Williamson Does The Double
Medal No.10
Analytics
I didn't play today but it looked like another decent day for golf with not much in the way of wind. That was reflected in the average score stats with today being the 2nd lowest average scoring day at 87.33, only Medal No 4 is lower at 86.19. We had 113 take part today, that's 17% down on the participation in the same event last year.
The 1st was the easiest hole on the course today, playing just 0.5 over it's par and giving away 10 birdies and only 4 of the dreaded others. The 17th was the 2nd easiest and the 16th the 3rd easiest giving away 13 birdies.
The 3rd was the hardest hole on the course and 15th the 2nd hardest, both playing to their stroke index. The 10th was the 3rd hardest hole yielding only 1 birdie.
Scratch
Vice Captain Clark Hill made it a double Scratch Medal season following up his win in Medal No2 with victory today. His 70 earned him a one shot victory over Ian McMillan but it maybe could have been a bit better but for a double bogey 6 at 18. Clark's card featured 8 3's. Ian McMillan had 2 birdies offset with 2 bogies. That's Ian's 3rd level par of the season and matches his 2nd best competitive score of the season. 3 players finished on +1 including newly crowned Senior Champion Bernard Airlie who recorded his best score of the season and best since October 2023.
First Class
Jonathan Williamson had a joint best of the day nett 66 which saw him take the 1st Class Medal, that's 2 in a row having won Medal No 9 last time around. That was an excellent gross 73, which included a back 9 of 34 and 3 birdies at 11, 16 and 17. The aforementioned Bernard Airlie and Clark Hill were 2nd and 3rd with nett 68 and 69 respectively.
Second Class
8 players broke par nett in second class, Louis Tominey matching Jonathan's 66 and securing the 2nd Class honours. Louis had a superb run at 6, 7 and 8 making 3 birdies in a row. Like Clark he also finished with a double bogey which made little difference in 2nd Class but did have consequences in the John Ronald Memorial Stableford. 50% of the Hugh Ross winning partnership Andy Reid took 2nd spot. a good front 9 for Andy but his back 9 was book ended with a double and triple bogey so, like a few others he'll be ruing his finish. It was poor finishes at the end of both 9s that cost Jack Docherty the medal, on the plus side there were birdies at 5 and 16. His 68 was matched by Pat Winters but Jack edged third on the BIH.
Third Class
Only 1 player broke par in 3rd Class which made Nathan Mitchell the clear winner by 4 from Michael Devine. Russell Guthrie took 3rd with nett 72. Nathan had a good spell of holes on the front 9 and a really strong finish that helped with his margin of victory. Nathan's 89 is his second lowest competitive score. Michael had nothing worse than net bogey and impressively made pars at the 15th and 10th which were in the top 3 hardest holes today. Russell had a good front 9 but let that slip on the back 9.
There have been no multiple winners in Third Class this year.
John Ronald Memorial
It's not always the case that the best strokeplay score translates to the best stableford score but that wasn't the case today and Jonathan Williamson came out on top in both so is awarded the John Ronald Memorial Trophy for 2025.
FerEx
With 3 events to got the standings are starting to have a fairly settled look with the top 15 swapping positions, with players in those positions all having consistent seasons. High finishes now required to make significant progress. There's only 4.5 points splitting treble match play winning Simon Leonard and Vice Captain Clark Hill at the top of the standings. Jim Coleman missed today but he remans 3rd, Michael Hart Jnr and George Morrison remain 4th and 5th with Steven McKeown and Craig Shaw swapping 6th and 7th.
Significant moves were made by Jonathan Williamson moving from 24th to 9th, Ross Connolly, John Higgins and Barrie McKay all made their way into the top 30 from outside the cut off point.