Sunday 2 May 2021

Abernethy and Carrbridge Golf Clubs have joined forces to host the first ever double 9 Open challenge in Scotland – The Twa Bridges Individual Open.  Play 18 holes on two beautiful 9 hole Highland courses in one day – start first at Abernethy, then move on to Carrbridge.  Please come and join us for this unique event.

Enter online or by post at the address below.

Individual Stableford format, tee times from 0800, £15 per member, £20 per visitor. Handicap Index Limit 36.0

Postal Entries:

Twa Bridges Open

Abernethy Golf Club

Nethy Bridge, Inverness-shire

PH25 3EB

Cheque Payable To:

Abernethy Golf Club

The ladies golf due to be played on Monday was cancelled as the course was closed following a morning of heavy rain.    The Senior Convenors Eclectic is usually played as a morning round and an afternoon round with lunch in between but as the clubhouse remains closed it was played over two Thursday mornings.   The winner with 26 points was Johnny Petrolini, runner-up with 24 points was Helen Gillies and third with 23 points was the Convenor Dougie Burns.   

On Saturday. the men and ladies competed for the Frame Trophy.    The winner was John Swinden (20) 66, runner-up was Drew Durrand (26) 69 and third was Steve Gannon (29) 71.   

This week saw the completion of all the match play competitions.   The men’s singles for the Cumming Cup was won by Ian Sloan defeating Alex Donald in the final.   The ladies singles for the Malcolm Salver was won by Eliz Sloan defeating Fiona McLaren in the final.   The men’s foursomes for the Grantown Salver was won by Alex Donald and Charles Legge.   The ladies foursomes for the Cairngorm Quaich was won by Ann Rae and Ann Weller.   The mixed foursomes for the Bantick Trophies was won by Bruce Davies and Aileen Anderson.   The men also play a four ball better ball match play competition for the Mitchell Shield and that was won by Dougie Burns and Malcolm McCreath.

On Saturday, the men competed for the Grey House Cup.   This 18 hole stableford event is sponsored by the owners of The Grey House, the Bloomfields, and it was a large field that tackled the damp course.   The winner of the Cup was Alex Donald (12) with 35 points bih, runner-up was Stan Reid (36 restricted) 35 points and third was Dougie Burns (21) 34 points.   

The ladies followed the men to compete for the Robinson Tray.    This is also an 18 hole stableford competition but the ladies did not cope quite so well with the damp conditions resulting in a reduction only CSS.   The winner was Aileen Anderson (29) 32 points, runner-up was Sheena Hendrie (19) 31 pts and third was Susan Swinden (18) 30 pts.

Pauline’s Trophy is normally played for over four qualifying 9 hole stableford rounds with the trophy going to the lady with the best eclectic score over the four rounds.     However, having lost the first half of the season, there were only two rounds left on which to score so the second round on Monday was crucial.   The winner was Alison Mitchell 18 points, runner-up was June Clark 17 points and third was Rona Smith 14 points.   When these were combined with the first round, Alison Mitchell was the clear winner of the trophy with 24 points, runner-up was Helen Gillis 20points and third was Sue Philpott 19 points.   

The weather washed out the seniors competition on Thursday and nearly washed out the men’s and ladies medals on Saturday but the last group managed to find a dry line to the flag on the final green just as the Course Closed sign went on the gate.   The men’s competition was won by Bob Mouat (17) 77, runner-up was Dougie Burns (21) 80 and third was Ian Murray (17) 82bih.    This was the final competition counting towards the Greenkeeper’s Cup for the best three medal rounds.  The winner of the cup was John Swinden with a total of 210, runner-up was Dougie Burns 228 and third was Graham Anslow 229.   

The ladies medal was won by Margaret Smith (24) 80, runner-up was Ann Weller (21) 82 and third was Susan Swinden (18) 86. 

It’s been a busy week at our Club. The ladies played their Extra September Medal on Monday.   It was won by Fiona McLaren (18) 68; runner-up was Judith Nettle (33) 74 and third place went to Margaret Smith (23) 75.   

The seniors weekly 9 hole Stableford on Thursday was won by Heather Bantick with 19 points.

And on Saturday, we played our final Open of this extremely curtailed season.  The ladies 3 ball team event is a popular format so we ran an Open for the men on the same day with the same format.   The two best Stableford scores on each hole counted.   In the ladies event, playing for Haydn’s Crystal, knowledge of the course proved important with the winning team consisting of a home member, an away member and an ex-member.  Ann Rae, Ann Weller and Sarah Millson won the event with 77 points.   Members Sheena Hendrie, Teresa Gannon and Heather Bantick were second with 76 points and members Eliz Sloan, Fiona McLaren and Jenny Thomas were third with 70 points.  In the men’s competition, members Jim O’Hara, Kevin Strathdee and Drew Durrand won with 81 points but the Grantown men Willie Lawson, Bill Torrance and Ian B Anderson broke the members stranglehold coming second with 74 points.  Third place went to members Alex Donald, Charles Legge and Malcolm McCreath with 68 points.   

