WEST OF SCOTLAND A LEAGUE - Renfrewshire secure 11th title in a row at Prestwick

Renfrewshire extended their remarkable record in the West Of Scotland Inter County A League on Sunday 4th October 2012 when they defeated their hosts Ayrshire to secure their 11th successive title in the championship. (Report courtesy of the Renfrewshire Golf Union website)

Prestwick was the venue for Renfrewshire Golf Union's "A" team's challenge for yet another West of Scotland Inter Counties Championship where they faced a high quality Ayrshire team which was determined to put an end to Renfrewshire's dominance. The ten man team started badly with Ayrshire taking advantage of course  knowledge to take the lead in six of the matches with Matt Clark (Kilmacolm), recently returned from representing Scotland in Turkey and suffering badly with a trapped nerve, going five down after five holes to Loudoun's Tommy McInally. This was a match that Renfrewshire manager, David MacFarlane, had been counting on and heads were down as the top games all seemed to be going Ayrshire's way. Whitecraig's Gordon Stephenson started to turn the tide as he fought back for a half match against Keith Hamilton but Jack McDonald from Barassie, one of Scotland's most promising golfers, overcame the challenge of Sam Binning (Ranfurly Castle) and with Chris Kelly, Alistair McDougall and Ryan Mackenzie, in addition to Matt Clark, all down, it looked as if win eleven was slipping away. There were great wins for Paul Alexander (Caldwell), Michael Daily (Erskine) and Bonnyton's Grant Beaton, who has won all of his three matches this season, but it was Matt Clark, like a limping Lazarus, who shocked his opponent by clawing his way back into the match from five down with some inspired golf. Having driven the par four sixteenth to get the match back to all square, Matt won the seventeenth and halved the last in three to get a point on the board which not even the most optimistic expected to see. Team captain Ronnie Clark from Erskine had past Scottish Boy's Champion, David Wilson as his opponent and this deciding match swung one way then the other before Ronnie showed his course management experience and some of the best golf of the day to win with a birdie on the seventeenth to record four wins and a halved match for his West of Scotland appearances. David MacFarlane was delighted. He said "In my first year as manager, I was under pressure to continue the winning run and all the players have given me a hundred percent. We have a great pool of players in Renfrewshire and twelve in a row is now the target"

WESTOFSCOTLANDGOLF WEB PAGE - New site covers Inter County events

This new web page has been established to promote the Inter County Golf Championships involving the Scottish Golf Union Area Associations of Ayrshire, Dumbartonshire, Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire and Stirlingshire.

The six area associations compete in inter county matches at boys (under 18) , youths (under 23) an county (a team) levels.

The Boys matches involve teams of four under 18's and 4 under 16's and are played monthly throughlut the season from May until September.
The Youths and A team matches are played over five successive weeks in September and October each year.

In addition the six area associations administer and host, on a rotational basis, the annual West Of Scotland Boys Strokeplay and Matchplay Championships.

It is hoped to develop this page to make results available soon after matches are played, along with current league positions, in order to increase the profile of the championships and allow information to be made available to the wider media.