Home comforts suit Wayne to a tee
WITH a gross 72 Wayne Mowat used home comforts to win last Sunday’s fixture of the North Golf Alliance at Reay from Tain visitors Steve Holmes and Munro Ferries.
The local six handicapper came home in level par 35 to record his first Alliance scratch win ahead of a strong Tain challenge spearheaded by Ferries and their Caithness-based member, Dougie Thorburn. Thorburn who resides near Thurso was receiving a lift to the course from Wick’s John Hunter and close to the links they narrowly missed being involved in a collision with another car.
They were clearly shaken by the incident and had "no returns" in the competition.
Ferries had halves of 37 and 38 for second place 75 while Watt, also a six handicapper, and club mate Holmes, who also grossed 75 finished in joint second place in the low handicap category.
Home players lead the two handicap sections. Behind the scratch winner Gavin Gunn netted 69 from his eight handicap allowance in Category 1 and in the higher group there were three nett cards of 66 from Peter McCartney who won on the last nine hole count back over Mark Brunton (Thurso) and Reay’s Ian Ross.
Reay Results
Scratch — 72 W Mowat (Reay); 75 M Ferries (Tain), S Holmes (Tain); 76 A Watt (Tain), B Ferries (Tain); 77 A Gunn (Tain), G Gunn (Reay).
Handicap Cat 1 — G Gunn (Reay) (8) 69, A Watt (Tain) (6) 70; S Holmes (Tain) (5) 70; K Lorimer (Brora) (8), A Gunn (Tain) (6) 71.
Handicap Cat 2 — P McCartney (Reay) (13), M Brunton (Thurso) (23) 66, I Ross (Reay) (11) 66; A Cameron (Thurso) (11) 71; S Ross (Reay) (10) 72.
North Scottish Alliance at Kinloss
Inverness’s Bryan Fotheringham, already a double winner this season on the North Scottish Golfers Alliance fixture list won a third fixture last Saturday at the Kinloss Country Club course returning a five under par card of 63 to prevail by one stroke over Nairn Dunbar’s attached professional Gavin Hay.
Fotheringham, the former Scottish cap is the reigning Alliance champion and also the Scottish Alliance amateur champion and he secured his third scratch success of the domestic Alliance season after a miserly inward card of 30. With play starting from the 10th tee and a par of 68 his first nine of 33 was achieved with birdies at the 13th and 16th – no bogeys were recorded and further birdies came at the 5th, 6th and 8th as he began his second nine holes.
Hay began with six threes before dropping a shot at the 16th as did many others. A bogey came at the short 5th hole before he eagled the 8th hole for second place and ahead of his father Gordon Hay (Grantown on Spey) who had a 68. Chris Gaittens (Fortrose & Rosemarkie ) came back into the frame with a 70 sharing fifth place with Moray’s Kevin Thomson, winner of the opening fixture and there was a share of third handicap place for Muir of Ord’s A Imrie.
Leading Scratch scores: 63 B Fotheringham (Inverness); 64 G A Hay (Pro)(Nairn Dunbar); 68 G H Hay (Grantown), A J Duncan (Pro)(Elgin); 69 B Cruickshank (Spey Bay), D D Bunker (Nairn Dunbar); 70 K Thomson (Moray), C Gaittens (Fortrose & Rosemarkie), S Mullen (Elgin), S Dingwall (Grantown); 71 N McWilliam (Elgin), T Dingwall (Pro)(Nairn Dunbar); 72 R H Stewart (Torvean), K Mackay (Inverness), D Hector (Elgin), R McKerron (Forres), J Simpson (Forres); 73 J K England (Moray); 74 J A Grant (Grantown), A J England (Moray), A Macintosh (Torvean), J Wright (Forres), K Barnett (Torvean); 75 D F Sharp (Boat of Garten), J Glass (Torvean); 76 H M Bunker (Nairn Dunbar), R Mackie (Rothes), G Allan (Nairn Dunbar), A Imrie (Muir of Ord), W B Johnston (Moray); 77 I Murray (Boat of Garten), W J Donnelly (Fortrose and Rosemarkie), D Mcgrouther (Inverness), G Shanks (Elgin); 78 L Reid (Fortrose and Rosemarkie), W Donnelly (Fortrose and Rosemarkie), W R Duncan (Moray), S Johnston (Elgin), D Macleod (Grantown), J R Ingram (Boat of Garten), D Thom (Grantown), M McDonald (Boat of Garten); 79 S Mitchell (Moray), S Wilson (Inverness), A Waterson (Boat of Garten), V Tilman (Muir of Ord).
Handicap Section One (7 and under) — 65 S Mullen (Elgin)(5); 67 J K England (Moray)(6), D D Bunker (Nairn Dunbar)(2), A Macintosh (Torvean)(7); 69 A Imrie (Muir of Ord)(7), D Hector (Elgin)(3).
Handicap Section Two (8 to 14) — 66 G Shanks (Elgin)(11), W B Johnston (Moray)(10); 67 R Mackie (Rothes)(9); 68 C Small (Nairn)(12); 69 D Macleod (Grantown)(9).
