NORTHERN COUNTIES CUP FINAL

BLACK ISLE TEAM WIN NORTHERN

COUNTIES CUP AT BALGOWNIE

Fortrose & Rosemarkie won the 106-year-old Northern Counties Cup – one of the oldest golf tournaments on the calendar – for the second time in four years at Royal Aberdeen Golf Club today.

In the final of the men’s double foursomes match-play event over the Balgownie links, Fortrose & Rosemarkie from the Black Isle finished a combined three holes up on the team from Torvean, the municipal club in Inverness.

Fortrose’s lead-off pairing of club secretary Mike MacDonald and 15-year-old Lewis Reid finished three holes up on David Sandison and Graeme Anderson of Torvean.

The tie was all square at the turn and the first two holes of the inward journey were halved. Then Torvean got their noses in front by winning the 12^th.

MacDonald and Reid halved the 13^th and then staged a powerful finish by winning four of the last five holes. They squared it at the 14^th where the Torvean pair were in the whins.

After the 15^th was halved, the Fortrose & Rosemarkie pair went one up the 16^th, two up at the 17^th and three up the last.

Mike MacDonald is the only survivor from the Fortrose & Rosemarkie team who won the cup in 2002.

The second tie between Robbie MacKay and Andy Brown (Fortrose) and Scott Chisholm and Steve McIntosh (Torvean) finished all square.

Fortrose & Rosemarkie’s MacKay and Brown were three up at the turn but then lost the 11^th, the 14^th, 15^th and 17^th to be one down after 16^th.

Robbie holed a good putt to win the 17^th and square the match. The last was halved.

Today's details:

SEMI-FINALS

Torvean bt Nairn at 19^th

(David Sandison, Graeme Anderson 0, Neil Hampton, Robert Smith 0; Scott Chisholm, Steve McIntosh 0, Andrew Scott, Stephen MacDonald 0; Chisholm and McIntosh won the 19^th)

Fortrose & Rosemarkie bt Duff House Royal by five holes.

(Mike MacDonald, Lewis Reid 8, David Morrison, Mike Jenkins 0; Robbie MacKay, Andy Brown 0, Ross McAuslin, Colin Farquhar 3).

FINAL

Fortrose & Rosemarkie bt Torvean by three holes.

(MacDonald, Reid 3, Sandison, Anderson 0; MacKay, Brown 0, Chisholm, McIntosh 0).

+Next year's tournament will be hosted by Nairn Golf Club.