We were greeted at Grantown by a very friendly catering crew - old grumpy drawers left a couple of year ago and her replacement is full of vim and vigour. When we enquired about her predecessor, she simply stated that "she didn't think she was getting enough"!
It was dry but coolish and it's pretty obvious that they haven't had much growth yet. Their greens were poor - not quite Banchory-ish, but not far short of it. Syd, the defending champion, couldn't be with us due to injury, but we did have the return, after a 22 year absence, of Keith Murray, whose record for this outing is played one, won one. Rather annoyingly, he looks much the same as he did then - slim and fit, with a full head of hair and still able to complete a full swing:
The groups were, in order:
Harry with his new blue shoes was trying to out-Kenneth the relatively subdued younger Gray.
Grantown divides neatly in to 3 sections - the first 6 holes fairly open but the second 6 much tighter, gorse and tree lined. At the 7th hole, there is an appropriately named "Veterans Tree" which Rob asked me to photograph:
We always admire the view from the elevated tee at the driveable 9th (well it used to be):
The last 6 holes, which are the most recently added to what was formerly a 12 hole course, are fairly short and benign and this is where points can be racked up. Overall, Grantown always offers a much better opportunity to get a decent score than Boat of Garten, and, generally, if you don't score par (36) or better, you won't be in the hunt. Three players managed to do this - Jack had 38 points, whilst Ken and Keith M each scored 41 points, with Ken having the better inward half.
Nearest the Pins were won by Harry and Ken, whilst Keith M got the Longest Drive. Hardly surprisingly, Team 2 won the team prize, with Jas playing a supporting role to Ken and Keith M.
We checked in to our hotel - the Garth for a change, as the Grant Arms was fully booked - and promptly headed for the bar for some ale - Highland IPA and Stag. Keith M went for the Belhaven decorative option:
Dinner was good and we retired to the residents lounge afterwards to watch the TPC golf on Chris' iPad - until the battery ran out.
Monday morning started beautifully, but the forecast warned of possibly thundery showers later on. The view looking down the first hole, with the backdrop of the snow-capped mountains was terrific:
Dan joined us for this round and we all lined up for the team photo:
The course was in terrific order - especially the greens. They say comparisons are odious, but we couldn't help but wish for some of the skills of the greenkeepers here to be transferred to Banchory.
It was very windy, but at least it stayed dry for the front nine, but when we got to the last 6 or 7 holes, the forecast showers duly arrived - and pretty horrendous they were too. All most of us non-contenders wanted to do was to get back to the clubhouse for a hot shower and a change of clothes.
The surprising thing was how good some of the scores were. Usually 30-anything is regarded as a good score at the Boat - especially given the difficult conditions. Certainly there were some very low scores - 7 of us with 22 points or less - but Harry managed 35 points, only to be pipped by Keith M with 36 points.
The sting in the tail - and the surprise that I referred to earlier - was Ken scoring 37 points in conditions that he would certainly have walked off in at Banchory, to edge out Keith M overall, in what was a might close battle, with the key point coming on the 18th hole when Keith drove out of bounds and didn't score.
Ken's aggregate points score of 78 is the highest since we adopted the current 2-round format a decode or so ago, and it's Ken's 3rd win overall. His previous wins were in 1991 and 1994, so he claims the record for the longest gap between wins.
Keith Murray came very close to maintaining his 100% record - it's now "just" 50%! He could also have claimed the longest gap record if he'd won - it would have been 22 years.
For the record, Chris and Keith M won the NP's and Rob got the LD at the 18th. Naturally, Team 4 - Ken and Keith M, aided and abetted (a little) by Jack and Chris - won the team prize.
Overall, Harry was 3rd behind Keith M and Ken, and Keith M also got the scratch prize. Time to present the trophy then:
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