The 2018 Order of Merit has been a two horse race from the first weeks of the season between Douglas Borland (Southerness) and David Brodie (Newton Stewart). As the season progressed Douglas has always maintained a slender lead until the last competition, the Shamash Trophy at Kirkcudbright on Sunday 23 September, when David finished higher up the leaderboard and gained enough points to overtake Douglas and retain his title by thirty points.

Andrew Kerr (Crichton) also had a strong finish in the Shamash Trophy which lifted him up to a tie for third place with Mike Grunwell (D&G) and demoted Clark Riddick (Southerness) down to fifth.

A lot of the younger generation have all played well in isolated competitions throughout the season but have not had the consistency to challenge their older counterparts but their time will come.

TOP TEN LEADERBOARD

1             David Brodie (Newton Stewart)                                 695 points

2             Douglas Borland (Southerness)                                   665

3=           Michael Grunwell (D&G)                                              385

3=           Andrew Kerr (Crichton)                                                 385

5             Clark Riddick (Southerness)                                         330

6             Fraser Hughes (Newton Stewart)                                275

7             Chris Corbett (D&G)                                                      252.5

8             Colin Hamilton (Stranraer)                                           240

9             Iain Rae (Dalbeattie)                                                     231.7

10           Matthew McCulloch (Portpatrick)                             215

To view the table on line go to: http://www.southof scotlandgolfers.com/competitions

The photo shows David Brodie with the trophy.