Superb week for golf in and around West Lothian county

May 6 2010 by Eric MacKinnon, West Lothian Courier

SATURDAY produced perhaps the best-ever showing by local golfers in the Lothian’s Championship qualifying at Royal Musselburgh and Castle Park in East Lothian.

No fewer than 10 golfers from clubs within the Linlithgowshire Association managed to make the last 32 for matchplay.

And both Jim Cleghorn of Pumpherston and Colin Swanston of Uphall made it too but were unable to commit to this week's knockout stages.

However, Monday evening, when half of the first-round matches were completed, was not so good, with four of the six players losing out. Linlithgow's Ed Shannly went down to Lothians team Captain, the vastly experienced Keith Nicholson. Hugh Fraser of Niddry Castle lost out to Olly McCrone of Turnhouse. And youngster Ryan Boyle from Bathgate – a great showing by the kid to qualify – was beaten by Swanston's Martin Campbell and his Bathgate colleague Simon Lockhart lost to another man with Linlithgowshire credentials Alleyn Dick.

Two got through but were to line up against each other in Wednesday's round of the last 16.

These were Dundas Parks veteran Alan Hogg and one of the favourites for the title, Paul Drake of Pumpherston. Drake hammered the Merchants' Brian Erskine while Hogg had taken out Dalmahoy's Dougie Hunter.

Four players were due out in Tuesday's other half of the draw. Deer Park's Alan Crawford faced a hard test against Saturday's leading qualifier Graham Robertson of Silverknowes. Calum Grant faced the fourth player from Linlithgowshire, the former leading qualifier in this event, Ricky Moffat of Dundas. And Stuart McMehen had a difficult task too against the Duddingston player David Miller.

So, with four local lads facing each other, although we are guaranteed a player in the last eight, the very most we can have left by that stage, and this is a bit on the optimistic side, would be four.

We'll have something on their progress next week.

Meanwhile the County Spring Handicaps are to be played this weekend with the lower handicappers out at Deer Park, the 10 to 15 grouping at Greenburn and the high men due at Pumpherston.

Harburn golfers have been busy on the competitive front in the last couple of weeks.

Their Spring Cup had a big entry with the pot going to S Tidy in the end for his 72-6=66 with A Groves (6) and A Henderson (7) in joint second two shots back.

The Kirk Rosebowl qualifier was led by David Meek (17) on 68 net, a shot better than joint runners up David Newlands (14) and Jim Lawson (11) while on Saturday it was the 43 stableford points assembled by Kevin Turner which took top spot for him in the McInally. Second here was Harry Cameron on 40 with third going to Andrew McElhinney on 39.

Greenburn has had its Peter Halliday Foursomes event and top pairing was JP Galbraith and Willie Francis with a 66.5.

James Johnston and Stuart McKechnie took second on 68 with Betty Johnston (no relation) in third spot paired with club champion Jim Fairley on the same mark but losing out on the countback.

At Uphall their latest Midweek Sweep has gone to veteran Davie Meldrum for his 72-6=66 but only on a countback from the popular Jim Craig (11).

On Sunday it was Bob Paterson (13) who took the Matt Wilson Trophy, played in conjunction with the club's second Monthly Medal, with a net 62, one ahead of runner up John Brown (6).

Scoring was extremely good down at Bo’ness when the West Lothian club members were out in the qualifying for the Hunt Cup. Top dog was Neil Pearson with 68-5=63, three better than second placed Gary Dunn (18).

The cut was on 72 net for the 32 forward to the knockout stages.

Just a wee word here for 16-year-old Ewan Craig who as a junior was able to play in this medal round but wasn't eligible for the competition proper.

He had the stunning return of 70-10= 60 and certainly looks like one to watch for the future.

Last Saturday the club had its Cadell Trophy first round with William McEwan sharing the lead at the top with senior golfer Eddie Bell (14). Paul McKennan (9) was in third spot a shot behind the leaders.

Bathgate had its Coronation Trophy on Sunday and it was five-handicap Jim Clark who came out on top though only on a countback from Alex Bell (10).

The previous Wednesday it had been Graham Bell who had won the Wednesday Medal with a fine scratch 67, the lowest scratch return at the club so far this season – Alex is his Dad so it was almost a family double inside a week.

Wednesday's runner up was Ian Aitken (10) with a net 68.

Niddry Castle has had its Nomination Pairs event and it was G Stevenson and C Pritchard as winners with total stableford points of 76 though only because of their superior inward nine over J Forbes and T Hanson. G Park and A Roberts were third with 74 points.

Stephen Gallacher continues to thrive on the European Tour. The big man had a bad second nine on the first day in the Spanish Open in Seville and a poor last nine in Sunday's fourth round but otherwise was in good fettle and picked up another handy cheque towards getting enough to be included in the big Dubai event at the end of the season.

Good news is that he is in to the PGA Championship at Wentworth towards the end of the month but this week it is Italy where he'll be hoping to make his ninth cut in a row if the severity of his recent itinerary doesn't catch up with him.

He really has travelled thousands of miles already this term.

Meanwhile, over at Binny Golf Club, the Senior Medal winner this week was Frank Dolan (92-22=70).

Also on Saturday they held their Gents Medal qualifier for the Belhaven Club Championship and the winner Robert Stone (84-17=67) and runner-up Michael Mok (86-18=68) will represent the club at the regional finals.

On Sunday, the ladies competed in a foursomes competition and winners Ann Douglas and Lynn Scott will represent the club in the next round of the Peugeot Coronation Foursomes to be held at West Linton in August.