A Review

Well that’s the Speyside wrapped up for a second year and once again a great time was had by all. As usual the event was signed off with a bit of Highland style – there can be few better places to hold a drinks reception than on the Strathspey Steam Railway and if you’re piped on and off the train and then piped across the road to a spectacular fireworks display above the Cairngorm Hotel then dinner could become an anti-climax. It didn’t however and the meal was complemented again by a superbly funny performance from our speaker Duncan Cameron and signed off with the prizegiving and a few drinks afterwards. So next year the Speyside kicks off on Monday 29^th September and with the East Lothian Classic moving to its regular late June position will once again be the signing off event for our golfing season. We are sure those who played in it will leave with wonderful memories of the courses, the hospitality, the food and of course the spectacular highland weather and scenery. But in the long term it will be the friends made which will linger longest and perhaps entice them back again.

Thanks are due to the players for making the Speyside Golf Classic the social event that it is…..Haste ye Back!

Looking Back…..

Autumn golf in Scotland – this is what it’s all about and if tourism marketing businesses could capture the comments from those playing at Grantown on Spey on a beautiful late September day then our hotels would be full. The day was in total contrast to the experience of last year’s players and the difference was highlighted by the many who had returned to play in the event for the second year in a row. With the Cairngorm Mountains as the backdrop there can be few places in the country that provide a more relaxing place to play golf. Relaxing that is if you can ignore the trees surrounding you!

On the back of the Ryder Cup celebrations everyone was in a pretty good frame of mind and Grantown on Spey only added to that feeling of contentment. The new clubhouse is always welcoming and the course was as usual immaculately set up – fast true greens were expected after the dry September and the course produced some tremendous scoring and none more so than last year’s winner.

Gordon Scott got things underway in the morning after being piped on to the first tee by “Spud the Piper” and proceeded not only to knock his first drive right down the middle to applause from those around the first tee but then went on to card a superb opening 40 points Bit of a bandit? Well no, Gordon won last year’s event with a handicap of 15. He’s been cut since then to ten and is still producing some excellent results.

He however wasn’t on his own and Fred Lawson form Ballater equalled Gordon with his own forty pointer and only one point behind was Dunblane New’s Gordon Kinnes.Four players on 38 another four on 37 and no less than seven players on 36 points ensure that there’s no easy retention of his title for Gordon Scott.

Connie Figari for Childwall Golf Club and Anne Buckley from Nazeing produced the best ladies results with 37 points. It is surely only a matter of time before a lady wins one of the Classics and with almost thirty percent of the field being ladies perhaps this week is the best chance for this to happen.

The pair’s event is also being toughly fought with Fred Lawson and his partner for the week Keith Bennett producing a 74-point total between them. Four pairs sit one point further back with half the field within ten points of first place.

As usual the event had a couple of other bits and pieces with the longest drive being taken by Gary McMillan from Howley Hall launching one down the middle of the second and George Muirhead from Fraserburgh putting it pretty close at 16 to pick up the nearest the pin.

A new addition this year is the Par Three’s prize. The event simply totals up the Par three stableford scores for the week and Susan Bagan from Loudoun Gowf Club near Kilmarnock in Ayrshire managed to make good use of her strokes to rack up eight points on the three par 3s. Susan who confessed to being a little more than worried about playing in the event settled down well and is leading the way on the shorts. 

Return to Kingussie and Newtonmore

A year ago the heavens opened on the first two days of the Speyside leaving both Newtonmore and Kingussie under substantial amounts of water – although it should be noted that play continued due to the excellent drainage on both courses. This year would be different and the visitors to both courses, the field was split between the two, benefited from more excellent late summer sunshine.

Both courses received very favourable comments from the players. Newtonmore is the longest of the Speyside courses and provides a considerably greater challenge from the white tees than from the normal visitor tees – this however failed to stop Roger Tuohy playing in his second Scottish Golf Classic event from amassing a superb 42 points. The high scoring was supported by a 39 from Mrs Pat Smart from Lytham Green Drive and a couple of 37’s from Diana English and Ayrshire’s Ian Carson.

Kingussie is only a couple of miles up the road from Newtonmore but provides quite a contrast in style. The villages are fierce rivals on the Shinty field but their respective golf courses are only complementary to each other. Located above the village the golf course’s altitude blesses it with some of the best views in Scottish Golf. It’s only a short course with more than its fair share of Par threes but suffering nothing from it.

Best scores of the day were from Gordon Scott, Sandra Twentyman and Don Cruikshank (proving that he was at home in the country as much as the city) all with 37 points. Gordon Kinnes and Margaret Kennedy both came in with 36 points.

The nearest the pin on the fifteenth at Newtonmore was secured by Susan Grant from Whitekirk while at Kingussie St. Andrews man Stuart MacDermid was pretty much doing the same thing.

