BRATTON SCORES THIRD WIN
OF N E ALLIANCE SEASON
WITH 68 AT BUCKPOOL

By COLIN FARQUHARSON

Newburgh club professional Ian Bratton, pictured right, scored his third win of the North-east Golfers’ Alliance season with a two-under-par 68 at Buckpool today.
On a fine, sunny day, Bratton was one under par with five to play, having cancelled out bogeys at the fourth and eighth with birdies at the ninth, 11th and 12th. Then he “wobbled” with back to back bogeys at the 14th and 15th before finishing strongly with an eagle 3 at the 534yd 16th and a birdie at the 17th for 32 home.
Ian's earlier victories this 2006-2007 season were at Ballater and McDonald Ellon, where he shared first place. He has been there or thereabouts every time he has played and, not surprisingly, is easily the leading money-winner on the winter circuit.
Bratton had a stroke to spare from two amateurs, Terry Mathieson (Murcar Links) (34-35) and Stewart Finnie (Caledonian) (36-33). Terry three-putted the last for a bogey 5 but, like most of his fellow competitors in the field of 87, he considered the greens the best he had putted on for a long time.
Terry, who has been having his swing and technique scrutinized by Deeside Golf Club’s director of golf Frank Coutts, had earlier birdied the first, sixth, ninth and 16th with bogeys at the second, fourth and the afore-mentioned 18th in halves of 34 and 35.
Stewart Finnie was two under par after three holes, having birdied the second and third but only three holes later he had slumped to one over par, thanks to three bogeys in a row from the fourth.
Having got that rubbish out of his system, Stewart settled down in the perfect playing conditions – well, the pace of play did leave a lot to be desired! – to play the last 12 holes in two under par with 10 pars and birdies at the
Young Richard Hyland had the best outward half of the day - three-under-par 32, with birdies at the second, third and seventh.
A bogey at the 10th was his first slip but he countered that with his fourth bogey at the day at the 11th. Then he lurched off the straight and narrow with a double-bogey 5 at the short 13th.
"I've been changing my grip and it has worked well for me but my tee shot at the 13th just went straight right into a gorse bush," said Richard who then bogeyed the next two holes as well, just for good measure.
A birdie at the long 16th was followed by another bogey at the 17th as he stumbled home from a sublime 32 to a ridiculous 39 (four over) ... "ridiculous," of course, if you can play the game as well as young Hyland can. His day will come.

LEADING SCRATCH (Par 70)
68 I Bratton (Newburgh).
69 S Finnie (Caledonian), T Mathieson (Murcar Links).
71 R Hyland (Newmachar).
73 A Campbell (Deeside), C Nelson (MacKenzie
Club), I Buchan (Craibstone), B Ritchie (Inverallochy), S Fraser (Northern), R Stewart (Cruden Bayh), S Davidson (Banchory), E Kennedy (Stonehaven), N Reid (Deeside).
74 D Corkey (East Aberdeenshire), W Main (Murcar Links), C Duffus (Kemnay).
75 S Pert (Huntly), L Barbour (Cruden Bay), F Bisset (Banchory).
76 J Morris (Craibstone), P Lovie (Inchmarlo), D Garrett (Huntly), J Nicolson (Auchmill).
77 R Pirie (Caledonian), A Grant (Portlethen).
78 P Morrison (Oldmeldrum), A Graham (Portlethen).
79 R L Nicoll (Murcar Links) s, A Nelson (Banchory), N Williamson (Banchory).
80 P Farnan (Royal Aberdeen) s, D Bisset (Banchory) s, N Parker (Murcar Links).
81 B Harper (Newburgh), K Minty (Turriff), I D Smith (Hazlehead) s, J Murray (Banchory), D Nelson (Aboyne) s.
82 I Strachan (Royal Aberdeen), M Lawrie (Kemnay), R Penny (Portlethen), A Petrie (Oldmeldrum), D Leighton (Murcar Links).
83 J Dalgarno (Hazlehead), S Kidd (Newburgh), S Elrick (Kemnay).

LEADING HANDICAP
Class 1
S Finnie (Caledonian) (scr), C Duffus (Kemnay) (5) 69; A Grant (Portlethen) (7) 70; T Mathieson (Murcar Links) (+2), B Ritchie (Inverallochy) (2), F Bisset (Banchory) (4), J Morris (Craibstone) (5), D Bisset (Banchory) (9) 71; D Corkey (East Aberdeenshire) (2), S Fraser (Northern) (1), S Pert (Huntly) (3), J Nicolson (Auchmill) (4), R Hyuland (+1) 72; P Morrison (Oldmeldrum) (5), A Campbell (scr), K Mintyu (Turriff) (8), N Williamson (Banchory) (6), E Kennedy (Stonehaven) (scr) 73.
Class 2
I Strachan (Royal Aberdeen) (11), D Wood (Newburgh) (14), J Jones (Craibstone) (16) 71; C Hood (Alford) (10), B McBain (Turriff) (13) 74; H McNaughton (Cruden Bay) (10), R Addison (Newburgh) (18) 75; A Buchan (Northern) (10) 76; K Duncan (Cruden Bay) (12), J Jessiman (Oldmeldrum) (14), W Forbes (Murcar Links) (15) 77; G Homer (Lumphanan (12) 78; D Lawrie (Inchmarlo) (12), W D Rae (Kemnay) (11) 79.

TOP SCRATCH CARDS AT BUCKPOOL
Par of the course: 70
OUT: 4-4-5-4-4-3-4-3-4-35
IN: 4-4-4-3-4-3-5-4-4-35

IAN BRATTON 68
OUT: 4-4-5-5-4-3-4-4-3-36
IN: 4-3-3-3-5-4-3-3-4-32

STEWART FINNIE 69
OUT: 4-3-4-5-5-4-4-3-4-36
IN: 4-4-3-3-4-3-4-4-4-33

TERRY MATHIESON 69
OUT: 3-5-5-5-4-2-4-3-3-34
IN: 4-4-4-3-4-3-4-4-5-35

RICHARD HYLAND 71
OUT: 4-3-4-4-4-3-3-3-4-32
IN: 5-3-4-5-5-4-4-5-4-39