Wick's Thorburn misses out in north final
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Three out-of-character holes in the final of the North District's match-play championship at Nairn Golf Club last Sunday spelt the end of Dougie Thorburn's bid to add the match-play title to his 2014 north stroke-play title.
The four northern counties of Caithness, Sutherland, Ross and Nairn each had a golfer through to the last four for the final two rounds played over the Nairn course in the knockout competition for the Robin Thomson Cup, involving the leading eight players from the district stroke-play championship played last May over the Brora course.
The last man standing after Sunday's final was Tain's 20-year-old youth member Sean Kennedy who retained the cup for Ross-shire after the success of Lewis Reid (Fortrose & Rosemarkie) last year.
Beaten during midsummer's quarter-final rounds were district champion Michael Schinkel (Dornoch/Orkney), edged out by his Dornoch clubmate Liam MacDonald-MacLeod, David Joel (Inverness), who lost to Wick's head greenkeeper Thorburn, Shaun Johnstone (Muir of Ord), beaten by Fraser Fotheringham (Nairn), and Sean Kennedy who received a walkover from Matty Wilson (Forres).
The semi-final line-up at Nairn was Fotheringham against Kennedy and Thorburn facing MacDonald-MacLeod, and the big scalp came for Kennedy on the first extra hole. The local favourite left an eagle-winning putt short on the final green, allowing Kennedy's birdie four to halve the tie to continue to the 19th hole where Fotheringham missed the green with his second shot and Kennedy's par four saw him through to meet Thorburn in the final.
Thorburn in his semi had beaten MacDonld-MacLeod by 2 & 1 after taking the 15th and 16th holes before the winning half on the 17th.
The finalists faced a stiff outward half wind but not so many rain showers as in their morning ties and, evenly matched through seven holes, it was Kennedy who went ahead with a conceded birdie on the eighth hole following which Thorburn's steady game deserted him. To be fair, his form was a bit rusty having played only two rounds since competing at Nairn for Wick in the Northern Counties foursomes cup.
His demise began with a pulled wedge from semi-rough missed the ninth green and a wild drive and lost ball from the tenth tee put the Wick greenkeeper three behind. Thorburn's birdie chance on the short 11th hole was missed and when he found a bunker with his approach to the 12th green he was four down with six to play.
Fighting a fade with woods and irons, Kennedy over-corrected from the 13th tee and lost a ball to the left to concede his first inward hole, and after both parred the par-three 14th the end came unexpectedly at the next hole.
After drives their second shots were just with short wedges but, as Kennedy came up short from his semi-rough lie, Thorburn pitched to four feet, leaving a very good birdie chance to cut his deficit. However, he raced his first putt then missed the return, allowing Kennedy a “tap-in” winning par and a deserved 4 & 3 end-of-season tournament victory.
