North golf news round-up

FROM ROBIN WILSON

Scottish Senior Tour player Laurie Chancellor enjoyed his home comforts to successfully defend the Macrae and Dick (Toyota) Inverness 36 hole open tournament trophy.

The win brought his local successes in the 36 hole event up to four over the long number of years, now aged 59, that he has been a member at Culcabock.

The event was the penultimate stroke-play fixture on the North District's Order of Merit Tour and on completion of the first round the two players who are fighting for domination in the points table, John Forbes (ex Inverness) and now Club Secretary at Muir of Ord and Bryan Fotheringham (Forres)  shared first round par cards of 69. Chancellor was two back beside the Inverness four-day winner Keiran MacKay with 71s to set up a close finish.

Fotheringham returned a second round 71and MacKay a 74 but with a level par second round 69 Chancellor went level with Fotheringham on 140 and on the better second round was declared the winner.

Forbes finished in fourth place but did not earn any Order of Merit merit points as his current cumulative total of 555, compiled from his best six all better the points he earned for fourth place at Inverness.

Fotheringham shared 190 points with Chancellor and the Forres member's 95 now brings his total up to 530 and just 25 behind Forbes. Fotheringham with two first place wins earning him 100 points each and three second place points in the nineties his worst in his top six total is 55points so Forbes could easily be caught and maybe overtaken when they both line up at the same venue next weekend in the North of Scotland Open 72 hole open championship.

Kieran MacKay with his 75 points from Saturday's event improved his merit position from seventh to fourth (260 pts) but the three ahead of him are, Forbes (555) B Fotheringham (530) and Fraser Fotheringham (Nairn) (260). The player below MacKay is David Joel (Inverness) (255) and these three have reached the last four of the North Match-Play championship where more points are still up for grabs.

The Quarter-final results were

 Fraser Fotheringham (The Nairn) beat Malcolm MacLemman (Moray)
 Bryan Fotheringham (Forres) beat Chris Gaittens (Fortrose and  Rosemarkie)
John Forbes (Muir of Ord) beat Kevin Thomson (Moray)
 David Joel (Inverness) beat Jake Scott (Moray).

Inverness Results 

(Morning CSS 70; Afternoon CSS 70)
 MacRae and Dick Toyota 36 Hole Open
 Scratch – L. Chancellor (71, 69) B. Fotheringham (Forres) (69, 71) 140; K. Mackay (71, 74), J. Forbes (69, 76) 145; E. Chancellor (74, 74) 148
 Handicap – M. Lyall (Tor) (65, 70) 135; E. Cuthbert (70, 67) 137; G. Bennet (73, 68), A. Philip (71, 70) 141;  G. Forsyth (73, 69) 142.

A losing finalist last month in his home club's four-day open David Joel in consecutive seasons has made and lost in the final of the Brora Four-Day competition and that is the result he came away with last week at the Sutherland course.

 The Brora Clynelish Salver should have been there for the lifting after the Inverness member led the qualifiers and won the W J Henderson medal with cards of 71 and 69. On his side also was a match-play draw that included only one previous winner Iain Powell (Murcar Links) and without last year's winner, local member Roddie Cameron.

When Powell was surprisingly beaten by his nephew Ross Powell from Deeside in the second round and Joel ousted his other big challenge, English Open Mid Amateur Champion, Dane Jorg Paulus, in the semi final Joel was looked up to end his Brora drought.

But he could not find an answer to the dogged determination of local member Liam MacDonald – MacLeod who had ended a domination by local Green Keeper, James MacBeath and Skibo Green Keeper Chris Mailley of the Brora Club Championship two weeks earlier.

Joel from a birdie on the sixteenth green took a one hole lead to the final par three tee from where he played a superb iron to within 15 feet of the pin. MacLeod a much greater distance away but he raced his life saving putt into the hole for birdie two and into extra holes.

