Golspie earn team success in seniors contest
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IT was Golspie Golf Club’s day at Royal Dornoch last Thursday when the penultimate meeting of the Caithness and Sutherland Seniors’ Golf Society took place.
Robert Mackay had the day’s outstanding round of 42 Stableford points that was key to his club winning the team quaich, presented to the society by Bonar and Ardgay Golf Club, for the first time ever. Others contributing to the team’s success were Don Bremner, Arnold Bevan and Colin Ritchie. The quality of Mackay’s round can be judged by the competition standard scratch of the day being three over standard scratch.
Out in 22 points, the winner had back-to-back birdies at the seventh and eighth holes, and three pars in the first four inward holes ensured that he would not be caught. Mackay was awarded first place in the middle handicap category with Brora’s Billy Ballantyne picking up second place on countback from club mate Billy Beaton after both returned 33 points. Ballantyne’s inward total of 21 points was second best of the day.
The Golspie trio of Bevan (32), Ritchie (32) and Walter Bremner (31) were next best in this category.
Ken Lorimer had a couple of no-scoring holes in his outward nine and started his inward nine with three single-point holes, but the Brora man rallied with a strong finish to claim top spot in the lower handicap category with 36 points.
Wick’s Ken Gowen’s inward nine of 19 points gave him the nod for second place over the host club’s David McLean who had 19 points going out, both players scoring 34 points for their rounds. Thurso’s Ronnie Gray (31) was the only other player in the category to beat the 30-point mark.
Wilson Blair recorded a win for the host club in the higher handicap category with a fine 39-point effort that contained an outstanding inward-nine total of 24 points. Blair was one of only two players to par the long 14th hole and birdied the par-five 17th for good measure.
Nigel Baird (Bonar and Ardgay) added to his list of successes in society competitions this year as he claimed second place on 36 points. After a bright start Baird had a mid-round slump but finished strongly with three pars in the last four holes.
Reay’s Danny O’Hagan was alone on 35 points for third place, one point ahead of Gordon Kilgour (Bonar and Ardgay).
The society’s final meeting is at Golspie on Tuesday, September 27.
