Scottish Amateur Championship:
Wayward driver tests Mackenzie
By Peter Donald
Electronic Telegraph

SIMON MACKENZIE, the Scottish Open Strokeplay champion, is through to the last 32 of the Johnnie Walker Scottish Amateur Championship at Royal Dornoch and that much closer to achieving a unique double. Although there have been previous holders of both titles at the same time, no one has ever won the two in the same calendar year.

Mackenzie, however, acknowledges that he is in a very tough quarter of the draw. It contains the defending champion, Craig Heap, and Lee Rhind, an outstanding youth international. And this morning he will take on a former professional in Michael Buchan, whose reinstatement came through earlier this year. Unfortunately, Buchan had a setback after his 3 & 2 win over Steven Rennie of Airdrie. He reversed his car over his clubs in the car park, breaking his driver and bending his three-iron.

Mackenzie, a 30-year-old business development manager in Edinburgh, won this championship in 1995, two years after losing in the semi-finals to Dean Robertson on the last occasion the tournament was played at Royal Dornoch. He took particular pleasure in his third-round win yesterday by 5 & 4 against Andrew Cooper of Taymouth Castle. He recalled that it was Cooper who knocked him out at the same stage when they met in the 1996 championship at Dunbar. Mackenzie brought his driver out only three times against Cooper.

"My driving has been causing problems," he admitted, "and each time I used it today, I found the rough." But the rest of his game was certainly solid and after turning one-up with the help of a birdie at the fourth, he closed out his opponent by winning four of the next five holes. Buchan, who was searching around for a replacement driver last night, spent two years on the Tartan Tour, finishing ninth in the Scottish Professional Championship in 1998 and ending the season a respectable 27th in the order of merit.

He also had a spell on the Tommy Armour Mini Tour in America. "But I ran out of money," he said. "I had no cash and no life so I decided to return to the amateur ranks." Heap had a fairly comfortable passage into the last 32. Although losing the opening hole against Stewart Macaulay from Kilmarnock he was three up by the turn with the help of birdies at the sixth and the ninth. And after three-putting to lose the 10th, he covered three of the next four holes in one under par, to win the match by 5 & 4.

Rhind, 21, who helped Scotland to take second place in the European Youths' Team Championship, also lost the first hole of his match against Neil Lockie to a birdie but then he won six of the next eight holes in three under par, to turn five-up on his way to a 7 & 6 win. Finland's Erik Stenman and Tullia Calzavara from Italy won the respective boys' and girls' titles in the Doug Sanders European junior championships over the King's Links, Aberdeen. The winners, along with runners-up Eirik Johansen (Norway) and Irish girls' champion Martina Gillen, from Dublin, will be given an all-expenses-paid trip to play in the world junior championship finals at Montego Bay, Jamaica, this month. Royal Aberdeen's Richard Ramsay finished third in the boys' championship while Laura Wells from Dumfries was joint fifth in the girls' section.

