Ayrshire Golf Classic 2001 - A Review!

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Day One: Belleisle & Glasgow Gailes - Course Report

With the exception of a rather ominous weather report for later in the week everything was looking promising. The wind hadn't got up and the clouds were breaking to allow some west coast sunshine to shine through.

Day one was split between the excellent James Braid designed Belleisle course in Ayr and the links course of Glasgow (Gailes) just outside Irvine. The courses looked extremely well set up and presented and this was certainly backed up by the comments from the players.

Belleisle proved an extremely tough challenge at last year's golf classic with the average scores being quite low in comparison to Barassie, Bogside and even Turnberry. It continues to pleasantly surprise golfers from all over when they play it. Located just south of Ayr the course as said above was designed by James Braid and it now finds itself set in a wonderfully mature parkland setting with a great variety of Long Par 4's, shortish par 5's and some ridiculously tricky par threes.

However these ridiculously difficult Par threes didn't appear to affect Joseph Roberts of Ingestre Golf Club who managed to knock in two twos at the 3rd and 7th and accumulate eight stableford points in the process!

The conditions certainly appeared to be more conducive than last year with ten players at Belleisle equalling or bettering par points of 36; a further 26 players at Belleisle broke 30 off tricky white tees.

A similar story was taking place at Glasgow Gailes, there were only four bettering 36 but one of these includes a magnificent 40 points from Paul Gardner of Kirbymoorside. The 18 handicapper's 40 points was he said down to the superb greens - "I couldn't miss" he said. But can he take the Henman-esque pressure that goes with being in the lead!
A further 24 players broke the 30 barrier thereby staying within 10 points of the overnight leader.

The team event is always interesting; the four man teams play their normal stableford scores but are allowed to drop the worst total each day with only the best three counting. This makes this particular event much closer and allows a bit of carrying to go on. Those who entered as singles or pairs were matched up into composite teams to ensure that they had some additional competition during the week.

The scores again proved to be high with the lead being taken by last year's runners up - Wohlwend, Wren, Flatman and Cox - three from England one from Texas. Their three counting scores totalled an impressive 110 - averaging over 36 points. Two teams follow behind on 107 and a further four on the hundred plus mark.

So day one's out of the road, a few trips to local hostelries are planned for the Monday night and Belleisle and Barassie await for Tuesday. The weather forecast remains hopeful and for those not playing at their peak there's always the Golf Quiz on Tuesday evening at The Anchorage Hotel in Troon.

Day Two

Tuesday morning saw the courses at Belleisle and Barassie coming into play. The early weather looked ominous. Dark skies and showers forecast. However for much of the day the wind kept most of the wet weather away and allowed mot players to get round dry if a little windswept. Belleisle with its tree lined perimeters probably provided the easier conditions of the day and produced some very good scoring from the day one leaders; Barassie it was expected would produce a lower average scoring - as it indeed did - but also produced some very creditable mid thirties points tallies.

The two courses are opposites in style. The parkland layout at Belleisle contrast with the more traditional links layout at Barassie and the emphasis on dog legs and large fast greens are a contradiction to the straighter slower ground inland. But that's what events like this are about - trying your game out on different styles of course.

Once again the comments coming from Barassie were that yes it was hard but the greens were quite superb and it was one of the best links courses they had played. It can play long but it undoubtedly provides a fair challenge to all levels of handicap golfer.
It also challenges the best golfers as was seen recently when it hosted the qualifying rounds of the British Amateur Championship along with Prestwick.

However back to the scoring the overnight lead which was held by Paul Gardner was retained with Paul extending his lead to three points with an excellent 36 points at Belleisle. Second place was tied between Euan Keith from Newburgh on Ythan and Neil Flatman a veteran of the first years classic. Both of these players braved the elements at Barassie and had 35 and 36 points respectively.

Close behind on a two day total of 71 points were John Nicolson (33 pts Belleisle), Graham Evans (34 pts Belleisle)and Steven Rimmer (32 pts at Barassie). Gerry Daly brought his score up to 70 points with 39 points over Belleisle - a total which would win him the best individual course prize for Belleisle for the week. Neil Flatman's 36 proved to be the best of the day at Barassie.