On Sunday, the men were back to a more conventional competition playing for the Rosebowl.   The 18 hole medal play event was won by Scott Wright (22) 67,  runner-up was Dougie Burns (21) 71 and third was Kevin Strathdee (9) 76.

After the intense Championship weekend, the ladies started this week with a gentle 9 hole Stableford.   The winner with 18 points was Heather Bantick beating Fiona McLaren on countback.   Jenny Thomas was third with 14 points.   The Seniors weekly 9 hole Stableford on Thursday was won by Stan Reid with 22 points.   On Saturday, men and ladies competed for the Fowler Cup.    With the first nine holes played in damp, misty conditions and the second nine holes in glorious sunshine, the scoring was surprisingly low.   The winner, with 34 points was Dougie Burns (21), runner-up was Kevin Strathdee (9) 33 points bih and third was Jim O’Hara (17) also with 33 points.

The Ladies September Medal was played on Monday in very windy conditions.   The winner was Heather Bantick (23) 77 bih, runner-up was Teresa Gannon (28) 77 and third was Margaret Smith (23) 79.   On Thursday, the Seniors weekly 9 hole Stableford was won by Drew Durrand with 20 points.  

With the meteorologists forecasting gale force winds for Saturday and torrential rain for Sunday, it was with some trepidation that players started the Club Championships on Saturday.    Saturday was certainly windy and the CSS went up for both men and ladies.   Malcolm McCreath coped best with the conditions taking a slender lead over Kevin Strathdee into Sunday for the Championships but a healthy lead over Steve Gannon in the handicap competition.   In the ladies competition, Susan Swinden had a 2 stroke lead over Fiona McLaren in both the scratch and handicap competitions.    

Fortunately, the torrential rain never arrived and Sunday’s deciding round was played in balmy conditions.   Kevin Strathdee managed to overturn Malcolm McCreath’s lead and with rounds of 80 and 78, he lifted the Championship Shield, a shield that he last won in 2007.    Malcolm has the consolation of the handicap trophy with net rounds of 64 and 66.   Alex Donald takes the runner-up slot with rounds of 73 and 67.   The ladies followed a similar pattern to the men, with Fiona McLaren overturning Susan Swinden’s lead to take the Ladies Championship with rounds of 91 and 90.   Unlike Kevin, Fiona’s is a new name on the trophy.   Susan Swinden takes the handicap trophy with net rounds of 71 and 75 with June Clark in runner-up place with 78 and 75.

It’s been a busy week at Abernethy Golf Club. At the start of the week the ladies got together for a Texas Scramble in aid of the Ladies Captain’s charity, Medical Detection Dogs.  The winning team was Joy Johnston, Ann Rae and Fiona McLaren. The seniors weekly 9 hole Stableford was won by Ann Rae with 20 points.   And in a busy weekend of competitions, the men played for the Bob Douglas Trophy on Saturday morning.  This 9 hole Stableford event was won by Jim Brady with 19 points, runner-up was Steve Gannon with 18 pts and third was Drew Durrand with 14 pts.    On Saturday afternoon it was the turn of the ladies as they competed for the Mustard Trophy, with thanks to Michael Mustard who continues to sponsor this event.   The winner was Margaret Smith (23) 72, runner-up was Teresa Gannon (28) 74 and third was June Clark (20) 77.   The men completed the week’s competition on Sunday morning with their September medal.   The winner was John Swinden (21) with a magnificent 62 (and two strokes off his handicap), runner-up was Dougie Burns (20) 73 and third was Kevin Strathdee (9) 74.

On Monday the ladies played the first round of Pauline’s Trophy.    This 9 hole stableford competition is normally played over four rounds but this year will be reduced to two rounds.   The winner on Monday was Alison Mitchell with 18 pts, runner-up, also with 18 pts was Christine Reynolds and third was Helen Gillies with 17 pts.    On Tuesday, the seniors played their monthly special – Mulligans.   Making best use of her mulligans was Helen Gillies who won with 20 pts.   On Thursday, the seniors normal weekly 9 hole stableford was won by Stan Reid with 23 pts.    On Sunday, we played the Louise Mixed Foursomes.   The club has played this event in memory of Louise Mearns for over 40 years and we were only given the green light to open it up to visitors recently so most of the players were members of the club or members of the Louise family.    The winners were Ian and Eliz Sloan net 68.5, runners-up were Bruce Davies and Aileen Anderson net 73 bih and third were Graeme and Ros Spinks of Newtonmore net 73.   Kyle MacKenzie (Louise’s grandson) won nearest the pin and the longest drives were recorded by Linda Gillies and Ian Sloan.