Mens Tournaments - Season 2008-2009

Texas Scramble - 20 September 08
McGlasson putts team to win

Reay Golf Club played host to the Doosan Babcock Autumn Texas Scramble.  The weather, however, was anything but autumnal as the links basked in the Caithness sunshine for the twenty plus teams of three competing to Texas Gold.  And competition was as hot as no fewer than 9 teams managed to beat the illusive 60 barrier. In fact the bar has of late been raised as competitors are now required to find five drives each! An example of the difficulty of this format came in the Spring Texas Scramble, where one team (who shall remain nameless) failed to get all their drives in by the eighteenth, leaving one member of the team with all the pressure of a tee shot that must count. Unfortunately, with the team requiring a 3 to get into the prizes, their aspirations shrivelled in the spring sun as the pressure told and the junior's practice ground was rained upon by a sortie of out-of-bounds hooks.

Anyway, on to the Autumn Scramble.

L to R:- Lee Parnell, Murray McGlasson, Richard MacDonald and Alan Miller, Doosan Babcock

It really was a close affair with just nought point six of a shot separating the top three. Closer still was the battle for 2nd and 3rd, with the teams of Ross, McCartney and Disbury from Reay GC and Bell, Omand and Madden from Thurso GC, both shooting net scores of 57.6.

All did not bode well for the Reay boys with a bogey at the 2nd, however, with the Thurso golfers only managing a par at the short par 5 sixth, the Reay team got back on level terms with a birdie. The two teams then matched each other par for par, birdie for birdie all the way home.

On analysis of both score cards, it proved impossible to separate the two teams on count-back over the last 9, 6. 3 and 1 holes, as is the normal custom.

From the manicured fairways of Sawgrass to the vast greens of St Andrews, from the lone star state to Stoneybridge, advice was sought as to how to separate the two teams. Major champions were consulted. The rules of golf were consulted. And after many hours of debate, deliberation, and the odd dram to aide the cognitive process, it was decided that a bare chested tag-team wrestling match should be held in the car park. No sorry, a dead heat was declared for second place!

Avoiding all the controversy and a countback conundrum that would have had Carol Vorderman reaching for her calculator, this year's Texas Scramble Champions was the team of Lee Parnell, Richard McDonald and Murray McGlasson.

No strangers to the winners' enclosure when the Texas Scramble is in town, this team really do seem to gel well at this format of the game. A great start with birdies at the 2nd, 4th and 6th seemed to be coming unstuck when the team could only manage a string of five truly scrambled pars thereafter. However, the tide turned on the 12th as McGlasson's putting light sabre came to life. Four birdies in a row followed with a cheeky final birdie thrown in for good measure at the 17th. The big hitting and cursing of Parnell, steady fairway finding and twitchy putting of McDonald and short arms and silky silky flat stick stroking of McGlasson, secured the title with a net 57.0

The winter season is now upon us, so pick up a copy of the winter fixture card from the club-house.

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