SLGA County Centenary Lunch

The Salutation Hotel in Perth was the venue for the SLGA County Centenary Lunch today (Saturday 7th March).

The dining room was packed as 211 past and present County Officials and County Team members congregated to celebrate the centenary of Scottish County Golf.

Many people had arrive early to catch up with old friends, and by the time the Counties were asked to take their seats, the noise was deafening.

Nine Counties are celebrating their centenaries this year... Angus, Ayrshire, Dumbartonshire and Argyll, Fife, Lanarkshire, Midlothian, Perth and Kinross, Renfrewshire and Stirlingshire & Clackmannan. Aberdeenshire (founded 1911), East Lothian (1924), Northern Counties (1967), Borders (1973), Dumfrieshire (1973) and Galloway (1973) have celebrations still to come.

Mrs Margaret Duncanson, who retired in 1997 as the last Secretary of the Scottish Ladies County Golf Association, cut the cake, and Mrs Ethel Jack, President of SLGA Ltd gave a very appropriate golfing grace.

After the meal, Gillian Kirkwood (!) gave the assembled company a talk on the History of Scottish County Golf over the last 100 years, and everyone rose to their feet to toast Scottish County Golf and the next 100 years.

Mrs Helen Faulds, past Captain of D&A gave a very entertaining Vote of Thanks.

SLGA Centenary Lunch

My thanks to Carol Fell, the Renfrewshire and West of Scotland Webmaster, for providing the photographs for this story. The rest of the photographs can be found on her Picasa site if you click on the cake above. [Thanks Carol... don't know what we would do without you!]

Carol also took a video of Helen Fauld's Vote of Thanks



Some people have asked for my speech to be put up on the web. SpeechforCountyCentenarylunch.pdf

Last-hole double bogey knocks

back Kirsty O'Connor in Arizona

Welsh champion Kirsty O'Connor (Ball State University) from Lancashire) posted a first-round 75, which included a double bogey 7 at the long 18th in the first round of The Duramed Collegiate @ Rio Verde, Arizona.
Kirsty, tied eighth, birdied the third and the 17th but also had single bogeys at the sixth, 10th, 13th and 15th.
Ami Storey (Kansas State), pictured, from Ponteland in the North-east of England had no birdies and six bogeys in her round of 77 over the Quail Run par-71, 6260yd course. She was in joint 27th place going into the second round.
Stacey Rodgers (Missouri State) from Sussex had two double bogeys and a birdie at the 16th in her round of 81.
Kalynd Carons (Kansas State) and Michele Hui (Toledo) shared the lead on one-over-72.
There are 102 players in the field.
JACK HILUTA IN TOP TEN
England boy cap Jack Hiluta from Chelmsford, a freshman student at South Alabama University, was in joint ninth place after a three-under-par opening round of 69 in the Ron Smith USF Invitational college tournament at Lake Jovita Country Club, Dade City, Florida.
Riley Wheeldon (Louisville) set the pace with a 66.
Alan Glynn (Xavier) from Middlesex was sharing 48th place in a field of 120 with a 73.

