November 10th 2007
3-WAY TIE AT TOP OF WINTER LEAGUE
Once upon a time in land far away, where the sun always shone and the grass was always green, folk would gaze at the cloudless skies and wonder if anything could spoil their weekend golf. The fairways were pristine, the greens were true and the only thing that could possibly spoil your day was the ringing of a mobile phone as you addressed your ball, or the beer in the clubhouse being warm after 18 exhilarating holes of golf.
Unfortunately last Saturday’s golf was no fairy-tale for most of us, but beginning the golf notes with another retrospective weather report is beginning to bore all of us.
It was very wet. It was very windy, and without wishing to repeat myself for the umpteenth time, anyone who scored points did very well, and the team that scooped maximum points at the height of an appalling afternoon’s weather did superbly well indeed.
Step forward Al”Greens”MacLeod and Ali Nicolson who shot a brilliant nett 45 to pip morning clubhouse leaders Dave Gilmour and Alasdair Henderson by one stroke.
This win catapults them to joint top of the league, but it is still very early in the season and with Murdo and Magnus Johnson picking up useful points there will be some subtle jockeying for position before the year end with others undoubtedly joining the fray, and some falling by the wayside. Top of the table “clash” at the weekend saw last weeks leading pairs draw a blank ( points wise), although David Black and Murdo MacLennan did claim the £1 ,and bragging rights, by virtue of a superb birdie at the last hole to leave Norrie”T” Macdonald and Neil MacKenzie cold, wet and dejected.
Ali and Al’s scattering of birdies offset some bogeys at the more difficult holes to claim 15 points, but the score of the day must be Kevin MacRae’s gross par round (nett 47) on his own. Three under after six holes, he struggled as the weather conditions worsened, but held on to post a more than creditable 49. Well done Kevin. If the man from the Spar can chip in at some point with some pars then we will all need to look out.
The two golfers with the least to prove this season, multiple “major” winners Andy MacDonald and Neil Rowlands, also shot a fine par round, and whilst still playing off a (minus) handicap will be looking to pick up more points very quickly in the coming weeks.
Having congratulated everyone who completed their rounds in the latter stages of the club championship under similar conditions two months ago, I think it only fair ( and I hope I don’t need to do this too often) to similarly praise those who played twelve holes last weekend.
Having been berated by his partner for failing to venture out in the rain once already this season, Kenny”5”MacIver donned flippers and sou’wester to ensure it is his golf we are talking about in this weeks notes. Well done Kenny, Allan said you were rubbish. Non-participant of note this week was Domhnall Hamish himself, his salmon skin golf shoes declining to swim with him upstream to the first tee. At this point I would normally point an accusatory finger, and go “tut-tut”; but as he is protecting his larynx for his upcoming conversation with a haggis I will refrain (even if it is over two months hence).
Fresh from making his first senior appearances this summer by dint of his reduction in handicap to single figures, young Jordan MacLean again represented Stornoway Golf Club at the Donald Ross Memorial (U-16) Trophy held at Royal Dornoch last month. Jordan played the Struie course in the first round and the Championship in the second. Anyone who has played at Dornoch knows the courses are tremendously testing ,and although acquitting himself well over the two rounds, with scratch and plus handicap golfers in the field as well as players capped by Scotland, the competition and experience were always going to be more important than the aspirations of winning in such exalted company.
Jordan and caddy (Father, Paul) made many new friends and the experience will benefit this aspiring young star in the future. It is hoped to send a larger group to compete in this competition next year, and the junior section are keen to promote mainland competition as often as possible.
Several unpalatable issues regularly crop up in sport and are the talk of the bar.
Diving and feigning injury in football, drug taking in cycling and athletics , pulling up favourites in horse-racing, and taking bribes in tennis to name but a few. The WWF? What exactly is that? Choreographed, scripted slapstick which only a county with rounders as its national sport takes seriously….but I digress.
Is the gentlemanly game of golf, where cheating or bending the rules are such an anathema that no-one would surely contemplate it consciously, affected by unscrupulous behaviour? Surely not, yet the plethora of tees found in the rough on a given Saturday leads me to believe that some members, and participants in the winter league, are probably unaware of one of the more subtle regulations which we tend to take as “gospel” even though it is “only” a local rule (barring this, it would certainly not be permitted in the summer).
Pegging/Teeing up in the rough is not permitted, and if you are in any doubt as to whether you are in the rough or on a fairway, the answer is always the same. If you are unsure, then you are in the rough. Do not take the chance on being wrong, and certainly consult with your playing partners.
I think it was Bobby Jones who famously called a penalty shot on him when he thought his ball had “moved” in the rough in a competition. No-one else saw it; spectators, officials, caddies or playing partners, yet he declared the penalty on himself and went on to lose the competition (after a play-off) by a single shot.
When asked why, when it had gone un-noticed, he had called the penalty on himself; he alluded to the code of rules and self regulation which all golfers adhere to. A press reporter congratulated him on his honesty despite it costing him the tournament. He replied “You might as well congratulate a man for not robbing a bank”.
Think about it.
Mens Scores 10.11.07 Gross H/C Nett Points
Ali Nicolson & Al “Greens” MacLeod 51 6 45 15
Alasdair Henderson & Dave “Scores” Gilmour 51 5 46 12
Magnus & Murdo Johnson 52 5 47 8
Kevin MacRae ( OHO ) 49 2 47 8
Andy MacDonald & Neil Rowlands 49 2 47 8
Murty MacDonald & Ian MacRitchie 54 7 47 8
D.J. Smith & David” Spider” MacLeod 55 7 48 4
Alan Todd & “Cammy” MacLeay 59 11 48 4
Jamie Duncan & George MacAskill 56 8 48 4
Hugh Lloyd & Marten James 57 8 49 2
John “Shillegan” Gillies & Greg Brown 60 11 49 2
League Leaders
N T Macdonald & NE Mackenzie 34
D Black & M Maclennan 34
Ali Nicolson & Al Macleod 34
J Maclean & P Maclean 31
All Macleod & K Maciver 30
J Gillies & G Brown 30
Al Macleod & Ali Nicolson
Jordan Maclean