Inverness duo win Black Isle Foursomes
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INVERNESS Golf Club’s reigning County champion John Forbes and a former holder of that title David Sanderson paired up for the first time to break the monopoly of previous winning pairings to lift the Munro and Noble Black Isle Foursomes at Fortrose and Rosemarkie.
A first time union of the two low handicap players beat the establish duo of Neil Hampton (Royal Dornoch) and Colin Taylor (Elgin), who are five time previous winners, by the comfortable margin of 4 and 3 in the final after qualifying rounds of 72 and 70.
Hampton and Taylor had posted their notice of becoming record equal winners by leading the scratch qualifying couples with two scores of 68 and they were joined in Sunday’s matchplay eliminators by the local holders, Michael MacDonald and Chris Gaittens (74/69), and first time qualifiers, Dougie Thorburn (Reay) and Munro Ferries (Tain), who put together rounds of 71 and 73.
The experienced Hampton and Taylor ousted the newcomers Thorburn and Ferries by 4 and 3 in their semi-final, while Forbes and Sanderson covered the back nine holes in three under par to put out the reigning champions MacDonald and Gaittens.
The final started with a bit of a surprise for Forbes and Sanderson — a lost ball from Forbes’s opening drive — yet they quickly levelled at the next hole and in a winning run from the sixth to the eighth, they took a comfortable three-hole lead.
Hampton and Taylor then won the first inward hole, but again they lost the next hole and when the Inverness duo took the 12th hole to go four ahead, they proceeded to their emphatic 4 and 3 win.
Home club members dominated the handicap final with Lewis Patience and Ryan Keith emerging as one hole winners over fellow Fortrose and Rosemarkie golfers Tam Cornwall and Roy McIntosh on the final green.
For more golf news see today's Inverness Courier.
