Chris Robb and Sam Kiloh in Germany mix

Portlethen's Sam Kiloh (Paul Lawrie Golf Centre) was the early leader with a five-under-par 67 but by the end of the day he had dropped back to a share of fifth place as Germany's Jonas Kolbing and amateur Max Schmitt surged past with matching rounds of 64. in the Pro Golf Tour's Castanea Resort Championship at Adendorf, Germany.
Former Scottish amateur champion Chris Robb (Meldrum House) also overtook Kiloh with a 66 for a share of third place.

LEADING FIRST ROUND SCORES
par 72
64 J Kolbing (Germany), M Schmitt (Germany) (am).
66 C Robb (Meldrum House), B Weilguni (Austria).

SELECTED SCORES
67 S Kiloh (Paul Lawrie Golf Centre) (T5)
74 Z Culverwell (Dunbar) (T49).
75 P McLean (Peterhead) (T55)
Field of 71 players.

Calum Nairn's 66 makes him halfway leader

at Deer Park

By COLIN FARQUHARSON
Calum Nairn (Kilmarnock Barassie) shot his lowest round of the year - a six-under-par 66 - to give himself a chance of achieving his first win of the season, in the 36-hole St Andrews Brewing Company 36-hole Order of Merit event at Deer Park Golf and Country Club.
Nairn had a bag of eight birdies and two bogeys in matching halves of 33 after standing four under par after eight holes.
At the halfway point, he leads by one shot from Neil Fenwick (Dunbar) and Chris Currie (Caldwell).
LEADING FIRST-ROUND SCORES
Par 72
66 C Nairn (Kilmarnock Barassie).
67 N Fenwick (Dunbar), C Currie (Caldwell).
68 G Brown (Montrose Links), P McKechnie (Braid Hills), G Hay (Grantown on Spey), P O'Hara (North Lanarkshire Leisure).
69 M Patterson (Kilmacolm), J McGhee (Swanston New), C McMaster (Downfield), S Gray (Lanark), G Hutcheon (PLGC Inchmarlo), G Fox (Clydeway Golf).
70 R Arnott (Bishopbriggs), S O'Hara (North Lanarkshire Leisure). 71 G Wright (West Linton), S Savage (Dalmuir), G McBain (Newmachar), A Tait (Deer Park).
72 C Goodwin (Strathlene), I Graham (Crow Wood), M Mackenzie (Edzell), S Morrison (Tain), S McAllister (S McAllister Golf), P Robinson (Largs), C Marr (Musselburgh).




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CRAIGMILLAR PARK WIN INAUGURAL SCOTTISH 

JUNIOR CLUB TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP AT GLENBERVIE

The winning Craigmillar Park GC team. L-R Lucy Morrison, Cameron Ledingham, Alessio Margiotta, Mark Brooks, Sam Hall, Conor O' Toole. 

The inaugural event was generously hosted by Glenbervie Golf Club on Sunday, September 24, 2017, and General Manager/Secretary David Brodie, together with the rest of his staff, made everyone welcome. Despite persistent showers, the course held up very well under the conditions and play was completed with no delays.

The winning teams from junior leagues all over Scotland, plus several teams from areas currently without junior leagues, entered the event. Each team had six players and
there was some excellent scoring under the singles Stableford format, with the best five out of six scores to count.

A very strong team from Craigmillar Park, recent winners of the Edinburgh Junior League, and all with single figure handicaps, emerged victorious with some very consistent scoring.
Sam Hall led the way with 38, followed by Cameron Ledingham with 36, and Alessio Margiotta and Mark Brooks, both with 35, and by Conor O’Toole with 34. These five scores totalled 178 and were so good that the score by late substitute Lucy Morrison was able to be discarded. This was a great team performance!