Tuesday night has now become the scheduled date for quiz nights at the Classics and almost sixty competitors had a thoroughly enjoyable buffet and quiz night at The Boat in Boat of Garten. The competition was fought out in teams with Colin’s Cuties unfortunately just not able to cut it in the final round and the unlikely amalgamation of the “Essex Girls”, “the Fife Flyers” and the “Fraserburgh Loons” picking up the prize money. In true generous style however they bought the bar a drink with their winnings. Magnanimous gesture!

Wednesday

Day three provided a bit more of the same. Overnight rain disappeared and another bright sunny day appeared. Play was again over Newtonmore and Kingussie with golfers swapping over.

With Thursday morning play being decided by leaderboard order there was long lie to play for if nothing else serious for those in the bottom half of the field and at the top there was a wee bit in all of those still within four or five points that was saying “maybe I’ve got a chance!”  Part of the fun of the Scottish Golf Classics series so far is watching how the golfers who were coming simply to knock a ball about some new golf courses realise by the third day that it is also a bit of competitive golf! 

Anyway Sandra Twentyman who had played earlier in the year in The Highlands Golf Classic had found herself well up the leaderboard on the second day and by the end of the third she knew that she’d be going out in the last game on Thursday only one point of the leader. Another excellent round of 39 points at Newtonmore saw to that. Three other “regulars” – Colin McAllister from St. Andrews and Rod Spinks and Ian Fyffe from Newtonmore - posted excellent 38’s while “new girl” Connie Figari from Childwall near Liverpool scored her best of the week 37.

Over at Kingussie the best of the day was Jim Smart’s excellent 37 points which with all the par three’s was deserving of his prize of Best Stableford over Kingussie. Jim was one of two entries from Lytham Green Drive – they only knew the other lot were going when they checked in for Ryder Cup Sunday!

Other notable totals came from Anne Buckley from Nazeing and Susan Grant from Whitekirk in East Lothian both scoring 36-point. Nearest the Pin at Newtonmore was our good friend David Kemp while Rod Spinks secured the same honour.

So as we moved on the final day the order of play was made in reverse leaderboard order leaving four players going out together within five points of each other – Roger Tuohy had scored 35 on Kingussie to add to his second day 42 at Newtonmore and lead Sandra Twentyman by a single point on 113. Two points further back were Gordon Scott, last year’s victor and Gordon Kinnes from Dunblane New. What would Thursday bring?

The Final Day

First tee off time was 8.30am and arriving early at Boat of Garten made you realise exactly why we decided to have an autumn event in the Scottish Highlands. The scene was set for an excellent finish to what had been an excellent four days golf.

Boat of Garten is one of those courses that plays to its full off the Medal Tees. Tree lined the course offers difficult tight drives with undulating fairways and seriously heavy rough in places. The fact that many of the competitors found it difficult to score was no surprise. Is it too difficult? Well only if you expect to score 36 points every time, it is superbly set up with some of the most stunningly designed holes with in terms of length and layout but also in terms of views. Standing on the ninth tee with the mountains in front of you it is hard to get annoyed about the push into the trees! It’s that sort of golf course. It would certainly be easier if played from the yellows but this is still competitive after all and what would the fun be in that?

Earlier this year we decided that going out in leaderboard order in the last day would make things a little more interesting and following on from Ayrshire and Fife we tried it again in Speyside. As it turned out the last fourball struggled to maintain their high scores of the rest of the week and the best result from the group was that of Gordon Kinnes whose 33 was in the end enough to lift him into runner’s up spot with 141 points. Overnight leader Roger Tuohy had his worst round of the week and with 27 points dropped back onto a total of 140 and third place. Best performance of the day was from Susan Grant who’s 37 points lifted her into fourth place on a countback just pipping her playing partner for the day Rod Spinks who fell away at the last hole by failing to score – in light of that his 35 points off a handicap of four deserved some praise.

However honours went to a lady and indeed the first lady victor of any of the Golf Classics. Sandra was out in the final game teeing off last and from the moment she struck her tee shot straight down the middle towards the first green she looked confident. Her 31 was by far her weakest score of the event but was enough to secure victory as her fourball partners failed to make any headway.

Sandra from Redditch Golf Club travelled up with her husband for a wee holiday and was clearly delighted at the prizegiving to have been the first female winner. Best wishes to both Sandra and her husband Alan and we look forward to seeing them again in 2003.

While Gordon Scott slipped up badly in the last game with 27 points the lead combined with his partners excellent 35 ensured that the Pairs Trophy would be picked up by Gordon Scott and Rod Spinks some eight points ahead of Susan Grant and Andy Mair who had the same points total as Roger Tuohy and Tony Grocott.

Peter laird finally managed to pick up a prize with nearest the pin at the 3^rd and Glyn Rees launched a massive drive at seventeen to win that one. The par 3s event was new for 2002 and we were delighted to present a giant bottle of the Sponsors whisky to Eileen Ross. Our thanks once again go to Talisman Whisky for their sponsorship of the Par Three’s during the week.

So that was it the golf was over and in total we’d experienced around fifteen minutes of light showers and some of the finest weather the Highlands could provide. Great golf courses, great socialising. What more could you want from a golf break?