Kris Nicol wins NE Alliance in horrendous

weather at Strathlene

By COLIN FARQUHARSON
Kris Nicol (Dunes Golf Centre), pictured, scored his first win of the North-east Golfers' Alliance season with a round of one-over-par 70 - one shot ahead of runner-up Phil McLean (Peterhead) - in today's fixture at Strathlene Golf Club.

A total of 57 players, from an original entry of 81,  made the journey to the Buckie venue and had to cope with horrendous weather … a mixture of strong winds, heavy showers and, latterly, dropping temperatures.

Nicol won the top pro prize of £100 with halves of 37-33 against the par of 34-35.

McLean, a winner twice in recent weeks, was in front at halfway after an outward 35 but his 36 for the inward nine gave Nicol, who had started with a double bogey 6 and was three over par after six holes, the chance to overhaul him.
 Keil Beveridge, with halves of 36, finished third with a 72

SCRATCH PRIZEWINNERS
70 K Nicol (Dunes Golf Centre) 37-33
71 P McLean (Peterhead) 35-36

72 K Beveridge (Kippie Lodge) 36-36

73 K Duncan (Cruden Bay) 36-37

74 L Murray (Kippie Lodge) 38-36, S Griffiths (Dunes Golf Centre) 38-36, S Hanson (Kemnay) 38-36

 HANDICAP PRIZEWINNERS
Class 1

74 S Allison (Bon-Accord) (7) bih, J Borthwick (Craibstone) (4).

75 D Adam (Kemnay) (5) bih, E Wheat (Montrose Links) (1)

76 S Finnie (Caledonian) (1)

Class 2

73 L Fowler (Royal Aberdeen) (10)
75 D Townsley (Peterculter) (12)

76 R Smith (Craibstone) (12) bih, D Lawrie (Deeside) (16) bih, R Wright (Northern) (14)

SCRATCH SCORES
PAR 69
70  K Nicol (Dunes GC)

71 P McLean (Peterhead)

72  Keil Beveridge (Kippie Lodge)
73 K Duncan (Cruden Bay)

74  S Hanson (Kemnay), S Griffiths (Dunes GC), Laura Murray (Kippie Lodge)

76  E Wheat (Montrose Links)

77  S Finnie (Caledonian), B Murray (Portlethen), J Duff (Newmachar)

78  J Borthwick (Craibstone)

80  J Calder (Newmachar), D Adam (Kemnay)

81  S Allison (Bon-Accord), Keil Beveridge (Aboyne)

82  J Emslie (Royal Aberdeen)

83  G Riley Craibstone), L Fowler (Royal Aberdeen)

84  C Duffus (Royal Aberdeen), R Lamb (Newmachar)

85 S McWilliam (Royal Aberdeen), D Fleming (Portlethen), R Bruce (Edzell)

86  C Cassie (Nigg Bay), S Moore (Kemnay)

87  S Kidd (Longside), G Chalmers (Alford), M Duncan (Murcar Links), D Townsley (Peterculter)

88  G Gibson (Kemnay), R Smith (Craibstone)

89  T Boyle (Portlethen), G Thom Murcar Links), W Skene (Deeside)

90 D Booth (Tarland), R Wright (Northern)

91  P Cheyne (Northern)

92  M Fraser (Longside), D Lawrie (Deeside)

93  J Sunley (Newmachar), G Leslie (Deeside)

94  D Nelson (Aboyne), R Ruddiman (Royal Aberdeen)

95  D McLean (Kemnay)

98 A Sorley (Newmachar)

100 R Coupar (Duff House Royal)

102 R Denning (Inverurie)

NRs R Reid (Tarland), P Morrison (Newmachar), M Brown Kemnay), R Brown (Kemnay), S Davidson     (Northern), D Leslie (Bon-Accord), G Cochrane (Kemnay), D Craigie (Kemnay), M Merchant (Newmachar)

Georgia Hall aims to end 2018 campaign with

win on Costa del Sol

Women’s British Open champion Georgia Hall will conclude her 2018 campaign this week at the Andalucía Costa del Sol Open de España Femenino.

The world number eight, pictured on right, arrives at Malaga in excellent form and she is looking forward to collecting her second consecutive Ladies European Tour order of merit crown on Sunday.

Hall is determined to continue her sensational season and has been working on her game with coach Daniel Grieve at Woburn in recent weeks, having taken time out due to a family bereavement.

