A glorious day greeted competitors at the latest edition of the JD Mackie Quaich, which was held at Shek O Country Club in early October. Known among members simply as “Jock’s Pot”, this is a stableford tournament arranged by the Hong Kong St Andrew’s Society.
Several past winners were in the field, including ex-Chieftains Paul Curran, and Fiona Donnelly, as well as Stewart Saunders and and Roy Kinnear. Sadly, travel commitments meant that last year’s champion Graeme Soutar was unable to defend his crown.
On a day with some exceptional scoring, Jim Mailer in the first group posted a fine 38. This was matched late in the day by the consistent Alan ”Lofty” McTaggart, who narrowly lost out in a play-off last year. In a inconsistent round, McTaggart brilliantly eagled the short par-four 2nd and was a whisker away from a hole-in-one at the 230-yard par-three 7th. However, he also posted three triple bogeys and two double bogeys – both of the latter in his last three holes.
Donnelly briefly took the lead with a fine 39-point effort that appeared to be good enough to earn her the trophy for a second time but Stuart Grant shot through the pack to win with a stunning 42 point haul.
Playing off a handicap of eight, the tall Ayrshireman started with a disastrous triple, but managed to score a reasonable 17 points on the front.
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