Katherine has got that sweet smell

of success again in Singapore

Katherine Hull has picked up the scent of victory again, only four weeks or so since she won the Australian Ladies Masters.
This time the Australian surged into a two-stroke lead at 11-under-par 205 after 54 holes of the HSBC Women's Champions tournament at the Tana Merah Country Club, Singapore on the back of an assault that included seven birdies in a six-under-par 66. She leads by two from American Angela Stanford.
Play was suspended at one stage for 2hr 19min because of lighting and heavy rain but nothing was going to stop Katherine Hull in this mood..
"I'm liking the fact I have a two-shot lead, and I'm confident in how I'm playing," Hull said. "So game on."
Sun Young Yoo (68) is in third place, a stroke behind Stanford and a shot ahead of Korean compatriot Mi Hyun Kim (70), with second round co-leader American Paula Creamer (72) five strokes off the lead.
Understandably, Creamer was disappointed with her round.
"I didn't hit it very well and didn't putt well at all. I didn't have any speed or anything that got any momentum going," Creamer said. "Hopefully, I can start off well and then maybe make (Hull) nervous and try and put some pressure on the leaderboard."
Stanford shot a bogey-free 66 to move into position for her fourth victory in her last nine starts. The sixth-ranked Texan won the season-opening SBS Open in Hawaii after closing last season with two victories in her final six events. In addition to the three wins, she has five other top-seven finishes in her last eight tournaments.
Stanford got her sixth birdie of the round at the 16th to move into a tie for the lead with Hull at nine under par overall. But Hull made birdies on Nos 16 and 18 with accurate approach shots. She hit a wedge to 7 feet on No. 16 and hit a 5-iron to 4 feet on the par 4, 414yd 18th hole.
Hull could win her second LPGA Tour event Sunday. She won the Canadian Women's Open last summer.
"I probably won't watch the leaderboard a whole lot tomorrow," Hull said. "I'm probably going to go out there wanting to think about my golf game. The things that worked for me in the past. I just want to treat it as another day in the office and go out there and do my best."
Top-ranked Lorena Ochoa, the defending champion coming off her 25th LPGA Tour victory last week in Thailand, shot a 69 to top a group six shots off the lead. Hall of Famer Juli Inkster (69), fifth-ranked Jiyai Shin (66), Amy Yang (69) and Jane Park also were 5 under.
"I want to win and I believe it's possible so I need to be more aggressive tomorrow, get some birdies early and hopefully continue the momentum," Ochoa said.
Karen Stupples is the leading British player, nine shots off the pace on 214.
Laura Davies is still nearer the end of the field than the top of it after rounds of 81, 77 and 72 for 230.
THIRD ROUND SCOREBOARD
Par 216 (3 x 72)
205 Katherine Hull (Aus) 70 69 66
207 Angela Stanford 69 72 66
208 Sun Young Yoo (Kor) 71 69 68
209 Mi-Hyun Kim (Kor) 71 68 70
210 Paula Creamer 67 71 72
211 Jane Park 67 71 73, Ji-Yai Shin (Kor) 72 73 66, Juli Inkster 72 70 69, Amy Yang 73 69 69, Lorena Ochoa (Mex) 69 73 69
212 Ai Miyazato (Jpn) 68 72 72, Ya-Ni Tseng (Kor) 72 71 69, Eun Hee Ji (Kor) 69 73 70, Angela Park (Bra) 67 76 69
213 Lindsey Wright (Aus) 72 69 72, Se Ri Pak (Kor) 69 72 72, Meena Lee (Kor) 72 70 71, Suzann Pettersen (Nor) 72 70 71
214 Karen Stupples (Eng) 73 74 67, Cristie Kerr 73 71 70
215 Anja Monke (Ger) 73 70 72, Seon Hwa Lee (Kor) 68 74 73, Jimin Kang (Kor) 72 73 70, Momoko Ueda (Jpn) 71 73 71, Kristy McPherson 72 71 72
216 Giulia Sergas (Ita) 77 71 68, Karrie Webb (Aus) 74 69 73, Song-Hee Kim (Kor) 72 70 74, Michele Redman 70 72 74
217 H J Choi (Kor) 72 74 71, Ji-Hee Lee (Jpn) 73 72 72, Hee Young Park (Kor) 72 72 73
218 Jee Young Lee (Kor) 73 74 71, Heather Young 70 76 72, Na Yeon Choi (Kor) 74 72 72, Catriona Matthew (Sco) 72 73 73, Hee-Won Han (Kor) 73 72 73, Candie Kung (Tai) 74 77 67
219 In Kyung Kim (Kor) 71 74 74, Helen Alfredsson (Swe) 77 73 69, Christina Kim 73 73 73, Brittany Lang 71 74 74, Gwladys Nocera (Fra) 69 74 76, Natalie Gulbis 70 73 76, Teresa Lu (Tai) 72 74 73, Shanshan Feng (Chn) 70 71 78
220 Stacy Prammanasudh 73 76 71, Russy Gulyanamitta (Tha) 72 72 76, Carin Koch (Swe) 71 77 72, Morgan Pressel 73 75 72, Laura Diaz 75 73 72, Sandra Gal (Ger) 73 76 71
221 Minea Blomqvist (Fin) 73 75 73, Ji-Young Oh (Kor) 71 75 75, Pornanong Phatlum (Tha) 75 73 73, Louise Friberg (Swe) 71 76 74, Janice Moodie (Sco) 74 74 73
222 Jin Joo Hong (Kor) 76 71 75, Alena Sharp (Can) 72 72 78, Sophie Gustafson (Swe) 72 79 71, Wendy Ward 73 74 75, Katie Futcher 72 77 73
223 Ashleigh Simon (Rsa) 80 71 72, Il Mi Chung (Kor) 71 76 76
224 Rachel Hetherington (Aus) 77 73 74, Young Kim (Kor) 76 74 74
225 Shiho Oyama (Jpn) 72 77 76, In-Bee Park (Kor) 74 77 74
226 Nicole Castrale 77 78 71, Leta Lindley 73 80 73
227 Becky Morgan (Wal) 79 75 73
229 Pat Hurst 76 79 74
230 Laura Davies (Eng) 81 77 72, Diana D'Alessio 81 77 72
231 Allison Fouch 82 76 73, Jill McGill 82 72 77
234 Vicky Hurst 79 84 71
237 Poh Joey (Sin) 78 83 76

On the trail of multi-club champions, male or female!

We are running a story on http://www.scottishgolfview.com/ to see if we can find out which player has won his club championship the most times in a row. It started out as a men's title query but it has since widened to include women.
If you know of someone who has won his or her club championship a lot of times in a row, E-mail Colin@scottishgolfview.com with the details.

Here's a note on the subject from Scotland international golfer, Bryan Fotheringham of Forres:

Hi Colin, If my memory serves me right there is a man or woman at Kingussie Golf Club that has won their club championship near 20 times or more! I am remembering this from a BOYS' district match there so you can do the maths on how long ago that was!! Hope this helps your story!!
Regards
Bryan Fotheringham