Fotheringham reaches last four

BRYAN Fotheringham came close to becoming the first player from the North since Hugh Stuart 40 years ago to prevail at the Scottish Amateur Championship.

A nine-time club champion at Forres Golf Club before moving and settling in at Inverness where last season he became Inverness county champion at his first attempt, Fotheringham defiantly flew the North flag, despite early exits for many of the areas other golfers.

It was a calamitous first two days for the North at Royal Dornoch as they lost all but four of their original entry of 24 players before Fotheringham eventually came through with distinction, reaching the semi-finals.

Fotheringham, whose previous best run in the competition was a place in the last eight, was making the headlines from the outset and along with local member Lyle McAlpine, Elgin’s Jordan Milne, and Forres’s Jeff Wright, they took the North interest through to round three.

Going into the last 64, however, only Fotheringham remained and on a collision course with number one seed Graeme Robertson (Glenbervie), the last seeded player still in the competition.

They met in the quarter-finals where the 34-year-old enjoyed a magnificent win on the last green to go through to the semis.

Only the relatively unknown Richard Docherty, from Bearsden, now stood between Fotheringham and a historic place in the final, but what a let down it turned out to be for the Inverness member.

He saw an early two hole lead vanish with unforced errors on the fifth, sixth and seventh holes before further bogies on the 10th and 11th left him deflated at three behind.

A late recovery on the 16th and 17th holes took the tie to the final tee, but Fotheringham could not stage a late comeback, losing by two.

From Scottish boy’s champion two season’s ago, Craigielaw’s Grant Forest rose to become Scotland’s new amateur champion with an impressive 9 and 7 victory over Fotheringham’s conqueror Docherty.