Torvean Golf Club team who lost to Fortrose & Rosemarkie in the final of the Northern Counties Cup relax in the Royal Aberdeen clubhouse before setting off home to Inverness. Left to right: Steve McIntosh, Graeme Anderson, David Sandison and Scott Chisholm. (Cal Carson Golf Agency picture).
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 12th.
MacDonald and Reid halved the 13th and then staged a powerful finish by winning four of the last five holes. They squared it at the 14th where the Torvean pair were in the whins.
After the 15th was halved, the Fortrose & Rosemarkie pair went one up the 16th, two up at the 17th 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 11th, the 14th, 15th and 17th to be one down after 16th.
Robbie holed a good putt to win the 17th and square the match. The last was halved.
Today's details:
SEMI-FINALS
Torvean bt Nairn at 19th
(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 19th)
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.
IT'S A TORVEAN v FORTROSE & ROSEMARKIE
FINAL AT ROYAL ABERDEEN
This afternoon’s final of the Northern Counties Cup at Royal Aberdeen was being contested by Torvean and Fortrose & Rosemarkie.
Torvean won their semi-final against Nairn, winners two years ago, at the 19th.
It was the third time in as many days that the Inverness quartet had got through at the first extra hole.
At the 19th, the first pairs halved in par 4. Torvean went through to the final when Nairn’s second string of Andrew Scott and Stephen MacDonald three-putted from the edge of the green for a bogey 5 to a par by Scott Chisholm and Steve McIntosh.
Fortrose & Rosemarkie had a surprisingly big winning margin of five holes over Duff House Royal in the second semi-final. Tie-winners for Fortrose & Rosemarkie were the lead pair of club secretary Mike MacDonald and Lewis Reid who finished eight holes up on promising teenager David Morrison and highly-rated senior circuit player Mike Jenkins.
The Banff second pair of Ross McAuslin and Colin Farquhar made a brave bid to make up the deficit but a three-hole winning margin was the best they could achieve against Robbie Mackay and Andy Brown.
NORTHERN COUNTIES CUP
Royal Aberdeen Golf Club
Semi-finals
Nairn bt Torvean at 19th
(Neil Hampton and Robert Smith 0, David Sandison and Graeme Anderson 0; Andrew Scott and Stephen MacDonald 0, Scott Chisholm and Steve McIntosh 0).
Fortrose & Rosemarkie bt Duff House Royal by five holes.
(Mike MacDonald and Lewis Reid 8, David Morrison and Mike Jenkins 9; Robbie Mackay and Andy Brown 0, Ross McAuslin and Colin Farquhar 0).