The winning team, together with their junior conveners Mary Richardson and Susan Corrie, were awarded a trophy, kindly donated by Ian Howarth, past president of the SGU, and each player received a commemorative medal. The R and A kindly donated prizes of golf shirts, flags, and balls from the 2017 Open Championship at Royal Birkdale, and the leading four teams received prizes.

Craigmillar Park romped in 14pts ahead of Alloa Golf Club representing Clackmannanshire, who also demonstrated the value of consistency with five scores all in the range of 32 to 35 for a total of 164. The teams from Craigielaw, winners of the East Lothian Junior League, and Kilmarnock Barassie, winners of the Ayrshire League, tied for third place on 163pts.

Individual pride of place went to Ewan Milligan of Kilmarnock Barassie, handicap four, who had a great, one-under-par round of 70, including birdies at 15 and 16, and only one bogey, for a total of 41 pts. This would surely have made his dad, Jim Milligan, former Scottish champion and Walker Cup player, very proud.

Scoring was tough in the conditions, and the CSS went up two strokes to 73 (75 for Girls), equal to 34pts. The next best scorers were all on 38pts, Sam Hall, Ryan Yuill of Craigielaw representing East Lothian, and Taylor Kerr representing the South. The individual winners also received prizes donated by the R and A.

Mention should also be made of the hard-working junior conveners and parents who brought their teams and players from all over Scotland. Many thanks to them and to all the willing helpers on the day.

The feedback received on the day from players and officials was very positive.  This new tournament will be run annually from now on and be hosted in different areas of the country. It clearly has a secure future within Scottish junior golf and it will become a permanent feature on the calendar.
What better way to bring teams of juniors and conveners from all over Scotland together to meet each other and to compete to decide the Champion Junior Club? 
There is hope that, in future, our winning Scottish Club team would compete against club teams from England, Wales and Ireland to decide who is the UK Champion Junior Club Team!

The impetus for this tournament came from a few individuals in East Lothian and a small committee was formed, chaired by Ian Howarth, and comprises David Warren, Ric Foulner, Ken Wood, Peter Lowe and Paul Gibson. Andrew Coltart and Catriona Matthew agreed to be patrons of the event.

Sadly, despite trying for over two years to find one, no sponsor came forward to help fund this event, but we hope to secure a sponsor for 2018. Details of a sponsorship package can be obtained from David Warren (Tel 07595 301425) who was the Tournament Director for the first event.

In researching for this event, David found that in recent years several long standing junior leagues in Scotland had either folded completely, or had reduced drastically in size. For league matches, many clubs were often struggling to field teams of six juniors, or even four in some cases, through the lack of numbers of juniors who are willing to compete.

Our committee regards this area of club competition as a priority for all clubs who wish to grow the game of golf, and also as a priority for investment by Scottish Golf. We would ask Scottish Golf to assist conveners at clubs and secretaries of leagues to help rejuvenate the “grass roots” junior league system, in order to sustain the long term future of golf in Scotland. This new tournament has identified one way to go forward by providing an incentive to compete.

In 2018 the event will start its rotation around some of the top courses in different areas of the country and provisionally, the 2018 event will be at Portlethen Golf Club near Aberdeen, on Sunday, September 30. The Aberdeen Junior Pennant League will be the organisers for that event.

Team scores and their best individual Players are included below, but for full details of scoring etc, visit eastlothianjuniorgolf.org.uk where photos of all the Teams can also be seen.

David Warren
Secretary, East Lothian Junior Golf League. 

