Dun Whinny vs Blairgowrie
After a brilliantly sunny day for the last day of summer , the teams from Dun Whinny and Blairgowrie were met with very different conditions on Sunday , dull and overcast with a variable north easterly breeze with a real cooling over Saturday’s warm weather. However the match was anything but cool , with some great tussles on both Kings and Queens courses. With both courses in first class condition the pairing of Neil Lock and Iain Aitchison led off on the Kings , with Aidan O’Carrol ( captain for the day ) and Christian Stewart leading the way on the Queens.
With both teams managing to connect at the halfway house , it was clear that both matches were close. At the end of the day Neil and Ian ran in winners by 3 and 2 , while Aidan and Christian were pipped at the post by a magnificent birdie by James Macfarlane , captain for Blairgowrie for the day , on the 18th to give Blairgowrie the honours by one hole.
The Kings seemed to be favouring Dun Whinny , with Andy McGill and Ryan Longmuir running out 4 and 3 winners , and Kevin Beattie ( recovering from a disappointing performance at Dundonald the previous day ) strongarming his way through with his partner Rob Simpson to win by an impressive 6 and 4.
On the Queens we had a very different story with tight matches all going to the 18th. Ken Swa and David Watt had been battling from behind but eventually succumbed to lose by one hole , so at 3 matches to 2 in favour of Dun Whinny attention turned to the last match still to come in , with Ian Fisher and Gordon Holborn battling it out to the last as well , losing on the final hole to make the match tied at 3-3.
As Dun Whinny were the holders of the Ken Mackenzie Salver , we retained the trophy , but only just.
For those sharper readers you will have noted that we won all three matches on the Kings , and lost all three on the Queens , and on the Queens Course all matches went to the 18th hole.
Each year we play for the Ken Mackenzie Salver which was presented by Ken Mackenzie’s widow with the first match being played in 2006. Ken , who died too young was a member of both Blairgowrie and Gelneagles and his widow thought it a good idea to present a Salver in his memory , for which all those playing for both sides are grateful for.
With only one year missed due to Covid the overall score is 10 to 6 in favour of Dun Whinny , with two matches halved.
As always the games were played in great spirit , the camaraderie shown throughout makes this a very special match indeed and we look forward to visiting Blairgowrie in 2025