Gavin makes hay while the sun shines

Highlander Gavin Hay came down from the hills to score a double whammy victory in Friday's Turriff Golf Club Pro-Am in Aberdeenshire.

The Grantown-on-Spey player won the first prize of £1,041 with a four-under-par 66 to head a field of 24 pros and he also led the Meldrum Motors trio of amateurs to victory in the pro-am with a 15-under-par better ball of 125.

The first five pros in that (Hay, G McBain, S Henderson, C Ronald and S Gray), earned £125 each. Which all added up to Gavin's biggest payday on the Tartan Tour this year.

It was Hay's second win of the season, his first coming at Ayr Belleisle last month shortly after he had finished joint second in the Northern Open at Lossiemouth.

Hay had an eagle 3 at the sixth and a birdie at the 13th before a grandstand finish saw him birdie the 16th, 17th and 18th to come home in three-under 31. His two bogeys came at the fifth and short 15th.

Greig Hutcheon (Paul Lawrie Golf Centre Inchmarlo) and Peterhead's Ross Cameron (Saltire Energy) finished second and third, completing a 1-2-3 by North and North-east pros.

Hutch had seven birdies in his 67. He took covered the inward half in 31 but a bogey at the 17th cost him a share of first place although an £833 payslip was a nice consolation prize.

Cameron had a double bogey 7 at the 12th in his 69 which earned him £625.

The three amateurs in the Meldrum Motors winning team with Gavin Hay were Colin Chalmers (handicap 15), Douglas Shand (14) and Graham Fraser (17).