POSITION	TEAM NAME	BEST 5 SCORES FROM 6	BEST INDIVIDUAL SCORE and POINTS
1	CRAIGMILLAR PARK	178	Sam Hall (38)
2	ALLOA	164	Josh Redpath (35)
3=	KILMARNOCK BARASSIE	163	Ewan Milligan (41)
3=	CRAIGIELAW	163	Ryan Yuill (38)
5	CRUDEN BAY	162	Mathew Clacher (34)
6	SOUTH	157	Taylor Kerr (38)
7	DRUMPELLIER	155	Lewis Russell (33)
8	BLAIRGOWRIE	153	Scott Campbell (32)
9	DUMBARTONSHIRE	148	Matthew McAlpine (34)
10	BORDERS	147	Scott Murdoch and Jack McDonald (34)
11	DUNBLANE NEW	138	Bjorn Sandin (32)
12	RALSTON	130	Greg Murphy (31)
13	ROYAL MONTROSE	126	Ewan Wheat (32)

Belgium to host stroke-play knock- out event on 2018 European Tour

Thomas Pieters (Getty Images)   NEWS RELEASE The European Tour will return to Belgium for the first time in 18 years in 2018 when Thomas Pieters hosts the Belgian Knockout – an innovative new event which incorporates a head-to-head strokeplay knockout format – at Rinkven International Golf Club, Antwerp, from May 17-20. Ryder Cup star Pieters, who claimed four points at Hazeltine National last year to become the most successful European rookie in the history of the biennial contest, unveiled the tournament, which will be part of the 2018 Race to Dubai, at a press conference in Antwerp today.  The opening two rounds will follow a familiar stroke-play format for 36 holes, before the leading 64 players then go head-to-head in knock-out stroke-play matches contested over nine holes on the weekend to determine the winner. “I think it’s going to be exciting,” said three-time European Tour winner Pieters, who finished fourth at the Olympic Games in Rio. “We are going to see an innovative new format and it will make it really exciting for people who come along to watch and also for people watching it at home on TV.”   For more information or tickets, please visit www.belgianknockout.com.

Sam Kiloh leads with a 67 in Pro Golf Tour's German event

Portlethen's Sam Kiloh (Paul Lawrie Golf Centre) is the early leader with a round of 67 in the Pro Golf Tour's Castanea Resort Championship in Germany.
It is the last 2017 event of the tour.

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O'HARA LEADS ORDER OF MERIT BUT 

2ND TO HAY IN MONEY TABLE

By COLIN FARQUHARSON

Paul O'Hara, pictured, has virtually wrapped up the Tartan Tour's 2017 Order of Merit title but the North Lanarkshire Leisure player needs to overtake current leader, Gavin Hay (Grantown on Spey) to complete a double by winning the money table as well.

Alastair Forsyth and Graham Fox are also within striking distance, going into the final weeks of the Scottish pro schedule.

Top 10 placings:

ORDER OF MERIT

805 P O'Hara (N Lanarkshire Leisure)

585 G Wright (West Linton)

565 G Hay (Grantown on Spey)

548 P McKechnie (Braid Hills)

533 C Currie (Caldwell)

532 G Hutcheon (PLGC Inchmarlo)

496 G Fox (Clydeway Golf)

396 R Arnott (Bishopbriggs)

387 R Cameron (Saltire Energy)

383 A Forsyth (Mearns Castle)

MONEY TABLE

1 G Hay £21,826

2 P O'Hara £21,125

3 A Forsyth £19,994

4 G Fox £18,021

5 G Hutcheon £16,768

6 G Wright £15,521

7 P McKechnie £13,660

8 C Currie £12,895

9 R Arnott £10,497

10 S Gray (Lanark) £10,497

Bradley spearheads Fife's Midland Trophy victory with a 66

The Fife Golf Association team won the Midland Trophy at Alloa for the third year in a row. And one of the Fife team members, Chris Bradley won the individual trophy with an excellent round of 66.

The best seven scores in the teams of eight counted for totals

TOTALS

500 FIFE (C Bradley 66, R Brown 70, S Aitken 71, A Hain 73, C Mitchell 73, G Wishart 73, A Davidson 74, N Beattie 76).

528 ANGUS (M Simmants 73, K Urquhart 73, M Lindsay 74, A Smith 75, J Gardiner 75, R Coull 79, C McKay 79, G Tough 84).

530 PERTH and KINROSS (G Campbell 71, D Murray 73, C Hay 74, E Farquharson 76, S McKendrick 76, D Simpson 69, A Simpson 81, C Neil 86).

