GRAHAM BOLTON made up for his recent loss in the semi-finals of Rothesay's club championship by lifting the Jewson's Bennie Trophy at the Canada Hill course on Saturday.
The Bute Golf Club member forced last year's winner George Reynolds into second place by a margin of four strokes after completing the 36-hole scratch competition in 134 shots.
Third spot was taken by John Gilchrist, whose 141 edged out Chris T
imms by means of a better inward half.
Bolton's morning round of 68 gave him a share of the lead alongside Gordon Tyre of Cowal, two shots clear of the Rothesay trio of Gilchrist, Timms, Reynolds and Tom Sirrel of Largs Golf Club.
Bolton went on to birdie the second hole of the afternoon round, parring the next seven holes for an outward half of 34 before applying the pressure with an inward nine of 32 shots, including an eagle two at the 14th, for a round of 66.
The competition , which was almost cancelled due to extremely heavy rain, went ahead with competing members and friends full of praise for the condition of the course.
Extremely fast greens and some challenging pin positions made scoring difficult, resulting in a standard scratch for both rounds of 69.
Results as follows: 1 Graham Bolton, Bute (scr) 134; 2 George Reynolds, Rothesay (1) 138; 3 John Gilchrist, Rothesay (4) 141; 4 Chris Timms, Rothesay (scr) 141; 5 Gordon McClean, Rothesay (3) 143; 6 Lee Jenkins, Erskine (2) 143; 7 Les Pirie, Millport (1) 143; 8 Chris Carson, Innellan (scr) 145; 9 Tom Sirrel, Largs (3) 145; 10 Michael Murty, Rothesay 95) 146.
Nearest the pin - 4th hole G. Alexander (Royal Mid Surrey); 8th hole George Reynolds (Rothesay); 11th hole Les Pirie (Millport); 13th hole Ross Lowrie (Rothesay); 18th hole Crawford Kilpatrick (Old Ranfurly).
Meanwhile, Malcolm Calder and Stevie Campbell took the honours after a record turnout took part in Sunday's Wee Bennie at Rothesay Golf Club.
The Sunday tournament was conceived as a companion to its big brother, the Bennie Trophy, though club captain Hugh Charker observed at the prize giving ceremony that many more had taken part in the Wee version on Sunday than had competed for the 'bigger' prize the previous day.
But both events nearly didn't happen after torrential rain at the end of last week very nearly left the course unplayable throughout the weekend.
"I woke up on Friday to a phone call telling me the course would have to be closed," Hugh told the assembled company, "but hard work by the greenkeeping team meant we were able to open the course on Friday afternoon and allow both events to take place."
He concluded by paying tribute to the McGuigan family for their continued sponsorship of the event, and Arisha McGuigan presented the prizes to the winners as follows.
1 Malcolm Calder and Stevie Campbell 58; 2 Gordon Alexander and Gib Bulloch 59; 3 Gary Morrison and Andy Dougal 60; 4 Neil Ritchie and Tommy Duncan 61; 5 Andy McGregor and Greg Fisher 62; 6 Gordon McLean and Jim McAlister 63; 7 George Hanson and Stuart Robertson 63; 8 Robert McBride and Richie More 63; 9 Jim McKirdy and Callum McKirdy 63; 10 John Glen and C. Geddes 64.
Nearest the pin - Jimmy Crawford (8th hole); Robin Ritchie (11th), Willie Glen (13th), Tommy Duncan jnr (18th).
The full article contains 565 words and appears in The Buteman newspaper.
