last year’s Order of Merit win.

The CSS for the second day was 73 for the par 71 course

CENTRAL SCOTLAND SENIOR MEN'S OPEN

Glenbervie GC.

Par 142 (2x71).SSS 71. CSS 72 73

LEADING FINAL TOTALS

137 R Clark (Erskine) 70 67

142 A Stracey (Denham) 73 69

144 G Bell (Downfield) 72 72

146 N Robson (Meldrum House) 74 72

147 T Sirel (Largs) 70 77

148 L Blair (Grangemouth) 73 75, D Gardner (Broomieknowe) 71 77

149 L Chancellor (Inverness) 76 73, R Stewart (Tulliallan) 74 75, R Craw (Glenbervie) 72 77, R Johnston (Glenbervie) 71 78, G McNab (Lundin) 71 78.

150 G MacDonald (Glenbervie) 76 74, A T Campbell (Murcar Links) 73 77, I Brotherston (Dumfries and Co) 73 77, A Grounds (Falkirk Tryst) 73 77, R W Smith (Nairn) 76 74.

151 J Archibald (Luffness New) 77 74, A Ferguson (Dunfermline) 76 75, P Dempsey (Tulliallan) 74 77, J Graham (Lochmaben) 71 80.

152 J Johnston (Northumberland) 77 75, T McLevy (Blairgowrie) 75 77, J McManus (Uphall) 74 78, K Forrest (Lenzie) 73 79.

153 J A Fraser (Royal Burgess) 75 78, J Aman (Grangemouth) 72 81.

154 K Reilly (Silverknowes) 83 71, D Taylor (Dunfermline) 81 73, T Stafford (Downfield) 79 75, J Watt (Edzell) 79 75, J McArthur (St Andrews New) 77 77, A Ross (Northumberland) 77 77, J Emslie (Royal Aberdeen) 75 79, G C Barrie (Callander) 73 81, S Drysdale (Turnhouse0 77 77.

155 J McLay (St Andrews New) 81 74, K Ross (Beith) 79 76, L Pirie (Millport) 78 77, I Angus (Duff House Royal) 78 77, I Stewart (Glenbervie) 77 78, K Bruce (Edzell) 75 80, G MacLeod (Glenbervie) 74 81, R S Millar (Cochrane Castle) 74 81, I Jeen (St Andrews New) 78 77.

 Buckpool boy wins NE U14s' title and there's a double whammy by Aboyne's Jamie Gibb

Left to right: Ruari Mair (Buckpool), David Fleming (NE District SGU president), Jamie Gibb (Aboyne). Picture by Cal Carson Golf Agency.

By COLIN FARQUHARSON 
Fourteen-year-old Buckpool GC member Ruari Mairi won the Paul Lawrie North-east U14 boys' championship over 18 holes at Oldmeldrum Golf Club today.
He shot a six-over-par 76 - the CSS was 68 - to win by two strokes from Owen Walker (Royal Aberdeen) with Ruaridh Fenwick (Hazlehead) and Evan Orr tied for third place with 81s.
Mair, a six-handicapper,  would have won by a wider margin but for a double bogey 6 at the last hole. He had earlier birdied the eighth and 12th in halves of 38. 
Jamie Gibb (Aboyne), who has 15 of a handicap, won the Under-12s' scratch prize with an 84 and he also had the best overall net score of 69, having a better inward half than Ruaridh Fenwick, who plays off 12 . 
Ethan Main (Murcar Links), who has a handicap of 20, won the third handicap prize with a net 71.


PAUL LAWRIE NORTH-EAST U14s CHAMPIONSHIP
Oldmeldrum GC
PAR 70  CSS 68
76    R Mair (Buckpool)
78   O Walker (Royal Aberdeen)
81   R Fenwick (Hazlehead), E Orr (Kemnay)
84   J Gibb (Aboyne)
86   L Ross (Royal Aberdeen)
88   K Steel (Kintore), M Black (Deeside)
91   E Main (Murcar Links)
92   J Mitchell (Fraserburgh)
93   F McKay (Cullen)
94   S Allan (Deeside)
101 R Bothwell (Royal Aberdeen)
106 C Sim (Murcar Links), F Black (Royal Aberdeen), P McPherson (Deeside)
HANDICAP PRIZEWINNERS
69 J Gibb (Aboyne) (15) bih, R Fenwick (Hazlehead) (12).
71 E Main (Murcar Links) (20) 71.
UNDER-12 SCRATCH
84 J Gibb (Aboyne)

Local hero Cameron Fraser beats Michael 

Lawrie in NE U18 boys' final

Left to right: David Fleming (NE District SGU president), winner Cameron Fraser, Michael Lawrie. Picture by Cal Carson Golf Agency

By COLIN FARQUHARSON

Local knowledge paid off handsomely for Cameron Fraser, who plays off three of a handicap at Oldmeldrum Golf Club, in the final of the Paul Lawrie North-east U18 boys' match-play championship over his home course.

Fraser scored a surprise 3 and 1 win over Paul Lawrie's younger son Michael, who has +1 of a handicap as he prepares to start PGA training.

Deeside member Lawrie had led twice in the first seven holes, birdieing the second and the sixth, but then Fraser hit him with four birdies in the six-hole span from the eighth to the 14th.

For the Oldmeldrum player that transformed a one-hole deficit into a three-hole lead and though Lawrie did birdie the 15th to win that hole, it was too little too late.

In a match, where the combined total of birdies amounted to seven,  Fraser was roughly one under par at the finish.

In the mrgning semi-finals, Lawrie had played roughly to par in winning by 2 and 1 over Dylan Smith (Portlethen), winner of the NE U18 boys' stroke-play title on Thursday.

Fraser beat Craig Leith (Royal Aberdeen) by 2 and 1 in the other semi-final.

PAUL LAWRIE NORTH-EAST UNDER-18 BOYS' MATCH-PLAY CHAMPIONSHIP

Oldmeldrum Golf Club

SEMI-FINALS 

 M Lawrie (Deeside) bt D Smith (Portlethen) 2 and 1.

 C  Fraser (Oldmeldrum) bt C Leith (Royal Aberdeen) 2 and 1.

FINAL 

 Fraser bt Lawrie 3 and 1.