533  CLACKMANNANSHIRE (I Ross 73, D Hulston 73, I Guthrie 74, C White 74, D Beaton 76, M Walker 80, M Duncan 83, S Beattie 86).

Moray GC retain Abercrombie Cup at Banff

Moray Golf Club retained the Abercrombie Cup, beating Newmachar in the final at Duff House Royal on Sunday. 

With the overall scoreline finishing at 4–4, the teams nominated a player to go into the play-off. Both players birdied the first hole, but Moray's Jeff Wright secured the cup with a par at the second extra hole.

It has been a great season for the Lossiemouth-based club, with the teams securing the Abercrombie Cup, the Moray and Nairn League title and the Northern Counties Cup.

Moray's Abercrombie Cup-winners. Left to right:  Paul McHardy, Jordan Edwards, Kevin Thompson, Ian Geddes, Graham Murray, Jeff Wright, Stuart Tatters, Kyle Godsman, Andrew Stuart

Double bogeys dent Sandy Scott's hopes

 in Dallas

Double bogeys at the par-4 sixth and the par-3 17th knocked Nairn's Sandy Scott (Texas Tech) back to a two-over-par 73 over the 7,287yd course at Trinity Forest Golf Club, Dallas in Texas at the Trinity Forest Invitational on Sunday.
Scott birdied the third, short eighth, 13th and 14th but, apart from the double bogeys, also dropped shots at the first and short fourth in halves of 36 and 37.
He is eight shots behind the leader by two from from players, Scottie Scheffler (Texas).
Florida (275) lead the team event from Texas (276) and Auburn (278) with Texas Tech (284) in seventh place.

Langer's fifth US Seniors win pushes season's

earnings up to near $3million


By ASSOCIATED PRESS
PEBBLE BEACH, California — Bernhard Langer pulled away with three straight birdies on the back nine at Pebble Beach and cruised to a three-shot victory at the PURE Insurance Championship, his fifth victory of the year and the 34th of his US PGA Tour (Senior) Champions career.

The Florida-based German star had never won at the iconic seaside venue on the Monterey Peninsula. It was also his first win since he turned 60 last month. He earned $300,000 to push his season earnings to near $3 million and extend his lead over Scott McCarron on the Charles Schwab Cup money list as he seeks his ninth money title in 10 seasons.

Langer closed with a 67 for a three-day total of 198 at the pro-am event, which pairs professionals with junior golfers from the First Tee program and is contested at Pebble Beach and Poppy Hills. He and his partner also won the pro-am competition.
Jerry Kelly pulled even with Langer by making eagle on the par-5 sixth hole and again with a birdie at the par-3 12th. Langer then took command with birdies on 13, 14 and 15. Kelly closed with six straight pars for a 67 to finish alone in second.
Langer’s victories this year include three of the five senior majors. His win total trails only Hale Irwin’s 45.

LEADING FINAL TOTALS
Players from USA unless stated
par 216 (3x72)
198 Bernhard Langer (Germany) 64 67 67
201 Jerry Kelly 68 66 67
203 Scott McCarron 63 72 68
204 Olin Browne 70 66 68
206 Jesper Parnevik (Sweden) 68 69 69, Philip Price (Wales) 71 66 69, Joe Durant 68 68 70, Kenny Perry 69 73 74.

