Benign weather brings out the good scores for seniors
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
ROYAL Dornoch’s famous links course was the venue for the second meeting of the season for the Caithness and Sutherland Seniors’ Golf Society and conditions could scarcely have been more benign.
This was reflected in the scoring with a few more people than usual managing more than 30 points!
Brora’s Peter Wilson had the day’s best score of 39 points to win the lower handicap category by a couple of points from Don Mackay of the host club.
Apparently local wisdom suggests that those who play Royal Dornoch’s four par three holes well, should manage a good score. This certainly applied to Wilson, also a member at Royal Dornoch, who was one under par for them and Mackay who was level par.
Overall, Wilson’s was a very steady round as he was four over par for both nines with his only blemish a double bogey at the seventeenth that caught out a few players.
The two par five holes proved to be a problem for Mackay in an otherwise consistent round.
Geoff Robinson recovered from a poor start to claim third place with 33 points, two ahead of Reay winner Drew Robertson (Wick).
Fred Groves (Reay) was alone on 30 points, one better than Martin Mackay (Durness), Bob Earnshaw (Reay) and Ronald Mackay (Thurso).
Golspie’s Arnold Bevan is also a member at Royal Dornoch and this was put to good advantage as he won the middle handicap category with 33 points.
Bevan had two pars on each nine to compensate for a few double bogeys and managed to hold off the challenge of Brora’s Byron Kerr, who finished in second place, as he did at Reay, with 32 points.
Another Reay prize winner, Sandy Reid (Thurso) claimed third place on count back from clubmate Jack Johnstone, both recording 30 points.
Another Thurso player, Bob Black, and Reay’s Danny O’Hagan were a further point back.
The home club filled the top two places in the high handicap category.
Ray Bower had a very good front nine that allowed him to afford a struggle over the closing holes in his 36 point effort that earned victory over Wilson Blair by a couple of points.
The evergreen Blair’s round was a pretty consistent one and left him four points ahead of John Disbury (Reay), Jim Hawthorn (Thurso) and Ricky Shearer (Wick) with Disbury claiming third place on count back.
Society Secretary Dave Lyall was next best on 29 points.