“I’m happy to be here for the final event of the year and to be close to home,” said the 22-year-old from Bournemouth. “I’m happy to be at the awards ceremony on Sunday night because I haven’t seen these girls all year and this is where I started, growing up, and it’s my home. I have more friends on this tour and I’m looking forward to seeing them all. I’m taking it as a relaxing week but I want to do as well as I can.”

Hall has three previous appearances in this event and a tied-third place finish in 2016 followed by a fourth place in 2017 show that she can compete on the Costa del Sol.

She is looking forward to all that Andalusia has to offer, with her mum, dad and boyfriend Harry at her side.

Local heroine Azahara Muñoz will begin her defence of the Andalucía Costa del Sol Open de España Femenino tomorrow, against rising Irish  star Leona Maguire, who is making her professional debut on the Ladies European Tour.

Muñoz is looking for her third consecutive title after wins in 2016 at Aloha Golf Club and 2017 at Real Golf de Guadalmina.

Last year, the Solheim Cup star, who celebrated her 31^st birthday on Monday by returning home to her parents in the nearby village of San Pedro Alcantara, finished one stroke ahead of Beth Allen to round off a special week at her home golf club.

This week, La Quinta Golf & Resort sets the scene and Muñoz, Hall and Maguire will get their opening rounds under way from the first tee at 13:05 local time on Thursday.

Allen will tee it up at 12.45 with Nicole Broch Larsen and the recently appointed Solheim Cup vice-captain Dame Laura Davies. Captain Catriona Matthew, meanwhile, will be in the company of Julia Engström and Manon Mollé, who are first and second on the LET Rookie Rankings respectively heading into this week, which concludes the 2018 season on the LET.

Muñoz has had an exceptionally busy stretch and will be playing in her seventh consecutive event this week, before racking up even more air miles next week to travel to a friend’s wedding in Tokyo, but she says that she is feeling fresh and ready to compete.

“This is my last tournament of the year and I’m really happy to play in Spain. I love it here at home and I’m feeling calm,” she said.

“I’m feeling really good. I don’t know if it’s because I was expecting to be so tired. When I finished in Japan, which was my fourth week in  a row, I was quite tired, but I don’t know if it’s because it’s the end of the season, or because I’m at home, but I’m actually feeling really good and jetlag hasn’t affected me too much. I think sleeping in my own bed helps. I’m feeling good and no excuses.

“I’m going to have a lot of support, so I’m grateful for that. Obviously I really want to play well and it would be amazing if I could win the tournament. I’m just going to try my best and hopefully at the end of the week it’s enough.”

Muñoz is hoping that this is the week when her hard work with her new putting guru pays off. Gareth Radflewski is also the putting coach of world No.1 Ariya Jutanugarn and Muñoz added: “His main thing is working a lot on speed, which is a complete change from what I used to work on. He keeps it simple and I always thought putting was so complicated.”

Despite the home advantage, La Quinta is not a course that Muñoz knows well.

“I played the back nine yesterday and the front nine today. I played here when I was really little and I was trying to remember, I might have been 10 or 11. Manuel Piñero used to have a summer tournament here. I do remember having a picture with a trophy, but I was so little. My dad says I won it,” she said.

“The course is good. It’s quite tricky and I think the second shots are pretty tight, especially on the back nine. You have to be quite precise but I think I like that. I’m normally pretty good with my irons, so I think that’s a bit of an advantage for me.”

Muñoz will be playing for her sixth LET title and her seventh career title this week and at the same time, looking to boost her chances of securing her fourth appearance in The Solheim Cup. She currently occupies the eighth and final qualification spot on the European Solheim Cup team Rankings, with the next edition of the biennial transatlantic event due to take place at Gleneagles  in September 2019.

 

Iain Stoddart appointed PGA pro at Deer Park

NEWS RELEASE
Iain Stoddart has been appointed as the new PGA Professional at Deer Park Golf and Country Club, Livingston. He will start in his new role on January 1, 2019.

 

Iain has served in the role of Golf Sales Manager at the club since July 2017 and brings with him a wealth of experience as he replaces the American Golf store which closed suddenly upon the company entering administration at the end of October.

 

Iain has a long history within the golf industry having attended Webber International University in Florida on a golf scholarship before embarking upon a career that has included several golf sales and PGA professional roles at prestigious clubs including The Berkshire in London and Dalmahoy Hotel, Golf and Country Club. Prior to joining Deer Park, he served as PGA Professional at Greenburn Golf Club in West Lothian.