SELECTED TOTALS
208 Colin Montgomerie (Scotland) 68 71 69 (T10)
215 Nick Faldo (England) 71 71 73, Miguel Angel Martin (S;pain) 72 69 74 (T42)


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Schauffele wins Tour Championship, Thomas

takes the $10million FedEx Cup

NEWS RELEASE
ATLANTA – Take one big bow, high school class of 2011. The heralded, decorated ’11 class has a new addition to round out the top of its uber-talented collection.
Meet Xander Schauffele, 23, who needed a crazy late run at the BMW Championship a week ago just to advance to the FedEx Cup Playoffs finale – he played his final six holes in 6 under to jump inside the top 30. On Sunday, at East Lake, his closing birdie prevented Justin Thomas from sweeping all the silver, capturing the Tour Championship.
Granted, the day’s larger prize, the FedEx Cup and its $10 million winner’s bounty, was seized by Thomas, 24, yet another member of that ’11 class. He outdistanced his good pal, Jordan Spieth (yes, he’s in that class, too) to win the season-long FedEx race, capping a campaign in which he won five times, including his first major (the PGA Championship).
Draw the line in the sand. This officially is a full-on youth movement. Nineteen twentysomethings won on the US PGA Tour in 2016-17, and of the top-five finishers in the FedEx race (Thomas; Spieth; Schauffele; Dustin Johnson; and Jon Rahm), only Johnson (33) is older than 24.
Schauffele was the second-youngest player in the field, behind only Rahm (22), and one of eight first-timers. He is the first rookie to win the Tour Championship. Schauffele said at the start of the week that there were several players in this week’s field – Thomas, Spieth and Rickie Fowler among them – that he had yet to even meet. At East Lake he played with Sergio Garcia, Patrick Reed, Rahm and Brooks Koepka – and he beat every one.
Informed by NBC’s Dan Hicks during the trophy presentation that he’d just won $3.5 million, Schauffele, who earned less than $193,000 on the Web.com Tour a year ago, smiled broadly and said, “My day just got a little better.”
Thomas finished in style, shooting 66, though a bid for a third consecutive birdie from 25 feet at 18 curled sharply across the front of the hole and went left. In three previous rounds, Thomas had gone birdie-eagle-birdie at 18.  

Schauffele shot 2-under 68, getting up and down with a putter from the front apron of the 567-yard closing hole for birdie, his final 2 ½-foot putt – hit a tad firm – taking a victory lap around the rim of the hole before dropping in. He finished at 12-under 268, one better than Thomas.
Schauffele was playing in the Web.com Tour Finals this week a year ago (he missed earning a card by one spot in the Web’s regular season), and won for the second time this season. He also captured the Greenbrier Classic.
With two big trophies on the line at East Lake, Sunday developed into a wild, tumultuous day. At different stages, three players – 54-hole leader Paul Casey, Spieth and Thomas – sat atop the projected FedEx Cup standings. Casey started the day with a two-shot lead, turned in 3-over 38 and didn’t make his first birdie until the 18th green. He shot 73 and finished fifth, one shot behind Georgia Bulldogs Russell Henley (65) and Kevin Kisner (70).
Kisner spent a good part of his day around the lead but faltered with three bogeys over his final nine holes.
Both Schauffele and Thomas learned the game from their fathers. Schauffele’s dad, Stefan, who is half-French, half-German, was a promising decathlete whose Olympic dreams were cut short by a car accident that cost him the vision in his left eye. He became a PGA professional and has been his son’s only teacher.
Mike Thomas can say the same. He is the son of a PGA pro, has been the longtime pro at Harmony Landing in Goshen, Kentucky, and is a steady influence refining his son’s explosive talents. Both fathers (and moms) were there at East Lake to share in the brilliance of an unforgettable Sunday.
Spieth, who said he picked a bad time to have his worst putting week of the season, tried hard to charge, holing a lob wedge for eagle from 93 yards at the par-4 10th and nearly holing another wedge three holes later. He failed to give himself enough chances after that and shot 67.
“It just wasn’t meant to be,” Spieth said before graciously saluting Thomas, a player who began the season with one PGA Tour victory and now owns six.
“JT obviously is very deserving of winning the FedEx Cup. I almost ‘cheated’ my way to winning the FedEx Cup without winning (in the playoffs, though he had two seconds), and he really deserved it.”
Sunday broke a seven-year stretch on Tour in which the winner of the Tour Championship also doubled as the season’s FedEx Cup champion. (Schauffele finished third after starting his week seeded 26th.)
The last time two players stood together holding trophies on the 18th green (now par-3 ninth green) at East Lake? It was 2009, when Phil Mickelson won the Tour Championship and Tiger Woods won the FedEx Cup.
Schauffele will keep a busy schedule this autumn, but as for setting goals for next season, he was somewhat at a loss Sunday evening.
“We’re definitely going to have to go back to the drawing board,” he said, “because we hit every goal that we ever imagined.”

