Stornoway Golf Club

June 9th 2007

GREG CARRIES THE FLAG

Saturday’s Flag competition saw the rise of the under-dog, with Greg Brown and John “Sheillegan” Gilles occupying the top two placings, their first appearance on a “podium” for some time. Greg is making a welcome return to competitive golf, having taken time out from the game recently , and John is one of these “scary” players who sometimes bely their handicap by stringing together an impressive run of holes, and romp home with several shots to spare. This time however he was pipped to the winners spot at the first “extra” hole, Greg holing out to carry the “flag” the furthest. The format is very simple. Depending on your handicap, you have an allocation of stokes against par which you should use to negotiate the eighteen holes. So if you play off ten, you should be able to get around in approximately 78 blows, 68 being the par of the course. Should you shoot, say, 72, and then you will be round in 62 (nett), six under par. The flag competition is where anyone beating par has the amount of stokes they have beaten the course by left to start on the opening hole again, and take the “ flag” as far they can around the rest of the course. Obviously the more you beat par by, the better your chances, but you must hole out at the “extra” hole or holes to continue beyond the first.. Normally the flag goes no further than one extra hole, but it has been known to come down the second (and further). Well done to Greg who managed to secure his win by finishing the extra hole.

Saturday saw the conclusion of the Club Championships for both juniors and Ladies.

The ladies club champion is Mairi MacIver who narrowly won from Mary Joyce (the first round leader) by a single stroke, with Rita MacDonald a further stroke back in third place. This caps a fine year for Mairi, and adds to her “summer collection” which already includes the Health Workers trophy.

No such close finish in the junior section where, the ever improving, Ally Gillies won by a remarkable fifty shots. With Jordan MacLean now making his mark among the senior section, the next “bench-mark” for Ally will be to join him, and to challenge at the next level.

The ladies section continue to organise ,coherently (putting the men to shame) a series of “open” evenings for any girls or ladies showing an interest in the sport. Thursday saw yet another fine turn out, and with an accompanying buffet in the clubhouse afterwards little wonder that these “come and try it” events are proving such a resounding success. Anyone interested please contact the club on 702240.

Squeezed between all of these events was the most remarkable (in purely golfing terms) score of the year to date. Folk often ask me how much Norrie “Onions” MacDonald pays me to “ghost” his column for him, and, whilst it may appear that I mention his name more than that of most other golfers in the club, there are usually several very mitigating circumstances. These include shooting course records, winning the “majors”, and, of course, playing off that “nirvanah” of handicaps, scratch (or zero). His round on Wednesday evening in the Summer Cup (a 63 Gross, one outside his own course record) saw his handicap plummet to exactly 0.0. The lowest recorded handicap by any Stornoway Golfer in history (unless I’m mistaken).

His playing partners on the evening and current nearest challenger, Andy MacDonald, all reckon he can reduce the course record further given the correct conditions, and who would argue? I’ll put a bottle of Balvennie up if he does….money well spent. Any other takers? Mail me at ntomsh@onetel.com.

But golf is a funny game. Did he win on the evening? No.

Remarkably, and continuing his own recent run of good form, young Alex Nicolson shot a nett 61 to beat Norrie by a shot. He sees his handicap reduced by 1.2 (to 10) and adds the Summer Cup to the Bain & Morrison shield won already this season. This again demonstrates the nature of the game we play. Everyone has an equal chance of winning depending on their handicap being a “fair” reflection of their golf at any given time. The more you play, the more chance your handicap has of being accurate. My handicap is (again) on the increase, and it will soon be mid-summer, and the nights will be getting longer. I’m too scared to contemplate the time left to redeem my handicap “situation”. One thing is for sure, I, and many other golfers of my “ilk” ( handicaps increasing ) will be out in as many competitions as we can, in all weather conditions, trying ( once again) to hit that perfect evening( or morning or afternoon) when “it” all clicks.

Or was that my knees?

Ladies Club Championship (5th & 9th June)

1 Mairi Maciver 72 68 140

2 Mary Joyce 69 72 141

3 Rita Macdonald 75 67 142

Junior Club Championship (2nd & 9th June)

1 Alasdair Gillies 71 84 155

2 Stewart Munro 101 104 205

3 Kenneth Macleod 112 110 222

Summer Cup 6th June

1 Alex Nicolson 61

2 Norrie "O"Macdonald 62