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What can I say? An incredible tournament over a magnificent course played under the most testing of conditions that were a challenge to the whole field. And what a finish....someone comes through the field takes the title by the narrowest of margins as others around him stumbled.

OK, I'm talking about the US Open which climaxed on Sunday 18th June....but I could just as well have been describing the 2006 Bar Point Masters on the Jubilee Course at St Andrews earlier that day.

The Masters was the climax to a brilliant weekend of golf, some of it played under brilliant sunshine and some of it feeling like it was October. Welcome to the East Neuk of Fife at the height of Summer.

On Friday, there were eight of us who went out over the New and then the Jubilee with just a 20 minute gap between rounds. I know that the two-four balls had matches that were extremely competitive and some cash did change hands. But for the purposes of competition, it was the McFarnon Bros who took the honours and the sweepstakes - Dave with 36pts over the New in the morning and Ron with 35 pts over the Jubilee in the afternoon.

Saturday dawned a little overcast but still pleasantly warm, and 13 of us set out for a game round the New Course. Four and a bit hours later and Ronnie Coyle had claimed his first ever victory - albeit in a non-counting event, thanks to his score of 35pts. While four golfers went out on Saturday afternoon for a round over the Jubilee, most of the BPGS preferred to conserve their energy and retired to their rooms to catch up with some sleep.

(Spot the deliberate lie in the last sentence. That's right......'four golfers went out on Saturday afternoon' is the lie. How can Messrs Clark, Coyle, Greer & Molloy be accurately described as golfers?)

And so to Sunday. A cloudy and strange day weather-wise. The sun threatened to break through now and again, but out on the course we got hit by three heavy rain showers which made conditions unpleasant for a while. It wasn't all that cold....but it certainly wasn't warm enough for shorts despite what John Greer said and did. They must breed them hard in Kirkcaldy. The best thing about the Masters was the fact that 16 of us made it along to play - a full house in effect and the first for many many years

Some of the early golf was quite stunning on a course that was pretty difficult thanks to narrow fairways bounded by gorse and thick rough, and some really nasty pin positions on fast, undulating greens. It was Lawrence who got off to a really flying start, parring 6 of the opening 9 holes and bogeying the other 3 to give him a superb outward nine of 39 strokes which equated to 21pts. Others, were also going well.

Ronnie Coyle was in fact just 2 over par as he stood on the tee of the par 3 9th hole, but he ran up a triple-bogey 6. He still had 18pts at the turn.

Kenny East was putting up a great defence of his title, and despite an NR at the long Par 5 6th hole, a front nine containing 4 pars and 2 bogeys was enough to net him 17pts.

The two low men in the field were also playing very well. Colin was out in 40 shots and Kevin Lazzerini was out in 39 shots, and each of them also had 17pts.

The 10th, 11th, 12th & 13th holes were the last chances to make big points before a very tough last six holes. The 10th was a long 403 yard Par 4, but with Stroke Index 5, everyone could take a 6 and still score a point. The 11th & 12th were back to back Par 5s - the 11th was downwind and reachable in two, while the 12th was 516 yards into the wind and stroke index 4 - so a 7 was enough to get at least a point. The 13th was a tough Par 3 played into a cross wind which needed either along-iron or wood to get to the green. This stretch of holes were to prove the key to determining the outcome of the 2006 Bar Point Masters.

Lawrence got his 5 at the difficult 10th for 2pts, but then had a disaster as he failed to score on any of the 11th, 12th or 13th holes.

Of the 4 guys on 17pts, Ron McFarnon picked up 7pts Kenny managed 6pts and Colin 5pts. Kevin however gained 8pts thanks to three bogies and a birdie. The player who made the biggest move was Jim whose run of pars and birdies on that stretch of holes got him 12 pts - the same score on 4 holes as he had managed for the whole of the front nine!!

And while most of us probably thought 35 or 36pts would be needed to win, everyone was behind their handicap after 13 holes - and we still had probably the 5 hardest holes left to play

There's no doubt that everyone tried really hard over the closing stretch and there were quite a few mistakes made as evidenced by loads of NRs and 1pt scores.

Lawrence who had played so fantastically on the front nine really suffered after his struggles over 11,12 and 13 and gained only 4 more pts on the last 5 holes.

Kenny made a great defence of his Masters and was very much in the thick of things on the 17th tee - but two triple-bogies on the last two holes cost him dear.

Jim had hauled himself into contention with an incredible start to his back nine, but his failure to par any of the stretch of 15-17, coupled with a double-bogey on the last, saw him fade out of contention.

The two Ronnies did well for a bit, but Mr Coyle had back-to-back double bogeys on 15 and 16 to end his challenge, while Mr McFarnon couldn't par any of the last 5 holes.

Iain put in one of the best finishes - Pars at 14, 16, 17 & 18. In the end, it was his double-bogey 6 at the 15th which cost him the title as he came up 1pt short.

So it was Kevin who triumphed thanks to a very steady round of golf that was sometimes spectacular - consisting of 3 birdies, 6 pars, 8 bogies and a 1 double bogey. His 34 pts was good enough to take the coveted Green Jacket.

Congratulations to Kevin on his first Masters win - and for having the lowest ever handicap (5) of any Master. He's keeping his cards close to his chest for the 2007 venue - but I can reveal it won't be the Dundee/Carnoustie area as that's the location for the 2007 Open (and apart from that, the new Master thinks Dundee is a shit-hole!!)

The only other things to mention were that Jim won nearest the pin (and on the green) at the 13th, while Alex won longest drive (and on the fairway) at the 18th.