 

Web: www.deer-park.co.uk

  

 

Mygolfranking.net ABERDEENSHIRE LADIES and NORTH EAST (SCOTLAND) Golfers of Week 18/46 are FIONA WINDLE (Deeside Ladies) ,who moves up to No 8 on  Aberdeenshire Ladies MGRanking, and, CHRIS SOMERS (Bon Accord) remains at No. 1  on North East (Scotland) Men MGRanking.

                                                                               

ABERDEENSHIRE LADIES

1 VICKI PATERSON (Inverurie) 1118 pts

2 Faye Walker (Kintore) 1058

3 Anne Marshall (Huntly) 1051

T4 Lorraine Coleman (Peterhead), Janice Wink (Keith) 1013

6 Suzanne Robertson (Peterhead) 1003

7 Julie Lees (Westhill) 998

8 Fiona Windle (Deeside) 995

9 Angela Joss (Alford) 994

10 Rachel Mathieson (Hazlehead) 992

                                                                                              

ABERDEENSHIRE LADIES CLUBS

1 INCHMARLO 902 pts

2 Stonehaven 869

3 Kintore 867

4 Hazlehead 858

5 Caledonian 840

          

NORTH EAST (SCOTLAND) MEN

1 CHRIS SOMERS (Bon Accord) 1524 pts

2 Mark Rae (Newmachar) 1441

3 James Caird (Newmachar) 1321

4 Ryan Matheson (Strathlene, Buckie) 1296

5 Peter Stewart (Newmachar) 1260

6 John Smith (Craibstone) 1226

7 Michael Robertson (Kintore) 1180

8 Gregor Thomson (McDonald Ellon) 1178

9 Benjamin Henderson (Deeside) 1163

10 Graeme D Clark (Duff House Royal) 1157  

                     

NORTH EAST (SCOTLAND) MEN CLUBS

1 NEWMACHAR 979 points

2 Deeside 922

3 Banchory 918

4 Caledonian 911

5 Duff House Royal 903

If you and your golfing friends want to regularly check out your Club MGRanking, the full Regional, National and International MGRankings, Movers and Shakers, How It Works and free Registration for golfers and clubs, visit and sign up to mygolfranking.net       

NE Alliance goes ahead at Strathlene

Today's North-east Golfers Alliance fixture is going ahead as scheduled at Strathlene Golf Club, Buckie where there has not been so much rain as in the Aberdeen area.
We will be displaying the scores in the late afternoon.

McNicoll and Jeen tie at Lundin with level par 71s

 

 In cold and very windy conditions, there was a tie for first scratch at this week's Midland Golfers' Alliance competition at Lundin Golf Club, Fife.

Assistant pro Kier McNicoll (Carnoustie) and three-handicap amateur Ian Jeen (St Andrews New) both returned level par scores of  71.

Ian also had the best handicap score of the day along with Stuart Barker (Crail) (6) both returning net 68s.

 

Leading Scratch Scores

 

71                 Keir McNicoll                        Carnoustie, asst pro

                     Ian Jeen                                  St Andrews New, handicap 3

73                 Barry Hynd                            Pitreavie, 2

74                 Stuart Baker                           Crail, 6

                     Joe Smith                                Lundin, 2

75                 Ron Walker                            Lundin. pro

                     Steven Meiklejohn                 Lundin, 2

                     Tom McLevy                          Blairgowrie, 1

76                 Jordan Brown                        AP, Drumoig Golf Centre

                     Ian Murray                             Leven Thistle, 2

 

Leading Handicap Scores

 

68                     Stuart Baker                        Crail, 6

                         Ian Jeen                              St Andrews New, 3

70                     Jack Cree                            Scotscraig, 13

                         Chris Westland                   Alloa, 10

71                     Barry Hynd                         Pitreavie, 2

72                     Jim Brown                          Kirkcaldy, 5

                         Nicholas Yates                    Edzell, 11

                         David Murray                    Leven Thistle, 6

                         Joe Smith                            Lundin, 2

73                     Steven Meiklejohn             Lundin, 2

 

Nearest the pins

 

5^th                        Bill Taylor                            (Edzell)

14^th              Bill Barclay                          (Downfield)

 

Next meeting

Wednesday 28^th November

Leven Links (Leven Thistle GC)

8.30 – 12.00

 

 

Lee Sutherland