THE SAME OLD STORY

1984 Lundin Links, Elie and North Berwick East

If memory serves, the first tee at Lundin Links was a nightmare, with Robbo nearly decapitating a seal with his drives and Tommo carrying balls high and wide out of bounds onto the 18th. Nerves and a high wind played their part. I think Tommo had a 14 on the first…

We settled down though. Robbo’s scores were 90, 91 and….78! at North Berwick. Stewards inquiry there. Robbo finished 11 under par.

It was on or after this year that a new handicapping system was devised where players handicaps went up or down in the first three rounds depending upon their score. This would be seen to favour someone who scored badly in rounds 1 and 2 but did well in later rounds…someone like Tommo.

1985 Five years of Robbo rule were about to come to an end. Again we started at Lundin Links, followed by two more rounds at Balcomie and a closing forth round, for the first time, at North Berwick. Robbo scored 94, 82, 93, 84 to be 7 under par – probably good enough to win in most years.

But with Tommo’s handicap going up exponentially to 32(!) he produced the round of his life at Balcomie to score 78 less 31 – net 47. This certainly put ‘the cat among the monkeys’ to coin that Unst phrase and so Tommo had a massive lead of over 30 shots going into the last round.
Robbo came close but Tommo clung on and so at North Berwick car park, the trophy was duly handed over. Robbo’s five-in-a-row was at an end.

1986 Another Bears epic, with two rounds at Balcomie (Crail) and then to Ladybank and home to Kilspindie, Dave’s home venue. The scoring at Balcomie was pretty good (Robbo 84, 81; Tommo 78, 67; Duncan 86, 75; Dave 80, 76).

Ladybank was another matter. Possibly one of the harder courses, the wind got up in the afternoon and scores soared, especially at the start. Scores on the first three holes: Robbo 7, 11, 4 = 22; Tommo 6, 7, 8 = 21; Dave 10, 11, 4 = 25; Duncan 7, 20, 7 = 34. (Duncan hit 5 drives in a row into the wood on the second). Worse was to befall Tommo however, with an 18 at the Par 5 seventh. Crouched in the bushes at the 7th with Gordon about to play his 15th shot, Duncan was heard to mutter the immortal words: “And what will the Master do now?”

The best and worst ball scores for Ladybank were 88 and 149. Definitely the worst ever Bears round. Dave and Robbo held it together later, Gordon and Duncan struggled. Final totals: Duncan 103, Tommo 101, Dave 87 and Robbo 82.

Shell-shocked, we returned to Kilspindie where Robbo shot a career best 76 to clinch the trophy, with Dave close behind. Back to the clubhouse with jackets and ties hastily donned for the presentation.

1987 A new name on the trophy this year, Dave. After many years, the trophy comes home to his house. Played over some hard courses – Lundin Links, Elie, Crail, and North Berwick, Dave’s steadier game and great last round clinched it for him.

Dave was 18 shots clear of his nearest rivals in a ‘who’s gonna come second’ competition.