Gordon Lockhart Trophy. Kings and Queens Saturday August 12th. Final Scores and Report.

Well today was interesting. Our annual “Iron Man” event in “changeable” conditions over the Kings and Queens became a game of attrition. Before we even started the initial entry list of 26 was whittled down to 18. Excuses ranged from Covid to injuries to the weather forecast. As it turned out the forecast was pretty accurate - it was warm with blustery showers, some heavy. Changeable was accurate as most of us spent most of the day changing from tee shirts to waterproofs and back and most of our umbrellas are now worn out…..

We started early at 7am to avoid the possibility of a slow group starting in front of us and spoiling our day. This worked well for round one but had other disadvantages such as not having a flag on the pin at the first - coincidently it was todays hardest hole averaging 5.83!

Scoring on the app worked well as long as you selected the Kings Course for the morning round and most people managed that fairly simple task….

The best first round scores were Iain Aitchison with a nett 70 closely followed by Colin Campbell with a 71 then Mike Page and Mark Higham with 72’s (these appear as 3 better in the table below to equalise the scores with these on the Queens…. ???)

The early starters enjoyed the breakfast rolls which had been arranged in advance but the later starters were wrongly told they couldn’t have them and had to order from the menu….. investigations are ongoing!

Suitably refreshed (or not) 14 of the original 18 (26), 11 of which had submitted cards, took to the Queens course for the second round. The weather again was challenging with blustery showers replacing hot and steamy conditions with amazing regularity. At some stages you could actually see the grass growing!

Iain followed up his morning round to set the target with another nett 70 and no-one came close to catching him. A couple of really slow groups in between our times meant that a few players couldn’t complete their second round but I doubt that they would have caught Iain who ended up 9 shots ahead of second placed Mike Page. This did mean that only 8 players managed to complete both rounds which is probably a record.

Congratulations to Iain on two fine rounds. He has also proved that buying new clubs is a sure way to avoid blowing events as one can do when using “older” clubs. A handicap cut and a jump up the Order of Merit is also on the cards.

Leading Scores.

Second Round scores - note some DNF’s were due to extreme slow play in front of us…….

Round one scores (-3 over actual).

latest Draw, same pairings in the afternoon.

This Saturday we have our 36 hole event with a medal round on Kings followed by lunch then a medal round on Queens. In order to win you need to play both rounds but as we have plenty of tee times you can choose to join only one or even just use one of our times for a friendly game. If you would like to do either of these then please let Frank (my assistant for the day) or myself know.

Our times are 7.00am until 9.30 on Kings and 1.00pm to 2:00 on Queens, PS: plus 11.50 and 12.00. If you would like an early, or late (ish) start then please let me know.

We have arranged that the option of a breakfast roll in the Dormy or A70 be extended beyond the normal 11.30 time so feel free to order these to keep you going between rounds.

The draw is below.

History: The Gordon Lockhart Trophy first played in 1978. This trophy which is a beautiful silver rose bowl was donated to the Club in 1978 by son of Gordon Lockhart who was the very first professional at Gleneagles. The trophy is one which Gordon Lockhart himself won in competition in 1912 at Turnberry and this fact is inscribed on the trophy. Gordon Lockhart had removed to Australia and the cup had been among Gordon Lockhart’s possessions when he died. His son thought it would be appropriate for the trophy to be donated to Dun Whinny and played for in competition decided by the Council. It was agreed that the cup should be awarded for a 36-hole competition played on the one day (a Wednesday) and while it was recognized than that not all members would wish to play two rounds on the one day entries would be accepted from those who wished to play a single round and participate in a lunch organised between rounds for all players.