LEADING FINAL TOTALS
par 280 (4x70)
Players from USA unless otherwise stated
268 X Schauffele 69 66 65 68
269 J Thomas 67 66 70 66
270 R Henley 67 71 67 65, K Kisner 68 68 64 70.
271 P Casey (England) 66 67 65 73
272 B Koepka 66 69 68 69
273 T Finau 68 71 68 66, J Spieth 67 70 69 67, J Rahm (Spain) 67 67 70 69.
274 S Garcia (Spain) 73 66 68 67, M Kuchar 69 71 67 67, J Rose (England) 68 66 71 69.

SELECTED TOTALS
278 D Johnson 68 69 69 72, J Day (Australia) 69 67 68 75 (T17)

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City of Newcastle GC casts off jinx to win

 England's Champion Club title

The City of Newcastle Golf Club cast off its jinx to be named as England’s Champion Club after a 36-hole tournament which ended in the dark following a fog delay. 

 

The team of Northumberland county champion Phil Ridden and fellow county players, Alex Dixon and Mark Wharton, stormed to an emphatic 14-shot win in the tournament at East Devon Golf Club.

 

But there were plenty of twists and turns along the way before they claimed Northumberland’s first victory in the keenly contested competition.  

 

“We thought we were jinxed,” said City of Newcastle men’s captain, John Franklin. The club has been runners-up in this competition twice before, most recently in 2015 when they lost out on countback. 

 

This weekend, they finished the first round one shot off the lead, then completed their second round in level par, finishing with a team total of 11-over and roaring into the lead. 

 

They played early on the second day and went off to a local pub in Budleigh Salterton to watch Newcastle FC on television. When the match was over – with a loss to their team - they returned to the golf club to find mist coming in over the course and play suspended. “We thought the jinx was following us,” said Franklin. 

 

But, despite fog and encroaching darkness, the field eventually completed play and City of Newcastle’s victory was confirmed. Franklin commented: “This means a great deal to us.” 

 

The competition is challenging with all three gross scores counting in both rounds. After yesterday’s first round City of Newcastle were on 11-over par and one shot behind Norfolk’s King’s Lynn. 

 

Today, they were on top form. Ridden was round in three-under 67, Dixon in one-over 71 and Wharton in 72 for a level par total. 

 

“The game plan was to get three decent scores, not one exceptional score,” said Franklin. “The nature of the course was that the number of bogeys, rather than birdies, would win it.” 

 

The runners-up were Northamptonshire County on 25-over par, followed by Somerset’s Burnham and Berrow on 29-over. 

 

The individual winner was Norfolk’s Jack Yule, of King’s Lynn, who was seven-under par for the two rounds, with scores of 65 68. King’s Lynn were the halfway leaders but fell back to seventh place. 

 

Ridden was the individual runner-up on one-under, followed by Leicestershire and Rutland’s Steve Sansome (Birstall) on two-over. 

 

Click here for full scores

 

Caption: (from left) City of Newcastle Golf Club’s Phil Ridden, Alex Dixon and Mark Wharton. (Image copyright Leaderboard Photography)

 

 

‎ Lyndsey Hewison
‎ Press Officer
‎ England Golf
‎ pr@englandgolf.org
‎ 07590 878349