Portpatrick - The Longest Drive

Tuesday 10th of August and Mike Scott of Tour Drive kindly picked up 6 weary young chaps and a pair of equally weary parents to start the 4 hour trip west , we had accepted the invite to play in the Stanley Morrison Trophy at Portpatrick over by Stranraer and took an Under 14 Team , Finn Donaldson , Oliver Ladbrooke and Garry Brownlee and an Under 12 Team of William Ladbrooke , Scott Yong and the rapidly improving Graeme Chalmers.

Weather on route was varied ! Rain and more rain but as we got further west in improved , a bit. We had done a reccee the week before so knew that the weather could be changeable and that is exactly how it proved .

Our boys started with a very well prepared skills challenge , pitching over different distances into a target, then bunker, chipping and pitching and putting out and finally flopping a ball over a high net from close-up, points were allowed for each part and overall skills title winners (team) declared later.

This was followed by a putting contest, again some very cool games, and team prize. clubgolfers watch out might be some cool new games coming your way soon !!

After this there was a nice lunch, free, laid on by the Portpatrick & Dunskey Golf Club. The boys were overjoyed at getting burgers and chips (William bacon butties !) and then onto th main part of the day with a Stableford team format where the best 2 from 3 scores on each hole contributed.


Some great golf was played by the Gullane Teams , sadly Scott Young copped the worst weather, a  downpour as he started, but things did brighten up and his back 9 was very good indeed.


Overall 5 of our 6 boys mastered the course well enough to play on or within handicap led by a super 73 (par70) by Finn , this was good enough to put im in a 3 way playoff for the individual scratch award against a 3 and a 4 handicapper who probably had just enough experience to fend him off , but a great match by him to finish 3rd on scratch and 2nd on Handicap.


Gullane Scores

Under 14

Finn Donaldson 73 net 65 41 points
Gary Brownlee 77 net 68 37 points
Oliver Ladbrooke 83 net 69 37 points

Under 12

Graeme Chalmers 94 net 63 42 points
William Ladbrooke 94 net 70 36 points
Scott Young 94 net 76 30 points

And here's the best bit , Gullane won the putting challenge at both under 12 and under 14 level , and the under 14's WON THE OVERALL TITLE , STANLEY MORRISON TEAM CHAMPIONS !! Well done boys, played in great spirit and a lot of determination and great behaviour all day.


PICURES TO FOLLOW

Ian Ladbrooke


.
Luxury Travel



Tour Drive is a Scottish based ground transportation company specialising in luxury golf and corporate transportation. Based in Gullane, East Lothian, just minutes from Muirfield and with world class golf, hotels and restaurants nearby, we're ideally placed to cater for the discerning golfer or the corporate executive. http://tour-drive.com/