THEY DO THINGS DIFFERENTLY ALONG THE MORAY COAST

REFERENCE TALKING POINTS
Why is the Moray Open match-play
draw not seeded?

It must be a Moray Coast thing of being different and backwards!
My friend is up at the Nairn Dunbar Five-day Open and they have 32 qualifiers with only the top two being seeded. Amazing what golf committees can come up with : )

Ian Welsh


FROM BRYAN FOTHERINGHAM 
 To add a twist to this debate, it might interest you that Moray, Elgin, Hopeman (I think) and Forres Golf Clubs all have four rounds stroke-play to determine their respective club champions. 
Some northern clubs in the Sutherland area also do this, (not sure who) whereas every other club I know play match-play for their club championship. I personally feel four rounds strokeplay gets the best player in the club, as you can't get away with bad holes here or there, like you can in matchplay. We do many things different, for a variety of reasons, but our tournaments are very successful so we must be doing something right. 
A stroke-play championship compliments a match play Four or Five-day very well. I would like to reference my earlier email to Ian Welsh as to why the Moray Open isn't seeded.


FROM MALCOLM MACLEMAN
I can assure Ian Welsh that we on the Moray coast are not "different" or indeed "backwards", and I am disappointed by such a comment. Perhaps if he played in the Moray Open or the Nairn Dunbar 5 day he would appreciate how fantastic these tournaments are.
If he read the excellent explanation sent to you by Bryan Fotheringham regarding the reason for an open draw at the Moray Open, he would understand the reasons. The auction raises a pot of around £10,000 and adds an amazing amount of excitement and buzz to the tournament.
The Moray open had a field of nearly 400 players, fully utilising the Old and New courses for qualifying, and usually requires a waiting list by the end of January.  
Furthermore, I am not sure a seeded draw would make much difference, given that this year the 32 qualifiers included over a dozen players at scratch or better (not including some scratch and plus players who didn't qualify).
The scratch draw had a strong contingent of good players from Aberdeenshire, the central belt and England, so the draw system doesn't seem to be putting anyone off.

Malcolm Macleman.


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