North-east Alliance at Ballater
BRATTON BIRDIE AT LAST PIPS
NELSON AND TROUP
By COLIN FARQUHARSON (colin@scottishgolfview.com)
Newburgh-on-Ythan club professional Ian Bratton birdied the last hole to head a field of 86 for today’s North-east Golfers’ Alliance competition at mist-shrouded Ballater Golf Club where it was very wet underfoot after heavy overnight rain which lingered around.
Bratton, who had figured in a triple tie for victory in the September 27 Alliance meeting at McDonald Ellon, finished with a two-under-par 68 with birdies at the first, seventh, eighth, 11th, 14th and 18th and bogeys at the fifth, ninth and 16th in halves of 34 (one under par) and 33 (two under par).
Ian, pictured right, won by one stroke from joint runners-up Colin Nelson (MacKenzie Club) and Steven Troup (King’s Links). Both professionals parred the last hole.
Either would have benefited from the finish of joint fourth Gary Esson. The +2 Portlethen amateur covered the last eight holes in five under par with birdies at the 10th, 14th, 16th, 17th and 18th for a 69.
Speaking of finishes, good, bad or otherwise,Banchory professional Stewart Davidson, who also finished on 69, would have been the winner with a 66 had he been able to par the last five holes.
Stewart, however, started badly and finished badly, all relatively speaking, of course.
He bogeyed the fourth and fifth before his purple patch which saw him get an eagle 3 at the seventh, a birdie 3 at the eight (turn in one-under-par 34), and birdie the 10th, 11th and 12th to be four under par with six holes to play. He parred the short 13th but then bogeyed the 14th, 16th and 18th for 35 home.
BALLATER LOCAL RULE
Paul Lawrie's older brother Stephen, an eight-handicapper at Portlethen Golf Club, fell foul of a local Ballater GC rule.
At Ballater, if your golf ball hits the overhead cables, it says on the back of the scorecard:
7 WIRES
A ball striking the overhead cables at the third or fourth holes must be played as it lies.
But, curiously enough, at Turriff Golf Club, there is a local rule that a ball hitting an overhead cable must be replayed.
So when Stephen Lawrie's ball hit the overhead cables at Ballater's third hole (223yd), he played another ball. At Turriff, that would have been the correct procedure. But at Ballater it is a NO-NO, encurring a two-stroke penalty.
"I did think that the rule for an overhead cable would be the same as at Turriff. I didn't consult the Ballater scorecard," said Stephen who had a good gross score of 75 which went up to 77 when the two-stroke penalty was added after consultation with Alliance secretary and Rules of Golf expert, Ron Menzies.
Ron's knowledge of the Rules of Golf was again tested when Stuart Pert from Huntly reported the fact that, under the "Mark-lift-clean and replace your ball if in a closely-mown area" rule in operation for the day, he had done so at the 14th hole (319yd), walking forward to survey his second shot before he replaced his ball. Nothing wrong with that, but ...
"It was when I was walking back to my marker that I realised I had made a mistake in thinking that my drive had landed in a closely-mown area. It was in the short rough."
Pert then proceeded to hole his second shot for an eagle 2 which became a birdie 3 when Ron Menzies imposed a one-shot penalty on him for moving his ball while it was in play.
Stuart's gross score of 70 made him joint sixth in the scratch prize list at the end of the day. But there was another unkind blow waiting in the wings for Mr Pert.
WRONG HANDICAP ON SCORECARD
Stuart has a handicap of three but he did not notice that his playing partner had written on his scorecard that his handicap was two - and Stuart signed for a net 69 instead of the net 68 he was entitled to if the proper deduction of three strokes had been made.
"Stuart's gross score was not affected but he would have been disqualified from the net prize list had the mistake over his handicap been the other way round, i.e. he signed for a lower net score than was the case," said Ron Menzies.
Next week's meeting is at Edzell.
Leading scores (Par 70)
SCRATCH
67 I Bratton (Newburgh) p.
68 C Nelson (MacKenzie Club) p, S Troup (Kings Links) ap.
69 G Esson (Portlethen), S Davidson (Banchory) p.
70 S Pert (Huntly), A Innes (Murcar Links).
71 A Campbell (Deeside), J Dalgarno (Hazlehead), W S Urquhart (Murcar Links) s, C Alexander (Murcar Links) s.
72 N Murray (Cruden Bay) p, F G Gray (Deeside), L Sang (Aboyne), C Stephen (Meldrum House), S Chalmers (Banchory) ap, D Yeats (Newmachar), S Finnie (Caledonian), D Garrett (Huntly).
73 R L Nicoll (Murcar Links) s, F Bisset (Banchory), R Pirie (Caledonian) s.
74 R Stewart (Cruden Bay) p, J Nicolson (Auchmill).
75 C Carnegie (Kemnay), J Roberts (Cruden Bay), R Fitzpatrick ((Inchmarlo) ap, J Hamilton (Murcar Links), L Roger (Royal Aberdeen) s, T Mathieson (Murcar Links), A Graham (Portlethen).
76 R Hyland (Newmachar), B Harper (Newburgh), C Cassie (Nigg Bay).
77 B Ritchie (Inverallochy), D Wilson (Duff House Royal), A Grant (Portlethen), S Lawrie (Portlethen), D Leighton (Murcar Links).
78 I Strachan (Royal Aberdeen), A Nelson (Banchory), J Robb (Turriff).
79 D Bisset (Banchory) s, D McKay (Caledonian).
(p denotes professional; ap assistant professional; s senior)
HANDICAP
Class 1
J Dalgarno (Hazlehead) (7); A Innes (Murcar Links) (5) 70; F G Gray (Deeside) (6) 66; S Pert (Huntly) (2), C Alexander (Murcar Links) (3), R L Nicoll (Murcar Links) (5), J Roberts (Cruden Bay) (7), C Cassie (Nigg Bay) (8) 68; F Bisset (Banchory) (4), S Lawrie (Portlethen) (8) 69; W S Urquhart (Murcar Links) (1), D Garrett (Huntly) (2), R Pirie (Caledonian) (3), J Nicolson (Auchmill) (4), J M Hamilton (Murcar Links) (5), A Grant (Portlethen) (7), D Bisset (Banchory) (9) 70.
Class 2
L Roger (Royal Aberdeen) (10), J Robb (Turriff) (13) 65; I Strachan (Royal Aberdeen) (12) 66; C Telford (Banchory) (13) 67; G Leslie (Newburgh) (11) 70; C Hood (Alford) (10), A Buchan (Northern) (10), K Duncan (Cruden Bay) (12), D Wood (Newburgh) (14) 71; J Jessiman (Oldmeldrum) (14) 72; W D Rae (Kemnay) (11), D Sherriffs (Hazlehead) (13), D Moir (Murcar Links) (13), W McBain (Turriff) (13) 73.
LEADING SCORECARDS
BALLATER PAR (70)
OUT:543434543-35-IN:454344434-35
IAN BRATTON 67(-3)
OUT: 443444434-34-IN:444334533-33
COLIN NELSON 68(-2)
OUT: 433534543-34-IN:444335434-34
STEVEN TROUP 68(-2)
OUT:444534343-34-IN:443344444-34
GARY ESSON 69(-1)
OUT:543544544-38-IN:544334323-31
STEWART DAVIDSON 69(-1)
OUT:543544333-34-IN:343354535-35
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