Drambuie Speyside: 26th - 30th September 2004

The Event

Well that’s the Speyside wrapped up for another year and once again a great time was had by all. As usual the event was signed off with a bit of Highland style with the Prizegiving dinner this year moving to the Hilton Hotel, Aviemore.

Honours went to Anne Fern, our second lady victor of the Drambuie Golf Classics 2004. Anne was out in the final game and from the moment she struck her tee shot straight down the middle towards the first green she looked confident.

The winning total of 154 points was a good four points more than the previous highest set by Averil Sutcliffe at the Drambuie Fife event, and with 49 points at Kingussie Sue Barry secured the highest ever stableford score!

The team event was won by the husband and wife partnership of Melvyn and Anne Fern with a combined total of 289 with our Irish team of Tony and Angela O'shea in second place with a total of 269 points.

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Day 1 - Newtonmore
The golf itself teed off at Newtonmore under some blue autumn skies although it was overtaken by cloud and a little bit of rain. It however failed to dampen the spirits of the competitors.

Newtonmore has always been proved to be quite a challenge for the players of previous years and has never produced the high scores that some may expect. That's not to say there weren't spectacular highlights - first time visitors to the Classics produced two forty plus stableford scores.

Anne Fern from Beau Desert scored a whopping 42 points which included a scrape with a rabbit hole while Morag Millar (playing with her husband!) capped her debut with an excellent forty points total.

Six scores tied fourth place on 36 points. The scoring was consistently strong through the field with the average topping out at 30.4 points - considerably better than first rounds in other events this year!

The pairs event was unsurprisingly lead by husband and wife team Anne and Melvyn Fern with a combined points total of 78 points two clear of the Millars, Frank and Morag, and a further six ahead of the O'Shea's from Carlow in Ireland.

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Day 2 - Kingussie
So how do you react to someone who cards 49 points at Kingussie? Well after asking whether the handicaps were correct and these are your gross scores it was a simple case of congratulating Sue Barry the Lady Captain from Hertfordshire Golf Club on her wonderful round.

Sue explained that it was just one of those rounds where everything went just right and all the putts dropped, and if she hadn’t carded a blob on the tenth then a totally unbelievable 50 plus would have been on the board.

Ken Sadler came in later with a 43 and would have been justifiably disppointed at finding himself only in second place on the day.

Overall the average scores were on a par with Newtonmore on day one and apart from the two scores above two 40 pointers from unrelated Smiths ensured a high scoring top ten. Gary Smith off five, carded a gross 71 for his total and was matched by Sheila Smith from Canada.

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Day 3 - Grantown-on-Spey
When the sun shines like it did at Grantown-on-Spey today, The Highlands in the autumn becomes just one of the very best locations to be with a set of golf clubs.

The location in the shadow of The Cairngorms makes it a very special place to play golf and the course was set up superbly for the challenge of the third day of the event.

The overnight leader, Anne Fern, seemed to take it all in her stride and carded another par busting round of 39 points maintaining a five point lead over second place Sue Barry from Hertfordshire.

The best round of the day was a superb gross one under par by last year's winner Tim James. His sub par round produced 42 points and brought him to within eight points of the lead and ensured that he would be out in the final fourball for the second year running. The final member of the final fourball is Charles Bailey from Easingwald who quietly slipped into joint third with back to back 38 point rounds.

The final day at Boat of Garten always throws up some interesting results... and the promised rain may play a part yet.

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Day 4 - Boat of Garten
The conditions made sure that it was going to be a difficult day and some of the scoring reflected this however the scenery and views even in these conditions was quite breathtaking.

The course at Boat of Garten was as usual set up superbly well. The course is always tough providing difficult bounces on undulating fairways and some very tight drives.

The best rounds of the day was scored by Angela O'Shea and Carol Tyler both scoring 37points however Angela won it with a better inward half, her brought her to overall fifth. Overnight leader Anne Fern card another solid 36 points, enough to confirm her standing at the top of the leaderboard.

Time again to look at ladies handicapping for 2005!

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Highland	Fife	Ayrshire
Speyside	Drambuie	Classics

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