The Inverness golfer came within two inches of a winning eagle at the 19^th and then missed a winning putt at the 20^th before both players missed the third green but it was MacLeod who got his chip and putt par four to win.

MacDonald Haulage Contractors Tain Golf Week.

A bond of golfing visitors and locals that was formed into a group in the sixties that became known as “The Stotters” because of more hours spent in the clubhouse than on the golf course! celebrated their fiftieth anniversary at Tain Golf Club last week with celebrations hosted by their present Captain, John Houston of Hilton Park.

 The group that emerged after Houston's father won the Tournament in 1960 had three generations of Stotter's families, all sporting their yellow 50th anniversary tops, witness their present Captain mark up a hatrick of Golf Week final successes.

In 2014 the Hilton Park member followed his father's name onto the scratch McVitie and Price Cup with a win in the final over local Munro Ferries. A return in 2015 saw his nett scores take him into the handicap section for the Munro Rose Bowl beating local Gus Gurney on the last green.

The Stotter's 50th birthday party in the Duthac Centre took a bit longer to recover from but Houston ended up in the Stirling Cup section to make his and his Stotters very happy with a 17^th green over local Billy Duff.

The usual scenario happened in the scratch section, when last Saturday's 36 hole winner and leading qualifier Lyle McAlpine, in the MacDonald Haulage Contractors 4-day tournament went out in the first round. He was joined on the sidelines in round two by the McVitie and Price Cup holder Keiran Mackay and former winner David Pearson (Royal Dornoch) to guarantee by the end of the week a new winner.

Alan Everett had lost last year's final to Keiran MacKay and on his third appearance in the final he was up against Fortrose and Rosemarkie's Euan Gill. Dingwall born Gill (18) has just completed his first college year at Akron University, Ohio and he cruised past Pearson in the quarter-finals and visitor Tom Lloyd (Addington) in the semi final. Everett responded with an eagle and three birdies on the back nine to beat club mate Dean O'Brien on the last green of his semi-final.

In the final both were out in one over par 36 and level but it was on the back nine that Everett pulled away. He won the first three inward holes with pars and when Gill had to play out sideways to the 15^th fairway Everett secured his first McVitie and Price Cup success by 4&3.

Gus Gurney was back in the final of the Munro Rose Bowl but with only a handicap difference of one stroke teenage member Daryn Jack (19) played a strong final nine holes to win four and three. In the final of the Brookes Cup Junior member Calum MacDougal (17) triumphed over the local Chinese Take-Away proprietor, Jonathan Au.  Au lost a ball at the 14^th hole leaving Calum to win on the next green.

At the beginning of the week the Dornoch Jail sponsored a Lady's 2-Day Stableford competition for The Flower Shop Trophy. The winner was Marie -Louise Pind from Sollered GC Denmark with 72 points and in second place winning the Mary Haden Trophy with 67 points was Hilary Scott (Dalmahoy).

McVitie and Price Results;

Semi finals – E Gill (F and R) beat T Lloyd (Addington) 4 and 2. A Everett (Tain) beat D O'Brien (Tain) 1 hole. Final Everett beat Gill 4 and 3. 

Stirling Cup

 Semis – J Houston (Hilton Park) (6)  beat A Pater (Pannal) ((7) 2 and  1. B Duff (Tain) (10) beat D J MacKay (Tain) (7)  6 and 4. 

Final Houston beat Duff 2 and 1. 

 Munro Rose Bowl

 Semis - G Gurney (Tain) (8) beat G Ross (Tain) (9) I hole. D Jack (Tain) (9) beat D Ross (Tain (7) 4 and 3.

 Final Jack beat Gurney 4 and 3.

 Brookes Cup –

Semis, C MacDougall (Tain) (19) beat R Hudson (Tain) (11) 5 and 4. J Au (Tain) (15) beat R Urquhart (Tain) (17) 7  and  6. 

Final MacDougall beat Au 4  and 3.