Sat 9th July, Alpha Trophy
Perhaps people have had enough of virtually two years of Covid lockdown and limitations plus the school holidays are upon us? Or perhaps the double attraction of the Scottish Open and the Open Championship in consecutive weeks is super attractive?
Whatever the reason very few players turned out for the recent weekend competitions at Sconser.
The Alpha Trophy ended up being a shoot-out between the Cummings.
Last week was dominated by the Cunningham brothers and the week before that it was the Macaskills to the fore but this time it came down to father Jim versus son Ross for the trophy.
Ross shot halves of 40 and 36 and subtracting his handicap of 11 he signed for a nett score of 65,Jim had a better front nine of 38 but stumbled coming home although he required one shot less. 75 then minus 9 and a nett score of 66 to leave playing partner Ross the winner.
When I say stumbled Ross in fact finished 3,3,4-a super ending-while Jim was 4,5,4 and that is how the result was decided.
Golfers always conveniently forget earlier in their round the ball that bounced off a basking seal’s head way out of bounds and came back into play.
Or the putt that hit the hole with such force and dropped in would not have been out of place if there was a basketball backboard and a net attached.
It’s success or failure late in the day that determines the eventual taste in the mouth.
Sunday 10th July, Strokeplay Competition
Next day, still in good weather Donald Corrigall returned to the scene of his triumph last time out when he won his section in the Open.
Playing off 28 then the handicapper subtracted three shots from him this time round-but that made little difference.
Thankfully a few more competitors had turned up to play as Donald went to the turn in 41 blows before returning to base in 45 more.
That was mostly down to a disastrous finish of 5, 6, 7 against the par of 3,4,4.
Gross total of 86 minus 25 and nett 61 was way too good on the day for the rest of the field.
Best of the others once more was John Finlayson. He skipped round lap one in 39 shots and required 38 more to complete his day’s work.
A nett score of 65 easily secured the runner-up slot.
LADIES SECTION
Sunday 10th July, Club Championship Rd 3
Despite the early season promise of some ladies hoping to become embryonic competitors that has so far failed to materialise.
That is unfortunate not just for the ladies section of the golf club but for Donalda Johnston and Jill Mackinnon too.
They were keen to see some new blood join them in competition but to this observer the girls are not even playing much at the moment.
Granted the weather has been shocking but one would have thought that the occasional glint of sunshine would have attracted the players to the course following a fine initial burst of enthusiasm?
The third round of the Club Championship was duly played and once again Donalda held the better cards in this the latest in a long line of duels.
The ladies made the effort to honour the sponsors ‘Gaelic Whiskies and Gaelic Gins of Eilean Iarmain’ for their continuing and much appreciated support but unfortunately they were not in their best form on the day.
Let the record show however that Donalda shot 95 and Jill 98 so with two rounds to play Donalda leads by three strokes.
HOLIDAY GOLF
Meanwhile in a land far away a wedding with strong Skye connections was taking place. Eleven men from Skye and a Celtic cousin from Ireland took part in a pre-wedding, fun golf competition in the Algarve and the winner, who was also to be best man at the banais next day was Danny Steele.
Danny did not even take his clubs with him but hired a set and scored 45pts to win the Stableford competition. The boys played on the Victoria course which has been the venue for the Portuguese Masters golf tournament on the DP World Tour for the last several years!
Danny has never even scored 45pts round the very much shorter Sconser course.
The wedding was that of WHFP snapper Willie Urquhart’s daughter.
Some days later a breakaway fourball tackled the San Lorenzo golf course and following yet another in an abundance of wayward shots Willie’s son John ended up near a lochan. There, in the waters edge was a decent-looking Titleist Pro V1-probably the best ball in golf(as the advert goes)-and it was duly retrieved.
And then the fun began because printed on the ball was KENNY GOLLAN!
Images immediately flashed across the world thanks to the wonders of social media and Plockton’s very own KG got in touch to say that he had never played on that particular golf course.
The ball also carried the number 60 on it(golf balls usually carry low single numbers on them for identification purposes) and it transpired that the ball was one of a box given to the birthday boy by Alaisdair ‘Doc’ Mackenzie on the occasion of Kenny’s 60th birthday many years ago now.
The conclusion they reached was that someone had found Kenny’s ball elsewhere in the world then proceeded to lose it again in Portugal.
‘One Kenny Gollan, there’s only one Kenny Gollan’-as the song goes?
Today at Sconser I found a golf ball with Alaisdair Mackenzie printed on it-you couldn’t make it up!
FIXTURES
On Saturday there’s a Stableford competition for the gents followed next day by the monthly medal and on Saturday the ladies and newbies have a great chance to recover the early season momentum that was lost probably due to the weather.
I remember writing about three and fourballs of ladies on the course earlier in the season-and they didn’t include either Donalda or Jill!
C’mon girls-get the clubs dusted down and get back into action. It’s a long winter!
RESULTS
Gents Section
Sat 9th July, Alpha Trophy
1) R Cumming 76(11) nett 65; 2) J Cumming 75(9) 66.
Sun 10th July, Strokeplay Competition
1) D Corrigall 86(25) nett 61; 2) J Finlayson 77(12) 65.
Ladies Section
Club Championship Rd 3
1) D Johnston 95; 2) J Mackinnon 98.
JOHN MARSHALL