Perth and Kinross golfers keep Gary Harvey Trophy

Sep 18 2009 by Les Stewart, Perthshire Advertiser Friday

PERTH and Kinross retained the Gary Harvey Trophy in a nail-biting finish to the event, played this year at Dunkeld and Birnam Golf Club.

The silverware is competed for each year by teams from the Scottish Golf areas of Angus, Clackmannan, Fife and Perth and Kinross.

On the Saturday, P and K played against Clackmannan. There were several very close matches but eventually local knowledge proved to be critical and they started with a sound 6 and ½ to 1 and ½ victory.

P and K had several Gary Harvey “first timers” and they all produced excellent results.

A strong Angus team had a comfortable 6-2 victory over Fife, which was unexpected, as Fife are usually the team to beat.

On Sunday morning, P and K had their “big game” of the series against the high-flying Angus team.

An early win by team captain Paul McPhee was soon cancelled by Jamie Arthur losing to Reece Mitchell. Jamie was five down at one stage but a strong fightback saw him lose on the 17th.

Several games were looking bad for P and K but, despite being five down midway through the matches, game after game was turned around, which resulted in P and K winning four games to three, with one half.

Angus were a bit disappointed to say the least !

The Clacks team had a very good result by drawing with Fife four games each.

On Sunday afternoon there were some very interesting matches. Angus somehow lost to Clackmannan 6-2, which was a major upset.

Possibly the defeat by P and K left Angus thinking they had blown their chances and they were well beaten by an improving Clacks squad.

This gave a great chance to the P and K side to retain the trophy as it became clearer during the afternoon that they only needed to draw with Fife to be outright winners.

The Perth and Kinross boys had a great start, winning the first two matches but they then lost the next four to go 4-2 behind.

A great result by Greig Stewart, winning 8 and 6, followed by a winning putt on the 17th by Callum Graham, produced a 4-4 draw and the trophy. Callum had the winning putt the previous year at Kirkcaldy.

As at Kirkcaldy, the star of the weekend was Paul McPhee who again won all three games but everyone contributed points.

All the P and K boys supported their colleagues after their own individual matches had finished and (as always) they were a credit to Perth and Kinross County Golf.

Thanks go to Captain Willie Monks, of Dunkeld and Birnam, his committee and their staff for the excellent planning and catering and providing the courtesy of the course for the weekend.

Full individual P&K results are available on the P&K web site - perthandkinrosscountygolf.net

Junior Bell Trophy Final

THE final of the Junior Bell Trophy, a handicap event, was played at Craigie Hill. Only boys with a handicap of over six can take part.

Milnathort met Auchterarder in the final it was tied at 2-2 with game number five all square on the 17th tee.

Milnathort managed to win the last two holes to give them a 3-2 victory on the last green.