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SENIORS ROMP TO VICTORY
STONEHAVEN seniors all but swept the boards in the second round of the four-club Alliance competition, played at Stonehaven on Monday.
The home men took seven of the top ten places to win 36 points, with Portlethen on 13 points and Brechin on six. Forfar did not score.
David Houston with 44 stableford points and Bill Adams with 42 topped the leader board and both suffered cuts to their handicaps, Houston by three strokes and Adams by one.
More than 50 players competed, with the top ten stableford scorers gaining points for their clubs. The CSS for the day was 65.
The two remaining Alliance fixtures are at Forfar in July and Brechin in August.
Leading scores: 44 points David Houston (24) (Stonehaven); 42 Bill Adams (12) (Stonehaven); 39 R Gilmore (15) (Portlethen), Bob Smith (13) (Stonehaven); 38 G Smith (12) (Brechin), E Bremner (19) (Portlethen); 37 Tom Hyder (25) (Stonehaven), Alan Wood (14) (Stonehaven), Harry Roulston (6) (Stonehaven); 36 George Gardiner (11) (Stonehaven).
***
Low scores are not uncommon in the annual Adamson Greensomes competition but nobody was speaking to David Gall and Kevin Reid when they returned an outrageous net score of 53.5 on Saturday to lift the trophy.
Playing off a team handicap of 16.5, they went to the turn in a reasonable 37 shots before scorching home in 33, thanks to four birdies. A bogey at 12 and a double-bogey at 16 brought them back down to earth but their lead at the end of the day was still a decisive 4.5 shots.
J M Adamson Greensomes: 53.5 David Gall/Kevin Reid (16.5); 58 A Murray/R Tindall (14), H Davidson/G Innes (18); 59 R Hampson/R Smith (15); 60 J Forbes/G Reid (18); 60.5 K Green/J McBain (12.5), D Mitchell/G Forrester (15.5), A Martin/C McKechnie (16.5); 61 Gr Adamson/W Pitttendreigh (5), S Allsop/J Stephen (11), D Summers/C Innes (13), G McHardy/D Knox (20); 62 K Boyne/C Irvine (15), I Smith/M Rendall (10); 62.5 A D Smith/J Reid (9.5), A Wood/J Lonie (11.5), K Duncan/K Duguid (11.5), S Wood/N McNaughton (10.5); 63 J Findlay/M Dick (14), E Douglas/R leiper (18), I Mackay/T Hyder (20); 63.5 M MacEwen/S Walker (14.5), A Barnett/T Simpson (18.5); 64 Go Adamson/G Melvin (4), B Hunter/C Polson (12), R Beadie/J Starrs (18), S Lloyd/J Moderate (23); 64.5 D Hamilton/I Hastie (15.5); 65 N Irvine/H Roulston (3), G Brown/R Leggate (6), A Gall/B Reid (15), B Adams/K Taylor (10), G Garden/M Rollo (14), S Campbell/B Davie (14), M Gowans/M Killoh (14), L Arandia/S Lloyd (22); 66 I Wood/A Wood (10).
***
There was considerable debate in the clubhouse last week when word got round that club champion Neil Irvine had scored a remarkable 59 in a J M Low tie against Eric Dickie.
The J M Low is a medal-matchplay competition played off white tees when everything is holed out and scorecards are marked - and Irvine's score beat the current course record of 60, which was set in a club championship round in 2004 by Euan Kennedy and equalled twice by Irvine in stableford events in 2007 and 2008.
So should Irvine's score of 59 on June 8 be recognised as a new course record? Opinion was divided among a number of the leading players in the club so the question was referred to the Scottish Golf Union, who advised consulting the Royal & Ancient Golf Club, the ultimate arbiters of golfing law.
A rules official, Mr Kevin Barker, told the club that course records were not in the Rules of Golf as such and therefore, at the end of the day, it was up to the club to make a decision about its own course record.
However, he referred to a recommendation which was made in recent years that records should be recognised only in stroke-play competitions when the course was set up for championship play, and would not include competitions such as bogey competitions, par competitions or stablefords. Medal-matchplay events were not mentioned in the recommendation.
Mr Barker said it was generally accepted that pure strokeplay competitions were different to other forms of golf, with players having a different mental attitude in strokeplay compared to bogey competitions or stablefords or matchplay events.
Mr Barker's opinion was considered by the club council last week and a decision made that Neil Irvine's 59 should not be regarded as a new record.
It was still, however, a remarkable round - the best marked-card round in the club's history - and worth recording.
He had eight birdies and one bogey in halves of 30 and 29.
His one bogey came at the ninth when he missed the green in two and, in his words, played a sloppy chip.
His figures were: Out, 3 3 4 4 3 2 3 3 5, 30; In, 4 4 3 3 2 3 5 3 2, 29.
Another disappointment for Irvine was that the round did not bring his current handicap of 1.2 down as the matchplay section of the J M Low is deemed a non-counting competition as far as handicaps are concerned.
And there was no truth in the rumour that he had all but equalled his age. He is only 51!
As for poor Mr Dickie, his interest in the J M Low has ended, his round of net 67 losing out by nine strokes.
***
STONEHAVEN's junior team lost their Aberdeen Junior Pennant League semi final against a much more experienced Deeside team on Sunday at Portlethen.
Nine out of the 12 Deeside boys have single-figure handicaps while Stonehaven's two best players, Ross Anderson and Ross McAllan, play off 10.
The local boys did extremely well to qualify for the semi finals and they will all still be eligible to play next season, when they could be a force to reckon with.
Stonehaven 0 Deeside 6: Ross Anderson/Ross McAllan lost to Neale Barnes/Michael Kelly 4&3; Scott Murray/Craig Buchanan lost to Jack Loggie/Sophie Alexander 7&6; Josh Halliday/Sam Wright lost to Chris Kelman/Sam Fraser 2&1; Grant Ross/Craig Gordon lost to Michael Loggie/Stephen Dunn 4&3; Craig Duguid/James Duguid lost to David Young/Jamie Pryde 6&5; Connor Douglas/Martin Starrs lost to Megan Clyne/Kevin Willox 6&5.
***
Highlight of this season's Junior Pennant campaign - a hole in one by Ross Anderson at the 161-yard fifteenth hole at Stonehaven against Northern, using his seven iron.
"Controlled Fade"
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Weather for Stonehaven
Thursday 24 May 2012
Today
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Temperature: 10 C to 20 C
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