Duo join forces at Black Isle Foursomes
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BRUCE Thomson, of Nairn Golf Club, and Bryan Fotheringham (Inverness) — the respective North District and North Alliance champions — join forces once again to try and capture for a first time the Black Isle Foursomes Trophy at Fortrose and Rosemarkie Golf Club this weekend.
The strong partnership first played together at Fortrose in 2010 when after a thrilling semi-final tie, they lost to the eventual winning local pair, Chris Gaittens and Michael MacDonald, at the 20th hole.
In what is now regarded as the unofficial north matchplay championship, Gaittens and MacDonald went on to retain the scratch trophy last year and along with home member Mark Windsor and his partner Jarred Simpson (Nairn) — as holders of the handicap cup — the two local partnerships are in a high quality field defending their titles this weekend.
Attempting to deny a local scratch hat-trick are two sets of former winners who between them have triumphed nine times over the past 17 years — Neil Hampton (Royal Dornoch) and Colin Taylor (Elgin), with five wins, and Alan Cameron (Fortrose) and Ewan Forbes (Inverness), with four wins.
This year the competition avoids a fixture clash with a North District team trial weekend, so other partnerships who can show their selection credentials are Munro Ferries (Tain) and Dougie Thorburn (Reay), Inverness county champion John Forbes and David Sanderson, and David Joel and Jamie Treasurer.
Following Saturday’s two rounds of medal play, the leading four scratch and four handicap pairings return to the course on Sunday for matchplay semi-finals and finals.
