Fun Golf Event for Ayrshire Visitors in August

This year will see the inaugural Dundonald Games Links Golf Day incorporating the first Kilted Golf Classic teeing off on Friday 5th August.

This unique 18 hole handicap stableford event is open to amateur ladies and gents with an official handicap and will be played over the magnificent Dundonald Links golf course. The course is a wonderful challenge but remains a fair test of all golfing abilities with fast, three club greens, some wonderful pot bunkers, an abundance of dunes and some of the best laid out holes in Scotland.

And the Kilted Golf Classic? Although not obligatory we thought that given that it is an integral part of Dundonald Games Week we would add a little bit of fun and offer players the opportunity to compete in Highland Dress with a special commemorative trophy being presented to the winner!

Entry is strictly limited to 80 golfers and it is sure to be subscribed very quickly so do not hesitate to enter. You can reserve a single or a discounted fourball from only £45 per person including coffee and bacon roll on arrival.

For further information and reservations visit Dundonald Games Golf website

Prestwick St Nicholas co-hosts the Scottish Area Team Championship

Prestwick St Nicholas is co-hosting, along Prestwick Golf Club, the Scottish Area Team Championship on the 14th and 15th May.

The field will feature 96 of the country's leading amateur players (including internationalists) representing their respective areas. The Ayrshire six man team consists of Scottish and South African Amateur Champion Michael Stewart (Troon Welbeck), a trio of Kilmarnock Barassie players - the new Ayrshire Strokeplay Champion Jamie Mackay, 2010 Ayrshire Matchplay winner Euan Brown and Scotland boys international Jack McDonald, and bidding to go one step further than their semi-final appearance last year are Michael Smyth (Royal Troon) and John Haggarty (Loudoun).

The format will see all 16 teams play 36 holes stroke-play on Saturday 14 May (one round over Prestwick and one round over St Nicholas) with the leading 4 teams qualifying for match play on the Sunday to determine the medal positions.

Ailsa Craig for Sale!

According to our very favourite online news website For Argyll - and it is worth reading some of the opinion pieces that they write - Ailsa Craig, or Paddy’s Milestone as it's always been known to us as kids, the unforgettable iconic shape seen from many of the golf courses of Scotland's West Coast Golf Links and seen by millions of TV viewers when the Open is held at Turnberry is up for sale!

Owned by the 8th Marquess of Ailsa, it is being sold by Knight Frank and by Vladi Private Islands, the agent who sold Sanda Island off the east coast of the Mull of Kintyre and who is currently also selling Barcaldine Castle in North Argyll as ‘an island-like property’.

Ailsa Craig is not even yet on the Vladi website, but the 245 acre rock with its distinctive conical shape, lying ten miles off Girvan  on the south Ayrshire coast has an asking price of £2.5 million.

Final hole swing sees Charlotte Ellis clinch Helen Holm

England's Charlotte Ellis staged a charge over the last few holes to win the Helen Holm Scottish women's open amateur stroke-play championship over Royal Troon's Open championship links course on Sunday 24th of April. She had been trailing 16 year old twin Leona Maguire from Co Cavan, Ireland by three strokes with six holes to play until the 25-year-old from Minchinhampton birdied the 13th, 15th and 16th holes to be one shot behind Maguire with two to play. Both parred the short 17th and then Leona, who had made all the running from the start of the 54-hole tournament, ran up a double bogey 6 at the last, taking three shots to get on the green and quite depressingly a further three putts from six feet. Ellis stepped in to win with a par 4.

"Even when I holed out for a par on the last green, I really didn't think it was to win. It was only when Leona eventually missed a two-foot second putt, that I realised I had won. It's the biggest golf title I've ever won but I feel sorry for Leona."

Scottish Women's Open Amateur Golf at Troon

If you're at a loose end this weekend you could always head for the Ayrshire coast to Troon and see a field of 99 ladies compete for the Helen Holm Trophy the 54-hole Scottish women's open amateur stroke-play golf championship at Troon.

The event which is taking place between Friday 22nd and Sunday 24th of April is played with two rounds over Troon Portland after which the leading 66 players and ties contest the final 18 holes over Royal Troon. The field of 99 is made up by golfers from 11 countries, including Russia and the Czech Republic and with the weather forecast set fair it could be a nice relaxing day out.


Live scoring from the Helen Holm Trophy 2011 event