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On Saturday 13th July we held our final major Open of the 2024/25 season very generously sponsored by Pentland Ferries. 

What was quite a damp day with the odd drizzly shower passing through on a fairly light breeze, 46 competitors descended on the Hope course, made up with a fantastic contingent from Westray GC, Stromness GC and Orkney GC, all adding to the numbers. We also had a couple of visitors enter while up on holiday, which was a real bonus and is always great to see new faces. John Alexander MacKinnon hailed from Grantown-on-Spey GC and Donald Rae from as far afield as Thornhill GC in Dumfries & Galloway. We hope they enjoyed their day even if their golf maybe wasn’t up to their usual standard. A big thankyou to Mike Woolridge for starting us all. 

The early morning starters consisting of Andrew Reid (OGC), Brian Corsie (SGC) and Steven Walls (OGC) seemed to set the pace for the day with all three gross scores tied on 72. Much of the talk throughout the day was that we could possibly see a playoff involving at least those three, as the later morning groups scores came in, nothing was troubling them. So it was up to the afternoon groups to try and do better. Conditions perhaps improved slightly but this didn’t make a great deal of difference to the scoring as groups continued to come in much on par with the morning scores. Glenn Grange (SRGC) put up a decent challenge until faltering on the final hole with a triple bogey finish putting pay to his hope of winning with a gross 74. This left it to the final group consisting of Steven Rendall (OGC), Angus Sutherland (SGC) and Angus Thompson (SRGC) to try and better the morning scores. Steven Rendall put up a valiant effort and being the only player in the field giving a shot back to the course with his +1 handicap his race too was inevitably run coming in with a gross 73. This left it to one of the two Angus’s to steal the prize, with Angus Sutherland coming out on top. To Andrew, Brian and Steven’s heartbreak Angus carded a gross 71, winning the overall Gross prize and meaning there would be no playoff, to a few folks’ disappointment. This meant that Andrew Reid picked up the overall Nett prize with the best round of the day finishing with a nett 66. 

So the results for the day are as follows:- 

Overall Gross Winner – Angus Sutherland (SGC)  71 

Overall Nett Winner – Andrew Reid (OGC)  66 

Division 1 (WHS Handicap 0-14) 

First Gross – Brian Corsie (SGC) 72 

Second Gross – Steven Walls (OGC) 72 

First Nett – Glenn Grange (SRGC)  67 

Second Gross – Andrew Wilkie (OGC)  69 

Division 2 (WHS Handicap 15 – 28)  

First Gross – Martin Flett (OGC) 80 

Second Gross – Ross Smith (SRGC) 87 

First Nett – Billy Scott (SRGC)  67 

Second Nett – Ryan Tulloch (SRGC)  69 

Specials 

Closest to the Pin on the 6th – Brian Corsie (OGC) 

Closest to the Pin on the 18th – James Bews (OGC) 

Thanks go to all the players who entered the Open and made it such a fantastic day. To Sheila Hourston for helping out with the draw and seeing to any technical issues with the Scottish Golf App and scores throughout the day. 

Thanks go to the committee members who provided sandwiches, filled rolls, sausage rolls and home bakes for the hungry golfers. There certainly wasn’t much left over at the end of the day, which was great to see. 

SRGC also thanks our hard working green’s staff who get the course looking its best for these events, even when the weather is against them, which it has been most of  this ‘summer’. We also wish our head greenkeeper, Derek Ward Snr, a speedy recovery since undergoing the knife for a replacement knee operation. Get well soon Derek.  

Finally, South Ronaldsay GC would like to thank Katherine of Pentland Ferries for presenting the prizes on the day, and for their continued support which they have shown us over a number of years now.  

We hope next year will be as much of a success as this year seemed to be.