Golf: Hectic times as finals reach a climax

Jul 16 2009 by Eric MacKinnon, West Lothian Courier

THIS has been a busy time for Linlithgowshire secretary Bill Thomas and things are not likely to lighten up for him in the next few weeks.

The Karma Restaurant sponsored Summer League has reached its final stages, the Seniors League is being rounded up and the Boys County Championships decided.

And, of course, there are the Spring Handicaps and one of the County Championships lost to the elements earlier to be settled.

The League final is due this Friday at Uphall and it will be between holders of the title Pumpherston and Greenburn.

In the second legs of the semis, Pumphy had looked hot favourites after overwhelming Linlithgow in their home leg 5-1. John Gallagher for Pumphy won the top singles and Ross Burnside managed a halved game in the third but Linlithgow, no doubt to their satisfaction, won all the rest of the games to reduce the margin to 6.5 to 5.5 overall.

Greenburn must have gone to Shotts with some trepidation even though with a 4-2 advantage. This, impressively, they repeated in the away leg to make it 8-4 overall.

The County Seniors League title has gone to Deer Park though there is still one round of matches left. They are on 18 points, three ahead of both West Lothian and Uphall.

In the County Boys’ there are three events on the one day now with the age groupings of under 13s, under 16s and under 18s.

This latter is now the national standard but originally it was the under 16s only in Linlithgowshire when Andrew Walker, a member of a prominent family of grocers in Bathgate, donated his cup.

He went on to be President of the Scottish Golf Union and an important figure in the game north of the border.

And it’s this Trophy that has all the famous names on it — those of two Ryder Cup Captains, Eric Brown and Bernard Gallacher as well as Stephen Gallacher, now on the European Tour and Bryan Shields who was also a full Scottish Internationalist in his heyday.

The results were as follows:

Under 13s — S McCandless (Bathgate) 85, A Loch (Pumpherston) 87, C Curran (Harburn) 91, CStokes (Harburn) 95,

Net C Thomson (Uphall ) 71.

Under 16s — B Todd (Greenburn) 75, A Loch (Pumpherston) 76, M Hamill (Greenburn) 76, G Miller (Bathgate) 79, Net S Rafferty (Bathgate) 70.

Under 18s — C Rooney (Harburn) 76 (best last hole basis), R Boyle (Bathgate) 76, S Gray (West Lothian) 76, J Groom (Pumpherston ) 77, Net C Lamond (Bathgate) 66.

The First Class Spring Handicap replay will be at Greenburn on Saturday with the Second Class due at Deer Park on August 15.

And the Third Class County, lost in June, will be played at Pumpherston on Saturday, September 26.

Another local Champion has been crowned and it is Andy Rothney at Deer Park.

The club’s Second Class Champion is Michael Park who charged away to beat Chris McLeod after trailing at lunch by a hole.

And in the Third Class senior Neil Houston who has been having lessons from pro Sandy Strachan was always too strong for Ryan Arbuckle.

Scoring at local clubs continues to be good as golfers take advantage of courses in super nick with the recent heat and rain.

At Bathgate the July Tankard on Sunday was won by David Ramsay a shot ahead of former club champion Alan Robertson.

Over at Pumpherston it was Steven Philp with an impressive 45 stableford points who won the Millennium Trophy.

Golfers at West Lothian were out for the Carter Trophy on Saturday and the Griffiths Wood Memorial Trophy the next day. C Hunter took Saturday’s top spot.

Meanwhile it was Deirdre Taylor who won the club’s Ladies’ Seniors’ Championship at the local club with a 10 -25=75 from Senga Francis with Fiona Smith finishing in third position.

Senga was luckier in the Two Ball event as she won partnered by club back marker Jennifer Bryans with a 69 net.

This was four strokes ahead of the runners-up pairing of Anne Stokes and Sheila Hay.