The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
Three Links cheers for Greig
Golf: Bon Accord player comes good after twice tasting defeat in final
It was third time lucky for Bon Accord’s Matty Greig in yesterday’s Aberdeen Links golf championship final in which he beat Bryan Innes (Murcar Links) by 3 and 2.
Greig had lost both his previous appearances in the final.
This year marked Greig’s 22nd consecutive appearance in the match play stages of the Links championship and he was beginning to doubt if he was ever going to win it.
Innes won the second with a par but birdies at the third and fourth put Greig one up, a lead he held until the eighth which he lost to a par. The next three holes were halved in par before Greig went into overdrive. birdieing the 12th and 13th and then parring the difficult 14th to go three up – a lead he maintained until the match finished on the 16th.
In the Handicap Shield Graeme Meade (Caledonian) held a three-hole advantage at the turn against Northern’s Graeme Robertson, having birdied the fourth, seventh and ninth, an advantage he held until he parred the par 5 15th for a 4 and 3 victory.
Murray Cup holder Jackie Forrest found himself one down at the turn but a combination of tiredness in his “old legs” and Paul Kane’s back nine par golf saw Forrest succumb 4 and 3 to the younger Murcar Links player.
Stewart Finnie (Caledonian), winner of Aberdeen Links championship in 1994, has won the Links senior title after a championship which was reduced to one round of stroke play because of bad weather instead of the normal 36 holes.
Finnie shot a 68, par off the yellow tees, to win the James Hunter Shield by one stroke from George Paterson (Northern) with Neil Walker, also Northern, third on 72.
The Fred Sutherland Senior Handicap championship was won by Robert Sutherland (Bon Accord) with a net 62 off 17 of a handicap.
He won by four strokes from Graham Somers (Bon Accord) who had a net 66 off four. Doug McPherson (Caledonian) was third with a 67 off 14.
The VicBon Shield for players over 65 years, was won by David Hampton (Caledonian) with a 66 off 17. David Cumming (Bon Accord), who plays off 11, also had a net 66 but lost out to Hampton’s better inward half.
Third was Robert Fraser (Northern) with a net 67 off nine.
“Three holes were halved in par before Greig went into overdrive”