HEARTS held their seventh annual golf day on Monday, and the ace face among the great and the good gathered at Dalmahoy proved to be The Scotsman's sports writer Mike Aitken, who recorded his first ever hole in one.
Keen amateur Aitken, who has
watched in awe from behind the rope as stars such as Colin Montgomerie have notched aces, got his first taste of the feeling – 45 years after he first swung a club.
Hearts defender Robbie Neilson was walking round with Aitken when he hit his perfect shot with a 7 iron between the bunkers on the par-3 fourth. "With no sign off the ball on the green, I was about to comb the rough when Robbie peered into the cup. He brought news of my first hole in one," said Aitken.
Not wishing to take the gloss of the venerable veteran's big moment, it should be pointed out that there were no eye-witnesses to the ball actually landing in the cup. Given that the 'prize' for recording the feat is to buy the company a round of drinks, one wonders if Mr Neilson was executing a cunning plan!
Wayne Foster's team, 4-4-2 Design, won the event, meanwhile, with Jamie Mole hitting the longest drive.
Hughes denies Grant quotesPORTSMOUTH and Scotland midfielder Richard Hughes has claimed comments he made about Chelsea manager Avram Grant are a "misrepresentation". Hughes worked with Grant when he was director of football at Fratton Park and was quoted as saying the Israeli would be happy to move aside for Frank Rijkaard. But Hughes said yesterday: "I have not spoken to Avram since he left to join Chelsea and nor have I ever said I have."
Thatthi wants Loeb to buff up WORLD rally ace Sebastien Loeb's "scruffy" appearance has been pasted by senior officials including the not-so-unshabbily monikered Surinder Thatthi, of Africa's motorsport confederation. Watching the WRC Mexico highlights, Thatti found Loeb "unshaven, scruffy and with unkempt hair!!" But Simon Long, head of ISC which holds the sport's commercial rights, has backed the appeal of Loeb's "rugged good looks". Further scrutineering needed.
TALES FROM THE TABS: ALL THAT GLITTERS ISN'T GOLD NOT since Clark Kent and Lois Lane's relentless probing of Metropolis corporate sleaze and super-villainy in the Daily Planet has a man called Lex been the victim of such press opprobrium. Record Sport's very own Perry White - James Traynor - branded SPL chief Lex Gold the "Gordon Brown of Scottish football" for his handling of what the Record calls "The Great SPL Fixtures Farce" and called on him to resign.
There was less sympathy for Rangers from an unlikely source in the Sun and Express – a former Ibrox player branding the Uefa Cup finalists footballing cavemen. Former Russian internationalist Andrei Kanchelskis said: "In Europe Rangers play primitive football."
Back on the fixtures fiasco the Mirror revealed any lingering hopes of moving the Scottish Cup final hadn't reckoned with a Bruce Springsteen gig at Hampden on the proposed alternative date.
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