The team event was also taking shape with three teams passing the 200 point mark - as expected Neil Flatman's score helped out his team mates and they lead with 205 points; second place and only three points behind were the four from England of Evans, Newman, Wood and Johnson on 202 points. The next dozen teams were separated by a dozen points and with the format of three scores counting from four the competition for the team event was still wide open.

Day three looms - and for half the field the prospect of The Championship Ailsa Course.

Day Three

The move back to Glasgow Gailes for the Wednesday brought with it the strongest winds of the week. The early games caught the brunt of it with the wind at its strongest in the morning; as a result the conditions actually eased up (albeit slightly) towards the end of the day for those out late at Turnberry. The easing up of the conditions had to however be put into the context that the wind meter peaked at 35 miles per hour during the day. As a result the scoring remained fairly low at both courses.

The players' opinions on the courses; well much the same as on day one, those playing Glasgow Gailes were mightily impressed not only by its challenging layout but in particular for the excellence of the greens. The course undoubtedly added to the quality of the Ayrshire Golf Classic this year and our thanks go to Secretary David Deas and his staff for their support during the week. Turnberry has its own "WOW" factor but not far behind it was the almost revered tones used when walking into the Gailes Clubhouse's main lounge. The almost church like beams and wood clad interior make the lounge one of the very best to sit and reflect on the conflicting emotions of the day's golf. A must for anyone visiting Ayrshire.

Anyway the scoring was again hit badly by the weather with the majority of the field finding the high twenties as quite an achievement. However individually there were strong challenges to be made and given the conditions throughout the round at Gailes Steven Rimmer's 33 points was probably the score of the day; Neil Faltman's 31 was close behind and resulted in both of these players taking the lead into the final day - both playing at Turnberry.

Again it remained tight behind the two leaders - Bobby Lennox, The Lisbon Lion, scored an impressive 32 points at Turnberry and was in joint third with Euan Keith and Graham Evans. These three were followed by half a dozen players with 95 or more points.

The highlights of the day - which as said above provided the worst conditions of the week - were Steven Rimmers 31 points at Gailes and Bobby Lennox's 32 at Turnberry. However Tim Pierce, John McShane and Graham Evans' thirty points at Turnberry are worthy of mention as was Phil Sanders similar tally over Gailes.

In fact John McShane's 30 points added to Bobby Lennox and Steve Chalmers total was enough to move them into the third day lead in the team event.

Final Day

The final round and a leaderboard where up to six or seven players were within a few points of the leaders. The two leaders as it turned out were playing at Turnberry and the earlier scores from Barassie meant that in all likelihood the winner was going to come from the players finishing at Turnberry.

However a couple of early results posted at Barassie by Bobby Lennox and Steve Chalmers suggested that a high Turnberry score would be required. These two finished their four day total on an impressive 131 points and when Steven Rimmer - the joint leader - came in with a disappointing 22 points it looked as though the former Celtic heroes would be separated by a countback over their final 36 holes. However Euan Keith from the North East of Scotland came in with an excellent 31 points to take over the lead at the top.

For an hour this certainly looked as though it might be enough but this was shattered by appropriately enough the round of the week from joint leader Neil Flatman. His 39 points gave him an impressive nine point wining margin and the individual title for 2002.
Paul Gardner who lead the first couple of days remained well placed in fifth with a strong 32 points at Barassie.

Pushing Flatman's 39 points for round of the day was Nan Quinn from Narin and Portnoo in Donegal. Her 36 points was far and away her best performance of the week and helped her partners - husband Benny and son Noel - into second place in the team event. Third place were the three playing around Neil Flatman - their fourth round total cost them first place with the 89 points leaving the three behind the winners. Given that Neil produced 39 of these the other three could only produce another 50 counting points.

The outright winners - by now a threesome - were Lions Lennox and Chalmers and their partner from Castlerock in Northern Ireland John McShane. Their winning total of 374 points took them home by three.

Last year's winners - Pettigrew, Bell, Kinloch and Martin - never seriously challenged for their title and finished some 16 points off the lead - but still they had St. Mirren's pre season friendly to look forward to as comfort! Good luck lads.

Onto the prizegiving

The Ayrshire Golf Classic Quiz

One of the comments made last year was that it would have been nice to have a social night during the week of the event. It didn't take that much in ten way of creativity to then arrange a Golf Quiz for the Tuesday night.
The Anchorage Hotel in Troon - the historic town's oldest hostelry - acted as out hosts for the evening and the event was attended by more than sixty of the players who enjoyed an excellent buffet meal and a few drinks.

