Steven Gallacher still in the hunt for the US Open

Jun 2 2011 by Eric MacKinnon, West Lothian Courier

IT has been a couple of tough months on the trot for local favourite Stephen Gallacher on the European Tour.

Only five tournaments have been fitted in and of these he's missed the cut three times including at Wentworth last week and particularly galling there after his admirable show at the London course in last year's BMW flagship event.

But on Monday there was a great lift for the big man when he came through the qualifying test for the US Open to be played this month on the beast that is the Congressional Club at Bethesda in Maryland.

Stephen's rounds of 70 and 69 at Walton Heath on a day spoiled by a long mist delay at the outset left him a stroke inside the qualifying mark and the only Scot from the four among the 82 players hoping to make the cut.

After his really good showing at last year's Majors, at St Andrews in the Open and in the USPGA in Wisconsin, the American event might just be the one that will properly get his season going.

Before that though, the business in hand is at Celtic Manor in Wales this week for the Saab sponsored Welsh Open.

Meanwhile on the local front Uphall's Davy Meldrum has become the Linlithgowshire Seniors' Champion with a fine score of 73 at the never easy Deer Park layout.

The seniors were out in force on Thursday of last week and it was Peter Folland of the host club who took the other piece of silverware up for grabs on the day, the Veterans' Trophy for the over sixties.

And Peter wasn't even in the Deer Park winning team, three from four scores counted, with the formation comprising, D Carruthers, R Gilbert, A Hair and J Quin. Their total was 216.

Friday's Linlithgowshire League matches did not affect the league placings untowardly though things should begin to be clearer after this week's series.

Results were: Section 'A' —Dundas Parks 3 Linlithgow 3, Deer Park 5 Pumpherston 1; Section 'B' — Greenburn 4 Harburn 2, West Lothian 5.5 Niddry Castle 0.5.

The heavy winds of late have certainly pushed up scoring in the most recent club returns though there are several top performances.

One such was the 65 scratch of Jock McNee of Linlithgow in his club's Open last Saturday. Off his one handicap this gave him a net 64 but even this wasn't good enough to carry the day. Another local was one better, 14 handicap man Robert Swan. And in joint second with Jock was William Craigie off nine.

The wind got even worse on Sunday for the Cameron Bowl at Uphall and Pumpherston's Paul Drake just failed to defend his title.

Top man was Greenburn back marker, Gary Corrigan with 69. Drake was a shot more and tied with Uphall four handicapper Graeme Stevenson who came back very well after starting with a double bogey six.

Graeme's better inward nine gave him second spot over the Pumpherston player. Ross Noon of Craigielaw with 72 and C Johnstone of Royal Musselburgh on a shot more took fourth and fifth respectively.

In the handicap section it was wall-to-wall home players to the fore. Winner was Jamie Gardner (5) on 69, while Josh Renwick (3), Stephen Cooney (6) and Brian Leisk (10) were in joint second a shot behind.

The club's Midweek Sweep had produced another tie with Jim Wishart (9) getting the nod after a countback from Alan Wardlaw (21). They had been on 63 net.

And there was another tie at Bathgate in Sunday's gales in their Greenkeepers' Day with Colin McGarry (13) getting through because of his superior inward nine over Gordon Macdonald (16).

Graeme Bell was third here on 71 off his 12mark, one better than Stuart Christie (7) in fourth spot.

Things were pretty tough at Fauldhouse too when the lads were out for the Greenburn club's McMillan Trophy.

Here it was Robert Mclean who won on yet another countback. His net 72 off eleven beat George Stewart (9) and George, I'm sure, will still be mulling over his quadruple bogey eight at the fourteenth.

Scoring, though, has been more than decent despite the elements at Bo'ness. Kevin Sommerville's 82-16=66 won him the Wednesday Bowl by two shots from both Lee McAdam (18) and Mark Donnelly (7).

And in the first round of the George Aitken on Saturday Roy Murray had a grand total of 41 stableford points to lead by three from joint second placed Alan Anderson, Paul Burns and Derek Adam.

Another tie, too, at Binny where it was a better inward half that allowed Gordon Bruce (6) to pick up the club's Order of Merit event for the Bill Bannatyne Trophy. Man to lose out on the same 68 mark was Alan Paterson (13).

The club's Seniors Open at the Oatridge club has been lost, scheduled as it was for the day after the recent horrendous night of gales.

Two big trees came down and the course was strewn with branches and other debris.

There was a triple tie at Niddry Castle involving Ronald Caie (21), Jack Norris (5) and Steve Cherry (5). They each had a 67 but it was Ronald who won on the countback.

Then on Saturday in the Ian Lithgow Memorial Trophy it was P Anderson at the top on 39 stableford points, three ahead of his nearest rival J Wilson.