N-E ALLIANCE AT EAST ABERDEENSHIRE

CLARK ALEXANDER FEELS LIKE
CLARK KENT WITH
FIRST-TIME VICTORY

By COLIN FARQUHARSON

Clark Alexander, pictured right, will go off to next week’s Scottish Golfers’ Alliance championship at Buchanan Castle feeling like Tiger Woods!
All things are relative and the Murcar Links five-handicapper achieved a lifetime ambition to win the scratch section of a North-east Alliance meeting at East Aberdeenshire Golf Centre today.
If this was a senior moment – then Clark must wish he had more of them.
He was the only player in a field of 83 – half-a-dozen players didn’t realise the competition had been switched from waterlogged Huntly – to match the par of 71 (35-36) and he also had the lowest net return of 66. You can't get much better than that for a double-whammy performance.
According to his playing partners, Bill Urquhart and Ronnie McDonald, Clark’s putter turned into a magic wand for the afternoon. There are those who say Clark’s putter is a magic wand any afternoon!
“I had only 28 putts with singles at the first, fourth, fifth, sixth, 10th, 15th, 16th and 18th but that’s not a really remarkable putting round. What was remarkable was the average length of these single putts. Some of them (“Most of them,” said Bill Urquhart) were quite long,” said Clark.
He had birdies at the fourth and sixth and bogeys at the ninth, where he drove into the rough, and the 16th.
Until late finisher Alexander came in with his round of 71, it had looked as if 73 was going to win the day. Long-time leaders in the clubhouse on the two-over-par mark were two professionals who used to be on the East Aberdeenshire Golf Centre pay roll – Ian Bratton (now at Newburgh) and Ian Buchan (now at Craibstone).
Bratton started most inauspiciously with a bogey at the first and then a lost-ball bogey at the second. But he birdied the fourth, seventh and 15th apart from having a run of bogeys at the 11th, 12th and 14th.
Buchan had a very steady round indeed. He reeled off 15 straight pars, then bogeyed 16th and 17th before chalking up yet another par at the last hole.
Colin Clark came in late to make it a triple tie for second place on 73.
The Mackenzie Club pro would, in all probability, have cut short Clark Alexander’s celebrations in the clubhouse but for running up a triple bogey 8 at the 15th.
Stonehaven scratch player Euan Kennedy had a very good debut score of 74 to be joint fifth with Fergus Bisset (Banchory) and Ronnie McDonald (Kemnay).

++The next North-east Golfers’ Alliance meeting is at Ballater on Wednesday, October 19. If you want to make a late entry to next week’s Scottish Alliance at Buchanan Castle, give secretary Ron Menzies a call at 07801 819 746 or 01224 780033 and he will pull a few strings on your behalf. It has to be said there is a very low entry from the North-east for the championship.

LEADING SCORES
SCRATCH
(Par 71)
71 Clark Alexander (Murcar Links) (s).
73 Ian Bratton (Newburgh) (p), I Buchan (Craibstone) (p), C Clark (Mackenzie Club) (p).
74 Euan Kennedy (Stonehaven), Fergus Bisset (Banchory), Ronnie McDonald (Kemnay) (p).
75 David Corkey (East Aberdeenshire), Ryan Fitzpatrick (Inchmarlo) (ap), Patrick Lovie (Inchmarlo) (p), Steven Troup (Kings Links) (ap).
76 Stewart Pert (Huntly), Robbie Stewart (Cruden Bay) (p), Brian Ritchie (Inverallochy).
77 Andrew Campbell (Deeside), Andy Thouless (Nigg Bay), Davie Wilson (Duff House Royal).
78 Luke Barbour (Cruden Bay), Paul Cormack (ap), David Bisset (Banchory) (s).
79 Stewart Davidson (Bnachory), Jim Morris (Craibstone).
80 Gary Homer (Lumphanan), Steven Chalmers (Banchory) (ap).
81 Craig Carnegie (Kemnay), David McKay (Caledonian), William Urquhart (Murcar Links) (s).
(p) denotes professional; (ap) assistant professional; (s) senior.
HANDICAP
Class 1
66 Clark Alexander (Murcar Links) (5) (s).
69 David Bisset (Banchory) ((9) (s).
70 Fergus Bisset (Banchory) (4).
72 David Corkey (East Aberdeenshire) (3), Davie Wilson (Duff House Royal).
73 Andy Touless (Nigg Bay) (4).
74 Stewart Pert (Huntly) (2), Brian Ritchie (Inverallochy) (2), Euan Kennedy (Stonehaven) (scr).
Class 2
68 Gary Homer (Lumphanan) (12).
73 Hamish McNaughton (Cruden Bay) (10).
76 Paul Cornfield (Auchmill) (11), Donald Wood (Newburgh) (14) (s).
77 Leslie Roger (Royal Aberdeen) (10) (s).
78 Stewart Florence (Oldmeldrum) (11), Grant Leslie (Newburgh) (11), Bill Rae (Kemnay )(11) (s), Benny Lumsden (Northern) (15), John Jessiman (Oldmeldrum) (14) (s).

LEADING SCORECARDS
PAR FOR EAST ABERDEENSHIRE
OUT - 4 5 3 4 3 5 4 4 4: 36
IN - 4 4 4 4 3 5 4 3 4: 35

CLARK ALEXANDER 71 (level par)

OUT – 4 5 3 3 3 4 4 4 5: 35 (-1)
IN – 4 4 4 4 3 5 4 4 4: 36 (+1)

IAN BRATTON 73 (+2)

OUT – 5 6 3 3 3 5 3 4 4: 36 (level par))
IN – 4 5 5 4 4 4 4 3 4: 37 (+2)

IAN BUCHAN 73 (+2)

OUT – 4 5 3 4 3 5 4 4 4: 36 (level par)
IN – 4 4 4 4 3 5 5 4 4: 37 (+2)

COLIN CLARK 73 (+2)

OUT – 4 5 3 4 3 4 4 5 5: 37 (+1)
IN – 5 4 2 3 3 8 4 4 3: 36 (+1)

RONNIE McDONALD 74 (+3)

OUT – 36. IN – 38.

EUAN KENNEDY 74 (+3)

OUT – 35. IN – 39.

FERGUS BISSET 74 (+3)

OUT – 36. IN – 38.

(HEADING EXPLANATION: Clark Kent was Superman's alter ego).