Competitive clash at King James VI

Jun 24 2008

THE King James VI 2008 Scratch Club Championship was contested by Neil Cameron, the leading qualifier, and Fraser Craig, the 2007 Handicap Club Champion.

Despite some impressive driving by Neil, Fraser's accurate short game and putting lapses by Neil meant that 6 pars and a birdie at the 7th left Fraser with an early 3 hole advantage.

However, birdies by Neil at the 8th and 9th saw this lead cut to one hole at the half way stage of round one.

Throughout the second 9, advantage seemed to pass from to the other and at the the 18th, Fraser held a one shot lead.

After lunch Neil rediscovered his driving and huge drives on the first 2 holes set up a winning par at the 1st and a birdie at the 2nd.

At this stage it looked as though Neil was about to stage a recovery but 3 putts at the 3rd and 4th stopped his momentum.

Fraser capitalised with a winning par at the 5th and a winning birdie at the 7th to establish a 3 hole lead.

A lost ball at the 11th from another wayward drive by Neil left Fraser 6 up with 7 to play and he closed out the match in style at the 12th with a wonderful pitch to 2 inches for a winning birdie.

Dougie Sharp claimed the Handicap Club Championship with a 4&3 victory over Brian Fairley in the 36 hole final.

With both competitors playing off handicaps of 7 a closely contested final was expected and this proved to be the case in the first round which was played in glorious sunshine.

After 18 holes the match was all square with Dougie fighting back from an early 2 hole deficit to take a 2 hole lead and Brian repeating this recovery with a steady back nine.

After a short lunch break the players emerged to dramatically different weather conditions with a cold wind and rain.

With Brian’s driving misfiring over the first 4 holes Dougie quickly established a 3 hole lead.

Despite Brian shooting level par over the next 10 holes, flawless golf, culminating in a 7 iron approach to 5 feet for a winning birdie at the 14th, left Dougie dormie 4.

The match was over when Brian failed to make the required birdie at the 15th.

In a superbly contested final, with some great play from both players, Dougie’s consistency and some tremendous approach shots resulted in a deserved victory in the first major championship of the 150th anniversary year.