East Vets Spring Meeting

What a day it was at Gullane today, the first meeting of the year, cheers and flag- waving for some and tears and lamentations from others. Well this is golf we're talking about, so what's new.

First and foremost for those who only want this particular bit of news and then want to go and listen to the last ten of the Classic FM Top 300 , today was a counter and this is from the very top. The CSS was 71 and if you find this hard to believe on a day where all horrible weathers were possibly present, it is all down to three excellent scores, arriving together with smiley faces, fairly late in the day.

Pamela Williamson of Baberton (pictured above) brought in a scratch 74 which was pretty amazing. OK those poor souls who braved the earliest times and were frozen to death, blown to kingdom come and soaked to boot, certainly had the worst of it but there is no taking away from the fact that this was a pretty good score. We'll forgive a bogey at the first hole - just getting into one's stride, but no blips till the seventh - another bogey - oh dear - and really the 12th, where the wind laid waste to pheasants' tails blowing them up behind them such that they bore a passing resemblance to giant scorpions and where the little deer were munching away, totally oblivious to these silly humans and their silly pleasures, that 12th is a tricky par four at the best of times so a five isn't that bad..... two more fives later on but - all five par three's, were three's, so that is something.

Coming in with a nett 67 was newcomer Mairi Pollock of Craigmillar Park. Not much wonder she was smiling when she came in.

This meeting was not that well supported in that out of an entry of over 90 only 32 intrepid golfers turned up. It is fair to say that next year Gullane has warned us that we will be liable to pay the agreed green fees and therefore that fee will need to be carried over to anyone who enters but does not turn up on the day. So be warned or start praying now for a slightly kinder day weather-wise. Gullane No 3 was in pretty good condition, a few wet bits here and there but those greens - nothing short of magnificent. (Pamela said she liked them!)

The one flaw in the ointment was the 11th hole which had a very temporary "green" and we shall use this term loosely. And then just to confuse further, because there was a huge gap where players had not turned up, the greenstaff thought they would just transfer the pin back to the now-dry green. Thank goodness Ruth Brown noticed and had this situation reversed. The same course throughout for all competitors?

Bearing in mind all sorts of problems and conditions pertaining to the course and the competition, the committee decided to take advice, the kind receipt of which led them to decide this could in fact be a counting competition which certainly seemed the fairest option considering the three very wonderful scores just begging for handicap reductions. So commiserations to all those who secretly hoped it would not be a 0.1 occasion.

Prizewinners:
Scratch: Pamela Williamson scratch 74
Handicap: 1. Mairi Pollock 76 - 9 - 67
2. Elsa Todd 85 - 17 - 68
3. Barbara Halliday 83 - 12 - 71
3. Anne Brownie 79 - 7 - 72

Bronze: 1. Katy Gillies 95 - 21 - 74
2. Patricia Rose 100 - 21 - 79

Congratulations to all our winners and to everyone who braved the conditions.