JAMES McKECHNIE carded a sensational four-under-par score of 65 to secure the top seeding in the battle to become the gents’ champion at Helensburgh Golf Club.

Despite bogeying the first hole in the last of the six club championship qualifying medals, James moved under par with birdies at the third and fifth.

A double bogey at the eighth proved only a temporary setback, with a series of pin-seeking approaches leading to five birdies and a back nine comprising only 30 shots.

Almost 100 players hoping for a place in the knockout stages had one final chance to make their mark, with qualifying places and seedings determined by each competitor’s best two gross scores over the six medal rounds.

James’s two-round total of 138 (73, 65) was matched by 13-time champion Peter Haggerty (67, 71), but it was James who claimed the top seeding by virtue of having the lowest single round of the pair.

James will now face Mark ‘Tommy’ Tynan in the last 16 as the matchplay stages of the championship get under way, after Tommy secured the final qualifying slot with a total score of 153 (78, 75).

Defending champion Graeme Proud qualified as third seed on 140 (71,69) and will face Dom Taylor in the first knockout stage.

Meanwhile, Alistair Cairns let the list of qualifiers for the Peel Trophy, for players with handicaps from 9 to 18, after posting a two-round total of 156 (79, 77), with Paul Cavana (74, 83) and Bill MacDonald (78, 79) hot on his heels on 157.

Iain Matheson clinched the top seeding for the 1963 Trophy, for those with handicaps of 19 and above; his total of 173 (88, 85) saw him pip Steven Slee (86, 88) and Troy Bennet (87, 87) by a single shot.

Finals day is scheduled for Sunday, August 11, though before then, the next couple of weeks will see a series of tightly-contested matches before this year’s finalists are known.

Meanwhile, the Paisley Golf Club trio of Elspeth Smith, Lynn Forsyth and Pamela Buttar took the honours in the annual Ladies’ Open tri-am at Helensburgh.

Twenty-three teams competed for the prizes on offer, with the Paisley trio’s impressive tally of 90 points in the ‘best two of three stableford scores’ format earning them a four-shot margin of victory ahead of Alison Culpan (Hilton Park), Rona Sharp and Anne Brown (both Dougalston).

The best Helensburgh team, in third place with a very creditable 85 points, comprised Anne Riding, Liz Inglis and Fiona Thomson.

The full list of winners in the ladies’ competitions during June is as follows.

Breingan Brooch: Rona Marshall (division one), Susan Cameron (division two).

Second Seniors Cup: June Haggarty (division one), Anne Riding (division two).

June medal: Shirley Monaghan (division one), Dorothy Mickel (division two).

Nine-hole stableford winners: Linda Kerr, Liz Inglis and Marion Wharry.

Eighteen-hole stableford winners: Vyvian Stevenson and Rona Marshall.

On the teams front, Helensburgh’s scratch McIntyre League team finished third in the eight-club league after a home defeat at the hands of a very strong Clydebank and District (Hardgate) team.

The result ended Helensburgh's title challenge, which had showed plenty of early promise after comfortable wins against The Carrick, Vale of Leven and Dalmuir; unsurprisingly it was the Hardgate team who went on to take the trophy.

In the 4-8 McIntyre League, Helensburgh fell short in the defence of the trophy they won last year.

It was their away form that was the Burgh team’s undoing; despite winning their three home group section matches, against Kirkintilloch, Dalmuir and Clober, their failure to pick up points in any of their three away fixtures, against The Carrick, Cardross and Dumbarton, saw them miss out on a place in the knockout stages by virtue of a poorer hole differential than two rivals with the same number of points.

The club’s Thomson McCrone team did qualify for the knockout stages of their competition after finishing second in their group following home and away ties against Dumbarton, Dullatur and Hayston.

Their last 16 match, against Balmore at Vale of Leven, was a keenly contested affair, but unfortunately for the Helensburgh players it was their opponents who clinched a place in the quarter-finals with a 3.5 to 2.5 victory.

The McIntyre Seniors League team still have a number of fixtures to play, with five wins and three draws from their 10 matches so far.

Convincing victories against Dougalston, Vale of Leven, Windyhill, Clydebank & District and Bearsden were somewhat tempered by a recent loss away to league leaders Douglas Park; the league website currently shows the team sitting in sixth place, so a title challenge will require positive results in their remaining six fixtures.

Meanwhile, the club’s ladies’ teams have had mixed results in recent weeks. The Anderson League team picked up a win at home to Balmore early in their campaign, but narrowly lost a tight match away to Dougalston before falling to defeat at home to Douglas Park.

More recently the Harper Kennedy team notched up an excellent 6-1 win against Balmore GC.