The quiz itself was over eighteen holes with a mix of golfing facts and figures with a definite lean towards questions about previous Open Championships and Amateur events in Ayrshire. In the end the team of four - curiously named The Oil Riggers and The Slappers!? - winning the competition sneaked home with a birdie up the last hole and they were presented with there £50 cash prize and a bottle of Lochranza Whisky courtesy of The Anchorage Hotel.

Our thanks to The Anchorage for their excellent service, good food and as always faultless hospitality.

Prizegiving Dinner

Following the success of the prizegiving Dinner at Te Highland Golf Classic in May it was decided to add one on to finish off this year's Ayrshire event. With over a hundred guests the dinner presented an opportunity to showcase not only some of Ayrshire's fresh produce but also some different venues. The dinner was held at Western House at Ayr Racecourse - Scotland's premier race course - with the guests being piped in on their arrival to the venue.
Western House, is well used for weddings and private functions and its traditional feel provides the perfect ambience for these sort of occasions.

The dinner was supported by South Ayrshire Council who also own Belleisle Golf Course and their support was greatly appreciated not only for the evening's proceedings but also in getting the Ayrshire Golf Classics off the ground. Bells Scotch Whisky provided the toast for The Haggis and again the support of Bells and their parent company UDV is much welcomed and hopefully will grow over the years in partnership with the Scottish Golf Classics.

As well as the traditional welcome from the bagpipes, the guests were "treated" to a rendition of Robert Burns' Address to The Haggis - the address is again a tradition much used worldwide not only for Burns' Suppers in January but throughout the year when Haggis is served in its traditional form with Neeps and Tatties. On this occasion, the visitors having already put up with some terrible conditions on course were able to handle this poor rendition between courses!

The meal was enjoyed by all and the service complemented by many. The prizegiving ceremony took place after the meal with gongs being presented to the daily winners and runners up and the main prizes distributed to the overall individual and team winners.

It was inaugurated last year when the "trophy" sailed over the sea to Northern Ireland and like the yellow jersey it was returned this year to be carried off again - we are of course talking about our Scotty Dog Headcover, presented annually (and in the best possible taste) to the player with the worst four day total. This year the award went to Sue Gardner along with probably the biggest cheer of the evening. Sue took "The Scotty Dog Award" with the good humour it was intended and she has assured us she will return to defend her title next year!

Last award of the evening was made to local boy (surely some mistake) Tommy Coomb from Newmilns who had the distinction of hitting the very first drive of the inaugural 2000 Ayrshire Golf Classic which was in hindsight the first of the series of Scottish Golf Classics. He hit the first drive - probably into the trees on the right - at Belleisle at 9am on Monday July 10th 2000 and we were delighted that he was there with his team-mates to be presented with a beautiful print of the James Braid designed golf course.

With the formal part of the evening complete it was time to introduce Mr Len Murray, the speaker for the evening. Len practised as a solicitor in Glasgow for over forty years. He is retired now and he says that he wishes he had done so years ago. So do his former clients.

He has been a prominent after-dinner speaker for many years and has spoken throughout the country and abroad. In May 2000 he was invited to take part in the prestigious Wag of the Year competition which he won. Accordingly he is the holder of the title wag of the Year 2000.

Len delighted the audience with a superb range of anecdotes not only about golf but he also wove a wonderful tapestry illustrating the comical differences between his native Glasgow and the other city Edinburgh. For those from outside of Scotland it proved highly amusing and resulted in an extended round of applause from the room. Len will be most welcome at future Scottish Golf Classics dinners and we look forward to hearing more from him.

So that was that. The golf was over the gongs handed out and the guests retired to the bar for a few nightcaps. All that was left were the goodbyes and a chorus of "We'll be back next year" form the departing players. Next year adds the choice of The Highland, The Speyside and the Fife and of course we're certain that they'll return again in years to come to Ayrshire once more.

All in all a great week was had by all - the golf was wonderful although the weather could have been a little more forgiving, the company was superb and the hospitality provided by our Ayrshire hosts unsurpassed as usual. Here's to July 2002.