Last year's winner was this year's organiser, and Andy G. chose to take us back to Alford. We were last there in 2005, and it was our 3rd time there in all - the first being the famous one in 1994 when we were first regaled with the sight of Nigel, on a wet day, wearing what was described at the time as the nearest thing to an all-body condom.
We had thought there would be 13 of us playing, but Gary was a late withdrawal - with apologies but no explanation. His car was, however, spotted in the car park at Banchory golf club at lunchtime - he'd obviously got a better offer to play in the charity Pro-Cel-Am organised by the Lords Taverners. Mmmm.
Never mind - 12 is a good number and so we switched the teams round and organised three fourballs. We had lunch washed down by pints of Ossian and awaited the latecomers - Jeb and Malcolm. Jeb eventually showed, but where was Malcolm? I sent out a text, thinking Malcolm must be on his way in the car, but no reply - so I said to Andy (again) - "are you sure Malcolm said he was playing?" "Yes, yes - he replied to say he was coming over and would like to take part."
Eventually, I had to phone Malcolm. "Where are you?" "Houston", he replied! What? "Andy swears you told him you were coming over to play in the golf outing." "Not me", he says.
OK, Andy - explain.
Anyway, after all this pfaffing around, the 11 remaining stood to attention for the obligatory team photo:
It was a lovely afternoon and we all thoroughly enjoyed it - and the scoring was generally very good. We had 3 players finishing with 37 points - Ian Sharp, my brother-in-law Brian Hanson, who was up from Elderslie for the weekend, and John McDonald, fresh from his appearance at the Pro-Am at Carnoustie for the British Seniors. It was John who had the better inward half so he was awarded 3rd place.
I finished with 39 points - and, frankly, thought I must have a reasonable chance of winning it (again!), but, surprise, surprise, Ian McRae popped up with a tremendous score of 43 points! So, we will have a new name on the trophy, which goes back to 1991. This was our 20th outing and Ian becomes the 10th person to have his name engraved on the shield. Before the presentation could be made, however, Ian had to squeeze himself in to the "green(ish)" jacket:
Nigel got the first Nearest the Pin prize and also the Longest Drive, while Ken got the second Nearest the Pin at the 16th hole. There was a (slightly unbalanced) team competition - the first fourball came in with a best two score of 85 points, whilst the second group, comprising just me, Brian and Steve had one point less, but the 3rd group of four, consisting of Messrs Sharp, McRae, Black and Tyrie - always favourites - had a whopping 99 points.
There were just 2 presentations remaining. Firstly, the famous Filofax, first presented by John McWhinnie at Tarland in 2004. It's a luxury leather one and John had originally thought it might be a suitable prize for the winner of the tournament, but it quickly became the least favoured prize awarded annually as the booby - succeeding the previous - and infamous - Wheel Cleaning Kit donated by Brian Fitzpatrick in the early 90's. It was Andy Marshall who now holds the Filofax for the next 12 months:
Just time for one more surprise presentation to our organiser:
The list of winners over the years is now (number of wins in brackets):
- Ian Stewart (5)
- John McDonald (4)
- Gary Grant (3)
- Dave Williamson (2)
- Brian Fitzpatrick, Ian Sharp, John McWhinnie, Rob Dunnachie, Andy Gore & Ian McRae (one each)
Where to for the 20th anniversary year next year? The very first event was held at Spey Bay in 1991, but it's believed to be in disrepair nowadays. For discussion later.
