Stroke Play Championship 2022 - Round 1

Round one of our Stroke Play Championship was played this morning in glorious spring sunshine on the Queens course. Bumpy conditions and a stiff easterly wind made it tricky with the back 9 playing as long and difficult as I have ever seen it! A record field of 41 meant an early start for some and the first group out at 7.20am set the early target with nett par from Colin Campbell and one over from Andrew Watson. The third group featured two of our form players in Iain Aitchison and Eric Lambert. Iain was 4 under after 4 but Eric obviously managed to talk him off his game and they both finished over par. Paul Lewis put in another decent performance with a nett par round and I was one worse a few groups further back. Also worth a mention was Allister Wallace who was unfortunate to lose a ball at the 8th (NR) but came back in an amazing nett 29 (including another lost ball). Playing toward the end of the field Keith Stirling, Douglas Hamilton and Crawford Gray were looking promising with Keith also sitting at 4 under at one point. Crawford held on to finish at one over, Keith faltered but still managed a creditable one over and Queens specialist Douglas finished with two great pars to take the first round lead with the only under par round of the day. In the scratch section the scores definitely showed how tough the course was playing with no-one getting close to par. The best was a 73 from David Logie, followed by 74’s from Andy Lothian and Neil Lock. Leading scores are below and all scores can be seen on the app. Round two will be on the PGA on July 2nd with Round three on the Kings on September 10th

Upcoming Events: Next week we have our monthly medal on the Kings. Due to another booking we have split tee times: 7.30-8.30 and 10.30-11. Please indicate in the comments on your entry which of these groups you would prefer to be in and I will try to build this into the draw. On Wednesday May 4th (Star Wars Day!) we have our 5 club event on the Queens, as the title suggests you are only allowed to take 5 clubs, any 5 and a trophy is involved. Club times are 15.30- 16.30 but you can play at any time as long as you let me know what time you have booked. You can also choose your tee time on the app. Following that we have consecutive Saturdays on the PGA playing for another nice trophy, The Princes Pot. The best stableford score over the 36 holes wins. Other News: The Knockout events are progressing and you can follow progress on the app. You can even enter your result on there and one member has already done this, well done Jim! Par Event. Unfortunately there was a two hour fog delay for last weeks Par competition. This meant it couldn’t go ahead as according to our constitution any delay longer than 90 minutes means it must be cancelled. There was an upside as the delay enabled me to find out how to put messages onto the event on the app to communicate what was happening, some people even read them Ken Marshall. Golf Secretary. Dun Whinny Golf Club Gleneagles. kendunwhinnygolf@gmail.com.