Cameron's eagle-birdie finish wins
the day at Buckpool

By COLIN FARQUHARSON
McDonald Ellon tour pro Ross Cameron, who has played a big part in the development of Michele Thomson into a Curtis Cup player and Scottish women's champion this year, showed his clubmate today that he can play a bit himself.
One of the last out in a field of 80, with Michele as a partner, Cameron staged a grandstand eagle-birdie finish to win the North-east Golfers’ Alliance competition at Buckpoool Golf Club, Buckie.
Cameron won by two shots with a par-equalling round of 70 on a sunny but windy day on the Moray Firth links. His starting holes were rather spectacular as well – a hat-trick of birdies.
His middle holes were not quite so impressive. He had a double bogey at the short eighth and a double bogey 7 at the 16th but a monster drive at the 300yd 17th set up his eagle 2 and then he birdied the par-4 last to redeem himself.
The long-time clubhouse joint leaders pipped by Cameron were amateurs Craig Stephen (Meldrum House) and Stewart Finnie (Caledonian).
Michele Thomson, playing off the men's tees, returned an 84.
+In 1999, Paul Lawrie won a North-east Alliance competition at Buckpool, despite having a 10 on his card at one hole. Several months later he won the Open at Carnoustie.

Leading scratch scores
Par 70
70 R Cameron (McDonald Ellon).
72 C Stephen (Meldrum House), S Finnie (Caledonian).
73 A Campbell (Deeside), D Law (Hazlhead), G Paterson (Northern).
74 S Pert (Huntly), D Clark (Duff House Royal).
75 C Nelson (Mackenzie Club), R Stewart (Cruden Bay), B Nicolson (Auchmill), R McDonald (Inchmarlo).
76 B Ritchie (Inverallochy), M Jenkins (Duff House Royal).
78 L Prouse (Hazlehead), F Bisset (Banchory).
79 S Davidson (Banchory), J Hamilton (Murcar Links), K Beveridge (Aboyne), D McKay (Caledonian), C Law (Hazlehead).
Leading handicap scores
Class 1 – C Cassie (Nigg Bay) (8), J Forrest (Northern) (8), S Finnie (Caledonian) (scr), D McKay (Caledonian) (7), S Pert (Huntly) (2) 72; A Campbell (Deeside) (scr), L Prouse (Hazlehead) (5), C Stephen (Meldrum House) (+1), L Roger (Royal Aberdeen) (8), B Nicolson (Auchmill) (2), D Clark (Duff House Royal) (1), G Paterson (Northern) (scr) 73.
Class 2 – R Lumsden (Northern) (16) 67; R Colquhoun (Craibstone) (17), G Allan (Newmachar) (10), K Minty (Turriff) (9), J Scott (Peterculter) (12) 72; N Chisholm (Kemnay) (11) 73.

BUCKPOOL SCORECARD TO PAR - 70
OUT: 4-4-5-4-4-3-4-3-4--35 IN: 4-4-4-3-4-3-5-4-4--35

ROSS CAMERON 70
OUT: 3-3-4-4-5-3-4-5-4--35
IN: 4-4-3-3-5-4-7-2-3--35

CRAIG STEPHEN 72
OUT: 5-4-5-4-7-4-4-3-3--39.
IN: 3-4-4-3-5-3-4-3-4--33

STEWART FINNIE 72
OUT: 4-4-5-4-5-4-5-3-4--38
IN: 4-3-5-2-5-3-4-4-4--34

Next Wednesday's meeting - the last before the mid-winter break - is at Cruden Bay. The 2009 NE Alliance fixtures start at Craibstone on January 7, followed by Peterhead on January 14.

TODAY'S COMMENTS
Gary Homer:
"I would just like to say that I thought the Buckpool course was in excellent condition today and after golfing all year I didn't play on greens as good in July in some places. Congratulations to the green staff."