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Photo credit: Charles McLaughlin
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HK GOLFER・DEC 2013
Pot Pinched By “Can’t Be” Beaton
The annual Hong Kong St Andrews Society Golf Day took place on a gloriously sunny day at a superbly set up Shek O Country Club in late October. A field of 20 lined up to compete for the John D Mackie Quaich, aka “Jock’s Pot” and Jock himself, the only Hong Kong golfer in history to play in The Open Cha mpionsh ip (Mu ir f ield , 1959), was there to keep order and to present the prizes. The event saw the welcome of former Clearwater Bay Golf & Country Club Captain Jim Graham, and he and his team of Allan McTaggart, Stuart Grant and Paul Curran handily took the team prize with 150 points, a full 38 points ahead of the nearest challengers. They were rewarded with a fine bottle of The Glenlivet 18 yr old. Individual title-holder Stuart Grant put up a decent defence with 34 points, but such was the quality of the scoring that this resulted in only a mid-table finish. As the final scores started to come in, it was looking as if a repeat 40-point tally by runner-up for the past two years, Alan “Lofty” McTaggart would finally secure him victory, but he was once again disappointed as an inspired Kirk “Can’t Be” Beaton stormed home with 41 points to claim the coveted trophy. Kirk looked to be about to set a new tournament record score, but a four bogey run from the 14th (including a four-putt on 16) left him needing a par for victory on the last, which he duly delivered. A former single-figure handicapper, Kirk now plays off 12 but his long game is as robust as ever, a fact highlighted when he drove the green at the par-4 11th and narrowly missed holing the resulting putt for eagle. Kirk gave credit to his playing partners saying “Ken Morrison in particular played some very solid golf, and that made me step up my game on the day.” Mervyn Jacob deserves mention for winning the best non-member prize with his 31-point haul, as does Mike Griffiths, who was awarded “Keenest Player” status for finishing with 11 points. Several sponsors contributed generously to make the day a success, including TTI Milwaukee, The Hawaiian-Philippine Sugar Corporation, The Glenlivet, Edinburgh Napier University, and HK Golfer.—Charles McLaughlin
All are welcome to play in “Jock’s Pot”. For details contact: admin@standrewshk.org
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