Mens Tournaments - Season 2009-2010

Pentland Alliance Open Texas Scramble - 26 April 09
Evan, Wayne & Alistair are the magic trio!

Last Sunday saw Reay Golf Club host the traditional early season Texas Scramble kindly sponsored again by the Pentland Alliance.

After a long dry spell (in Caithness terms anyway!) and to the delight of the players an overnight downpour had taken the sting out of the greens setting the course up for fine day of scoring.

What is a Texas scramble?

Texas - derived from taysha, a word in the Caddoan language of the Hasiai peoples meaning 'friends'. Scramble - to gather something with difficulty or in an irregular way. And that sums it up - groups of golfing buddies playing together to collate a flock of birdies, often in the most outrageous of manners. And 22 teams from all over the county took up the challenge.

This week's top scrambling trio was Reay's in form Evan Sutherland, in even more form Wayne Mowat and the ever reliable Alistair Gunn.

The victorious triumvirate posted four birdies on the front nine, including a brace of twos at the 5th and 9th. Is it me or does a brace sound like so many more than two? And their back nine bore a striking resemblance to the front nine with a further four birdies seeing Evan, Wayne and Gunn home in just 61 blows for a net 56.4.

Pressing the winners all the way to finish line were Thurso Golf Club's Gary Calder, Davie Dunbar and Lachie Sutherland.

Despite posting the dreaded scrambled bogey at the second, the three-ball took a collective breath, steadied the ship on the front nine and then went birdie daft on the back nine, coming home in a paltry 28 strokes - seven under the card! No doubt Butch Dunbars big hitting had a hand in the eagle at 14. Although the Thurso lads matched the winners scratch score of 61 their fractionally lower handicap gave them a second placed 56.8.

Completing the podium places was the threesome of Andrew Lannon, Micheal MacGregor and Alan MacKenzie. Two steady nines of 33 saw them post a gross 66, which off their handicap of 9 gave a net 57 - a score, which on most weekends would have seen them away with the spoils.

The sponsors' were represented by the team of Brad Smith, Tony Wratten and Dave Craig, who posted a respectable net 61.8.

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