Details 2nd rd: A Cooper (Taymouth Castle) bt M Donaldson (Kirkcaldy) 1 hole, N Robbie (North Hants) wo G McKelvie (Royal Troon), M Kerr (Craigmillar Park) bt J Hunter (Wick) at 19th, J Farmer (St Andrews) bt S Rennie (Muir of Ord) 3 & 2, A Forsyth (Muckhart) bt C Carson (Cowglen) 2 & 1, L Harper (Musselburgh) bt A Cameron (Fortrose & Rosemarkie) 1 hole, E McIntosh (Newmacher) bt D Martin (Hawick) 2 & 1 S Wilson (Forfar) bt N Steven (St Andrews) 4 & 2, J McLeary (Glenrothes) bt W Bryson (Drumpellier) 5 & 4, S Hubner (Caldwell) wo, S Horne (Tulliallan) bt K Nicholson (Haddington) 3 & 2, P McMahon (Cardross) bt K Hamioton (Whitecraigs) at 20th, G Gordon (Newmacher) bt D Martin (Alyth) 2 & 1, P Robb (Peterculter) bt C MacLean (Machrihanish) 7 & 5, G Fox (West Kilbride) bt S Elder (Kirkcaldy) 8 & 6, G Dawson (Ranfurly Castle) bt G Lowson (Auchterarder) 1 hole, J Hughes (Cardross) bt S Fraser (Callander) 2 & 1. S O'Hara (Colville Park) bt C Bell (Whitecraigs) 5 & 4, N Hampton (Nairn) bt S Duncan (Carnoustie) 4 & 3, D Campbell (Ratho Park) bt G Broxton (Downfield) at 20th, J Sharp (Cowal) bt C Douglas (Turnberry) 7 & 6, M Warren (East Kilbride) bt T Sneddon (Ratho Park) 1 hole, G Paxton (Renfrew) wo N Henderson (Melrose) disq, L Sloan (Leven GS) bt F McLaughlan (Wishaw) 5 & 4, G Crawford (Glasgow) bt A Howard (Murrayshall) 5 & 3, P McKechnie (Hayston) bt S McLauchlan (Falkirk Tryst) 5 & 4, S Loughrey (Hayston) bt R Friel (Bonnyton) 3 & 2, G Duncan (Brora) bt D Ballantyne (Selkirk) 1 hole, I Brown (West Kilbride) bt C Speirs (Dunked & Birnham) 1 hole, C Watson (East Renfrewshire) bt L Wood (Downfield) 5 & 4, L Campbell (Canada) bt C Fraser (Innerleithen) 2 & 1, H Thompson (Irvine) bt R Aitken (Auchterarder) 7 & 6, I Simpson (Crow Wood) bt R Johnston (Glenbervie) 2 & 1. B Hume (Haggs Castle) bt G Cooper (Helensburgh) 6 & 5, M Cameron (Alyth) bt D Sneddon (Lanark) 5 & 4, J King (Cardross) bt S Walker (West Linton) 4 & 3, S Wilson (Inverness) bt W Beveridge (Burntisland) 2 & 1, C Campbell (Grantown on Spey) bt J Lennox (Lochmaben) 5 & 3, A McArthur (Windyhill) bt D McMilan (Lanark) at 21st, B Innes (Murcar) bt K Ralston (Shotts) 5 & 4, E Ramsay (Carnoustie) bt S Lamb (Peebles) 5 & 4, M Thomson (Torwoodlee) bt P Tomisson (Nairn) at 19th, D Watson (Dunkeld & Birnham) bt D McPherson (Burntisland) 5 & 4, I Cameron (Muir of Ord) bt G Dingwall (Wishaw) 4 & 3, M MacAulay (Lochgilphead) bt D Roger (Hilton Park) 2 holes, D Patrick (Mortonhall) bt B Fotheringham (Forres) 1 hole, D Inglis (Glencorse) bt R Taylor (Cardross) 4 & 3, N Robertson (Drumpellier) bt P Jamieson (Cathkin Braes) 4 & 3, V Brown (Sandyhills) bt I Colquhoun (Ranfurly Castle) 3 & 2. 3rd rd: A Weir Longniddry bt R Sheils (Moray) 6 & 5, C Heap (East Kilbride) bt S MacAulay (Kilmarnock Barassie) 5 & 4, E Forbes (Turriff) bt S Brown (Carnoustie) 2 & 1, S Reekie (Lundin) bt A Love (Dunbar) 3 & 2, M Robertson (Selkirk) bt A Lamond (Haggs Castle) 3 & 2, L Rhind (Uphall) bt N Lockie (Kilmarnock Barassie) 7 & 6, M Buchan (Cruden Bay) bt S Rennie (Airdrie) 3 & 2 S Mackenzie (West Linton) bt A Cooper (Taymouth Castle) 5 & 4, M Kerr (Craigmillar Park) bt N Robbie (North Hants) 4 & 2, A Forsyth (Muckhart) bt J Farmer (St Andrews) 2 & 1, L Harper (Musselburgh) bt E McIntosh (Newmacher) 5 & 4, S Wilson (Forfar) bt J McLeary (Glenrothes) 2 & 1, Horne bt Hubner 5 & 4, Gordon bt McMahon 7 & 6, Fox bt Robb 3 & 1, Dawson bt Hughes 2 & 1. O'Hara bt Hampton 1 hole, Sharp bt Campbell 3 & 2, Paxton bt Warren at 22nd, Crawford bt Sloan 1 hole, McKechnie bt Loughrey 3 & 2, Brown bt Duncan 4 & 3, Watson bt Campbell 2 & 1, Simpson bt Thompson 4 & 3.