Final BUCS and Scottish Students Tour event of Year

McLean and Batty top of class at Fairmont

By ROB MacPHERSON
At a sunny and brisk Fairmont, St Andrews the final BUCS/SSS Golf event of the year took place over the weekend.
 The challenge of getting 54 holes of medal play into two days was eagerly accepted by the students and the standard of play - as well as the excellent condition of the course and greens - made for some low scoring and competitive competition.

In the Men's event, the winner of the Ladybank tournament, Mike Howard (Edinburgh University and Royal Birkdale) was unable to complete an early season double, falling just short with a +2 total for fourth place. 

Third and second were taken by two impressive performance by players from the University of Abertay Dundee: third was Connor Neil (Abertay; Monifeith) with a level par total and second was Chris Low (Abertay; Tantallon). 

The event winner, however,  with a seven-under-par total of 208 was a Stirling stalwart and previous BUCS winner Chris MacLean (Stirling; Balmore). Chris, pictured right with his trophy, started the event with a pair of 68s round the Kittocks and Torrance courses before rounding off his successful weekend with a dominant par 72  off the black tees on a windy Torrance course on Sunday. 
Thanking Fairmont for hosting the event and the greenstaff for the condition of the greens, Chris put his success down to his excellent driving and his razor sharp short game and putting.

 In the Men's Team event, it was the players from the University of the Highlands and Islands who took the honours with an impressive team total of +7. The team of Riccardo Cellerino (UHI; Garlenda, Italy), Jack Harling (UHI; Banchory), Michael Schinkel (UHI; Orkney) and Alistair McNaughton (UHI; Caldwell) saw off the local students of St Andrews in second place (+12); with perennial winners Stirling (+12) had to settle for an unusual third place.

In the Women's event, it was another impressive win for Scottish and British Student Champion Gemma Batty (Stirling; Powfoot). Her level par score of 76+71+75 = 222 saw her finish seven shots ahead of Stirling team=mates Jen Saxton (Stirling; Muckhart) - whose 69 on Saturday afternoon was the low round of the weekend (+12) and Sinead Sexton (Stirling; Lahinch).

 In the Women's Team event, the ladies from Stirling (Batty, Sexton and Saxton) romped away with the top prize with a score of -7; ahead of the local students of St Andrews (+13).

 

SCOREBOARD
MEN
Par 215 (Torrance 2x72, Kittocks 1x71)
208 C MacLean (Stirling) 68 68 72
212 C Low (Abertay Dundee) 70 69 73
215 C Neil (Abertay Dundee) 72 67 76
217 M Howard (Edinburgh) 69 71 77
218 C Franssen (St Andrews) 74 71 73
220 R Cellerino (Highlands) 72 68 80
221 R Brydon (Stirling) 73 72 76
222 A Davidson (Stirling) 74 74 74, R Johnston (Strathclyde) 71 74 77
224 L Michel (St Andrews) 75 73 76
226 G Burns (St Andrews) 75 75 76. D McLellan (St Andrews) 76 74 76, L Robinson (Stirling) 73 76 77, M Napier (Stirling) 76 72 78
227 A Mulhall (Stirling) 77 73 77
229 E Hart (Stirling) 71 78 80
230 M Schinkel (Highlands) 76 71 83
231 C Edgar (Stirling) 78 74 79, T Beasley (St Andrews) 76 73 82, J Harling (Highlands) 76 73 82.
232 J Parker (Stirling) 72 77 83
233 S Walter (Stirling) 75 82 76, C McCarthy (St Andrews) 77 78 78, J Forgan (Stirling) 77 74 82
234 G Nisbet (Stirling) 74 81 79
235 A Gibson (Scotland's Colleges) 77 72 86
236 L Skogland (St Andrews) 78 75 83, B Bannerman (Glasgow) 78 73 85, B Fitzpatrick (St Andrews) 79 71 86.
237 G Colleran (St Andrews) 77 76 84
238 J Gray (Northumbria) 76 74 88
239 A Turner (Birmingham) 81 75 83.
243 O Sheeran (Heriot Watt) 79 76 88.
248 T Foster (Stirling) 81 75 92.

WOMEN
Par 222
222 G Batty (Stirling) 76 71 75.
229 J Saxton (Stirling) 81 69 79, S Sexton (Stirling) 73 76 80.
230 M Brain (St Andrews) 76 77 77
235 L Van Veggel (St Andrews) 76 82 77.
236 A Chambers (St Andrews) 80 79 79
MISSED CUT
160 K Reid (Abertay Dundee) 84 76.
161 A Hammer (St Andrews) 83 78
162 M Danielson (St Andrews) 86 76
165 C Calvert (St Andrews) 82 83
166 G Galatolo (Liverpool) 82 84
168 I Jozefiak (St Andrews) 85 83
174 N Chenkova (St Andrews) 93 81
179 A Hagelberg (Abertay Dundee) 98 81
NR M Stewart (St Andrews) NR 79.
  Left to right: Jen Saxton, Gemma Batty, Sinead Sexton.