Golf: Drake takes Stuart Cup with aplomb

May 7 2009 by Eric MacKinnon, West Lothian Courier

THE Lothians Championship qualifying rounds at Bathgate and Pumpherston on Saturday went off successfully in bright and breezy conditions and there was a local success in the shape of Pumpherston champion Paul Drake who took the Stuart Cup for leading qualifier.

Paul had 69 at his own course and 73 at Bathgate and it was on the former round that he beat three others on the same mark for the prestigious piece of silverware.

Those to lose out were Duddingston's David Miller, Dunbar's Dean Muir and Bathgate club champion Stuart Crookston.

This was another good win for Drake who has been one of the area's outstanding performers in recent seasons and has proved this by winning the Lothians Order of Merit title for both 2007 and 2008.

So he is off and running and looking for the matchplay title here, however, this rarely seems to go to the leading performer with the card and pencil.

The qualifying mark fell on 149 and there were nine names on that total or better from West Lothian clubs. But both Calum Grant of Linlithgow and Andy Rothney lost out on the matchplay because of their inferior rounds to the rest on the axe total, and Greenburn champion Gary Corrigan was unavailable to play in the knockout stages.

Apart from Drake and Crookston in the draw there were Alan Hogg of Dundas, the veteran back to scratch after a few seasons on the fringes of competitive golf, Ross Burnside and Mark Timmins – winner in 2000 – both of Pumpherston and Linlithgow's Ed Shannly.

In Monday evening's first half of the first round at Craigielaw both Timmins and Burnside were out in the extremely tousy conditions.

Timmins birdied the 19th to win there against Graham Robertson of Silverknowes and get into the last 16 but his club-mate lost out at the first extra hole to another birdie by opponent Derek Williams of Duddingston.

In Tuesday's matches Drake was due out against Stephen Simants of Dunbar; Hogg against Ian Melville of Glencorse; Shannly against the very talented Steven Armstrong of Turnhouse, and Crookston against David Warner of Haddington who lifted the title in 2007.

By no means an easy set of circumstances for our hopefuls but there will be something here on their progress next week.

Good news story of the week is that of Uphall seven handicapper Mark Proudfoot.

For the third time in his career he has won his club's Lombard qualifier – tied in with the second Monthly Medal on Sunday. He had a super 60 net after starting with a double bogey 6.

Mark is hopeful that he will now go forward with pro Gordon Law to play in the regional stages of the event because, strangely, it has failed to happen the first twice he qualified. On the first occasion he broke his foot and the second time the pair got caught up in the G8 traffic in Perthshire. So he is hoping it will be third-time lucky.

Second place was shared by Davy Pace (9) and Steven Hay (10) on 62 net. The lads are really 'shooting the lights out' this season at Uphall.

The same day at Greenburn it was Steven Mackie who lifted the club's McGlinchey Trophy with a net 66 off his 20 handicap though the success was only gained on a countback from Derek Howley (9). Stuart McKechnie (4) was third on 67 net.

At Bathgate there were 164 souls out in Sunday's stiff winds and at the end of matters it was Andrew Brown who took the Coronation Trophy for his 78-11=67 return, three ahead of joint second-placed Derek Keenan and Stuart Rennie, both off 13.

The tough conditions forced CSS up a couple of shots over SSS to 73.

Top man the previous Wednesday was club caterer Simon Preece who has starred in other sections of the Courier in the past – this time the consistency of his sauces was not the issue as his 84-19=65 return took the Wednesday Medal by a couple of shots from Gordon Cornwall (15).

Harburn had the McInally Stableford on Saturday and it was D Byrne at the head of proceedings with 41 points but only after a countback with both S Tidy and A Florence.

Last Wednesday's Kirk Rosebowl qualifier had gone to Ian Forrester for his fine 71-8=63, by a couple of shots from next placed John Barkey (16)

West Lothian club members had a 36-hole event at the weekend over two days. In the end it was longtime member the popular Sandy Chalmers with his first-ever success at the club. His net returns of 69 for 138 total off his eight mark gave him the Caddell Trophy by two shots from new member Steven Bryant (15).

Steven followed a poor showing on Saturday with a stunning net 64 to pull himself to near the top of the leaderboard.

Best scratch total was the 146 of Brian Adam who seems to be playing a bit more these days.

This Saturday sees the County Spring Handicaps at three venues and, as usual, this time of year, there is a big entry.