News from today's North-east Alliance meeting

Banchory
assistant
scores 1st
win with
help of
10 single
putts

By COLIN FARQUHARSON

Banchory assistant Stewart Davidson (pictured above left) boosted the number of first-time winners on the North-east Alliance circuit this season to seven, thanks to a two-under-par round of 70 in cold and windy conditions over a very wet Portlethen course today.
Davidson, 25, originally from Braemar, highlighted his card with an eagle 3 at the fourth and birdies at the short fifth and 10th as well at the 14th and 18th in halves of 36 and 34.
“I three-putted the third from about 25ft but thereafter my short game was quite good and I reckon I had 10 single putts,” said Davidson who reduced the 466yd of the par-5 fourth to a driver, four-iron and a 25ft putt.
Stewart birdied the short third with a nine-iron and a 10ft putt; the short 10th with a driver and a 15ft putt, the third with a sand wedge second to three feet of the stick and the 18th with a driver, a five-iron which missed the green, and a pitch and a putt.
He dropped shots at the third, seventh and eighth (missing the green both times), and the sixth, where he was in the trees off the tee and took two shots to recover.
Stewart pitched and putted at the sixth, ninth, 11th, 13th, 16th and 18th.
Cruden Bay staff professional Neil Murray (pictured above on right) and Murcar Links leading amateur Terry Mathieson tied for second place on 71. Both were left rueing late bogeys.
Murray’s halves of 34-37 contained bogeys at the 13th, 14th and 16th apart from birdies at the fourth, eighth, 11th and 18th.
"I have just come back from a golfing trip to Fuengirola on the Costa del Sol, so my game was in pretty good nick," said Neil.
Mathieson (36-35) birdied the seventh, 12th, 14th and 18th but bogeyed the eighth, 16th and 17th.
"I was in the trees off the tee at the 16th and then three-putted the 17th, so that was disappointing, even though I got a birdie 4 at the last," said Terry.
Of the field of precisely 100 - equalling the best of the season so far - there were 28 No Returns, many of them towards the end when players walked in when it became too dark to complete their rounds.

Leading scores (Par 72)

SCRATCH
70 S Davidson (Banchory).
71 N Murray (Cruden Bay), T Mathieson (Murcar Links).
72 W Main (Murcar Links), I Buchan (Craibstone).
74 G Ingram (Inveurie).
75 G Grimmer (Nigg Bay), E Kennedy (Stonehaven), C Stephen (Meldrum House), N Reid (Deeside).
76 S Finnie (Caledonian).
77 A Campbell (Deeside), A S Buchan (Newburgh), W S Urquhart (Murcar Links).
78 S Fraser (Northern), J M Hamilton (Murcar Links), R Stewart (Cruden Bay), D Garrett (Huntly), D Corkey (East Aberdeenshire)
79 C Carnegie (Kemnay), R Pirie (Caledonian), R McDonald (Kemnay).
80 C Nelson (MacKenzie Club), A Grant (Portlethen), D Leighton (Murcar Links).
81 A Swift (Auchmill), A Thouless (Nigg Bay),.
82 B Harper (Newburgh), P Farnan (Royal Aberdeen), C Alexander (Murcar Linsk).
83 N Williamson (Banchory), J Murray (Banchory).
84 S Lawrie (Portlethen).

HANDICAP

Class 1 – G Ingram (Inverurie) (4) 70; A S Buchan (Newburgh) (6) 71; W Main (Murcar Links) (scr) 72; T Mathieson (Murcar Links) (+2) , G Grimmer (Nigg Bay) (2), J M Hamilton (5), A Grant (Portlethen) 73; E Kennedy (Stonehaven) (scr), D Leighton (Murcar Links) (5) 75; S Finnie (Caledonian) (scr), W S Urquhart (Murcar Links) (1), D Garrett (Huntly) (2), D Corkey (East Aberdeenshire) (2), R Pirie (Caledonian) (3) 76.

Class 2 – I Strachan (Royal Aberdeen) (11) 75; G Homer (Lumphanan) (12), D Sherriffs (Hazlehead) (13) 76; J Wilson (Deeside) (10), G Kennedy (Meldrum House) (13), G Travis (Auchmill) (15) 78; H McNaughton (Cruden Bay) (10), K Duncan (Cruden Bay) (12), D Wood (Newburgh) (14), B Lumsden (Northern) (16) 80; G Leslie (Newburgh) (10); R Alison (Deeside) (13), D Randall (Banchory) (13) 83.

LEADERS' SCORECARDS
Portlethen par:
OUT: 4-5-4-5-3-4-4-3-4-36
IN: 3-4-3-5-4-4-4-4-5-36

STEWART DAVIDSON 70
OUT: 4-5-5-3-2-4-5-4-4-36
IN: 2-4-3-6-3-4-4-4-4-34

NEIL MURRAY 71
OUT: 4-5-4-4-3-4-4-2-4-34
IN: 3-3-3-6-4-4-5-4-4-37

TERRY MATHIESON 71
OUT: 4-5-4-5-3-4-3-4-4-36
IN: 3-4-2-5-3-4-5-5-4-35

IAIN BUCHAN 72
OUT: 4-4-4-5-3-4-4-3-4-35
IN: 3-4-3-4-4-4-5-5-5-37

BILLY MAIN 72
OUT: 3-5-5-7-2-4-4-3-4-37
IN: 3-4-2-5-5-4-4-4-4-35

GREG INGRAM 74
OUT: 4-5-4-4-2-4-4-4-4-35
IN: 4-3-4-5-3-4-5-6-5-39

++Next Wednesday's competition - the last before the winter break - will be over a "composite" course at Cruden Bay - holes 1 to 7 and 17 & 18 on the main course PLUS the nine holes of the St Olaf course. To get as many players round in daylight as possible, some will start at the seventh hole.