On a gloriously warm afternoon with a gentle breeze to keep the midges away, there was some fine golf played, and no less than five of the field scored under their handicap.
Ian McNaughton must have been disappointed to return a net 62 and find himself in third place, but there's little doubt that he'll score worse and win at some stage. Gordon Chalmers and John Weir battled head to head for the second day in a row (Gordon having knocked John out of the Navy Cup the previous day) and at the end were separated by a couple of strokes, Gordon carding a season's best net 59 and John a 61, which saw them both reduced to playing off 12 again.
Ewan MacCrone would have good reason to curse the dreadful 9 he ran up on the second as he rallied to score a net 63 which he will no doubt feel could and should have been better.

Full Results

This year's competitions were in Tobermory, and yet again the sun shone on the competitors from both clubs as the Western Approaches trophy was won again by a home player on Saturday afternoon. Graham Davidson was third on 35pts but lagged two behind John MacPhail and Ian Wilshire who were only separated by Ian's better inward half.

Full Results (Western Approaches)

Ian Wilshire carried his form through to Sunday when he held on to a one hole lead in his Cadden Cup match despite losing playing partner Peter MacCrone to an emergency callout. One up after 9, Ian held off the efforts of Fulton Sweeney and Neil Connor to the end of the match. Tiree's only winners were youngsters Andrew Findlater and Stephen Cameron who comprehensively beat Gordon Chalmers and Alasdair MacLeod for a famous victory.

Cadden Cup results-

G Davidson and P Higson bt A Jones and I MacLeod 5&4
G Chalmers and A MacLeod lost to A Findlater and S Cameron 4&2
CA MacCrone and O Brown bt J MacInnes and S Sweeney 3&1
I Wilshire and P MacCrone bt F Sweeney and N Connor 1 up
E MacCrone and M Campbell bt I Cameron and B Findlater 4&2
D Brown and DA MacLean bt I Brown and J MacCaskill 3&1

This was a big weekend of golf at Tobermory starting with the Juniors contesting the Distillery Trophy on the Saturday Morning.

Youngster Alan Davidson scored an astonishing 52 stableford points to hold off an exceptional challenge from Lewis Wilshire whose 45 would have seen him win 99.99% of tournaments.

Well done Alan, keep up the good work

Saturday evening Ewan MacCrone continued has recent good spell by winning the Alasdair Brown trophy with 35 pts which was just enough to pip John Wilshire (34) and Graham Brown (33)

Full Results

Sunday was the Old Mull Shield where Glencruitten defend the trophy for the first time in history. Call-offs and missed ferries meant that only 5 matches were played, with the home side placing 2 players on loan with their old rivals. As usual Tobermory carved out a lead to take to Oban, but the matches were close.

Oban's Graham MacColl hit a "hole in one" at the 16th to put John Weir and Alasdair Macleod 2 down, but eventually had to share a point to give Oban hope for the second leg.

Match results;
G Chalmers & DA MacLean bt D Campbell & P Higson 1up
G Davidson & J Wilshire bt D Fraser & A Galbraith 5&3
J Weir & A MacLeod halved match with G MacColl & G Williams
I Wilshire & P MacCrone bt J Anderson & A Henderson 2&1
E MacCrone & I McNaughton bt N MacDougall & A MacEachen 2&1

This year Peter MacCrone came home with a magnificent par finish over the last 4 in difficult conditions to afford himself two shots on the 19th hole and comfortably see off opposition from John Weir, Graham Davidson and Angus Cowe. Even holder Gordon Chalmers got further than he did in winning last year (however his second stroke on 18 did him no favours as he ended up further away than he started!)

The competition to find the club scratch and handicap champions heated up with Ian McNaughton carding a great net 60 to take on the mantle of favourite for the handicap, with Graham Davidson and Donald Brown jostling for position in the scratch. Tim Gardiner cannot be ruled out of a place on scratch, but surely John Weir has left himself too much to do in the handicap to erode Ian McN's 12 shot lead and surely even Mike "Turpin" Campbell can't get out of this one, he needs to score 81 to tie as things stand; hmmmmmm……surely not!?

Argyll & Bute Team Trophy
Tarbert Golf Club

This was undoubtedly one of the worst moments of TGC history. Graham Davidson travelled along with Donald Brown, Gordon Chalmers and Ian McNaughton to defend the trophy won on home soil last year. The boys practiced on the eve of the tournament, and all seemed capable of putting in a score despite rain and midges. But on the day Graham might as well have sent the boys' wives as they spectacularly failed to live up to expectation.

Ian was playing off 14 for the first time and may have found this a struggle on a strange course. It rained and rained for the first 9, and all four fell by the wayside, with shots spilling right, left and centre, before mercifully the rain stopped and made the second 9 (slightly) bearable. There's always next year, but maybe not for this combo. Photo suggests they had something to smile about. Must have been the home club's lovely lasagne and bacon rolls.

It was a close call for the leading contenders as the day afforded opportunities to start early or at the usual early afternoon time, to accommodate players leaving the island on the day. The ones who were able to choose kept a close eye on the weather forecast as the clouds circulated overhead. Indeed the early starts got the best of the weather but none was able to make much of an impact other than Mike Campbell who was able to claw back 11 of the 21 shots he needed from Ian McNaughton. Graham Davidson suffered a terrible 8 on the second hole of the day, so it was no surprise he was unable to better his 3-round total of 220. That set Donald Brown a target of a 75 for the trophy as Graham was already on the ferry to the mainland and would have been unable to play-off in the event of a tie. Donald turned in 39 to set up the possibility of a grandstand finish as the rain battered down on the course.

It would be unseemly not to mention the superb condition the course presented to the competitors, and many thanks are due again to green keeper John Wilshire. In due course Ian McNaughton arrived home wet but happy to receive the handicap trophy for the first time since 2003 despite a disappointing 81 on the day.

A short time later Donald Brown returned his last card in defence of his trophy, which given the deteriorating conditions was a commendable effort as he relinquished the championship.