Draw - Spring Meeting. King’s. Sat 9th May.
Saturday marks the beginning of one of the most cherished strands of the Dun Whinny season, as the club’s annual Meets – Spring, Summer and Autumn – get underway with the Spring Meeting over the always-exacting King’s Course, played as a white tee medal.
This is not just another Saturday competition. These meetings form the backbone of two of the club’s most prestigious season-long prizes.
The first is the Championship Cup, first played for in 1936 and presented to the club by John C Dougal, one of Dun Whinny’s founders. Originally awarded for the Spring Meeting alone, it was renamed the Club Championship Trophy in 1937 and, ever since, has gone to the player with the aggregate of the two best net scores across the Spring, Summer and Autumn meetings. It remains the club’s original trophy and one of its most handsome pieces of silver.
Alongside it sits the Duncrub Trophy, first played for in 1976 after Lord Rollo offered to provide a trophy for scratch competition. The Council, sensibly deciding there was already silverware for handicap excellence, assigned this one to the player with the two best scratch scores across the three meetings. It is, by all accounts, a gloriously unusual trophy – an inkstand with crossed golf clubs and silver balls – which feels entirely appropriate for a competition with a touch of old-school grandeur about it.
So, in short: this weekend is where both races begin.
And what a draw sheet it is.
Early doors: a lively opening group
The first group away at 7:30am features Michael Collier, Jon Cooper, Andy Lothian and Thomas McCulloch. That is a solid, seasoned opening act, and with the King’s often at its most scoreable before the wind fully wakes up, there may be an early number posted there that makes the rest of the field sit up over breakfast.
7:40am – plenty of pedigree
The 7:40am group brings together Scott Williamson, Frank Johnson and Eric Lambert. Williamson has shown more than once that he can hang around the top end of a leaderboard, Johnson always looks capable of producing a proper medal round, and Lambert remains one of those players who can either dismantle a golf course or a scorecard, sometimes within the same three holes.
7:50am – intrigue and inconsistency in equal measure
At 7:50am, Jonathan Dickson, Billy Z McNeill and Kevin Dickson head out together. Billy Z immediately catches the eye. Fresh from his now well-established run of “remarkably efficient” scoring, he remains a man of interest whenever silverware is in sight. The Duncrub may require scratch excellence, the Championship Cup demands net consistency, and Billy somehow tends to hover threateningly around both conversations.
8:00am – a group with real potential
The 8:00am trio of Craig Scott, Michael Page and Ken Marshall looks especially interesting. Marshall arrives in buoyant mood after his 5 Club Challenge success, and confidence in golf is a dangerous thing. If the putter behaves, he could very easily turn this into a proper Championship Cup opening statement.
8:20am – former winners and proven hands
By 8:20am, we have Keith Stirling, Paul Kelly and Mark Higham. Kelly is always worth watching in medal company, while Higham is the sort who can quietly compile a score before anyone notices. On the King’s, that tends to be the preferred method.
8:30am to 8:50am – dark horses everywhere
The middle section of the draw is packed with dangerous names:
Stuart Wallace, Tony Moran and Doug Law at 8:30am
Jonathan Fletcher, Colin Campbell and Rob Simpson at 8:40am
Sandy Grant, Alastair Cantlay and Alan Penman at 8:50am
Fletcher’s recent consistency makes him hard to ignore, while Sandy Grant is more than capable of putting together the sort of round that leaves everyone muttering, “Where did that come from?” Penman, meanwhile, is never far away when tidy medal golf is required.
9:10am – a group that could produce something special
The 9:10am slot has Michael Cantlay, Kevin Beattie and Iain Aitchison. There is plenty of golfing ability in that group, and if one of them gets out of the blocks well, this has the look of a time that could generate a serious contender.
9:20am – a strong closing act
Bringing up the rear at 9:20am are Ross MacNish, Bill Sexton, David Watt and Tariq Ali. Sexton will always fancy his chances over a medal if the scoring holes are taken care of, while Ali is perfectly capable of getting the better of a white-tee test when the rhythm is there. A late starter on the King’s can sometimes suffer from a friskier breeze, but equally they enjoy the advantage of knowing exactly what sort of number needs chasing.
Ones to watch
If you were looking for a few names to circle before the first ball is struck, these would be hard to ignore:
Ken Marshall – arriving with form and confidence
Billy Z McNeill – consistency, chaos, and competitiveness all in one package
Jonathan Fletcher – increasingly reliable and rarely far away
Scott Williamson – has shown enough this season to suggest he could contend
Paul Kelly – a man well capable of posting a serious medal score
Final word
The King’s Course is a fitting venue to begin these historic races. It demands control, patience, and just enough humility to accept that not every good shot gets the reward it deserves. Over the coming months, the Championship Cup and Duncrub Trophy will be shaped by performances in these three meetings, but every campaign has to start somewhere.
And on Saturday morning, with white tees, medal cards, and old silverware in mind, it starts here.
If nothing else, by lunchtime we should know two things: who has opened their account in style… and who is already explaining that they are “saving themselves for Summer Meeting.”
