Scotland will be hoping to complete a
notable international double when they take
on South Africa in an international match at
Prestwick Wednesday and Thursday.
The Scots beat the South Africans on
their home soil earlier this year and will
have high hopes of repeating that feat
with a strong side comprising 2012 South
African Amateur champion Brian Soutar
(Leven), 2011 SGU Men’s Order of Merit
champion James White (Lundin), double
2012 winner Fraser McKenna (Balmore),
Paul Shields (Kirkhill) plus Graeme
Robertson (Glenbervie) and Adam Dunton
(McDonald Ellon) who currently occupy the
top two spots on the 2012 Order of Merit.
Absent is Aberdour’s Scott Crichton who
won all four of his matches in South Africa
but has since suffered from a slump in
form and has not been selected.
The South African side features teenager
Haydn Porteous and Charles du Plessis,
who are both within the top 100 on the World
Amateur Golf Ranking, plus Drikus Bruyns,
Gert Myburgh, Shaun Smith and Jean-Paul
Strydom. However, world No 27 Brandon
Stone is not included despite the fact he has
entered next week’s Amateur Championship
at Royal Troon and Glasgow Gailes.
Interestingly, Porteous has strong Scottish connections, with his father being born
in Falkirk and living in Dollar until 1974. His
grandfather was born and raised in Leven
and played his golf at Lundin Links.
The match comprises three foursomes
and six singles on each day. The team that
reaches 9½ points will be victorious.
Scotland national coach Ian Rae said:
“As the South African players are over for
a month for the various individual events,
we thought it was a great opportunity for
both sides to play another match. We have
picked a strong Scottish team and we ap-
proach the Test with confidence.”
Gimpsey (1988 and ’98), Darren Clarke (’89),
Raymond Burns (’92 and ’93), Noel Fox (’96
and ’02) and Paul Cutler (‘09) as a winner
of the East of Ireland but the Championship
will always be synonymous with Joe Carr,
who won it 12 times in all including three
years in succession between 1956 and 1958.
James White
France’s Paul Barjon highlighted the
value of good preparation when he won the
recent Carrick Neill Scottish Open Stroke
Play Championship at Kilmarnock Barassie.
The former Pacific Islander played
Barassie during a recent fact-finding trip to
the West of Scotland, arranged for him by
the R&A’s Captain-Elect, Pierre Bechmann,
and the visit paid handsome dividends
when he fired rounds of 70, 71, 73 and 68
to finish four shots ahead of Porteous and
Australia’s Rory Bourke.
Barjon’s rivals should be warned that
during the same trip the Frenchman also
played rounds at Royal Troon and Glasgow
Gailes where this year’s Amateur Championship is being staged 18-23 June.
Moyola Park’s Chris Selfridge made
it two out of two when he won last week’s
East of Ireland Championship at Co. Louth.
The former Irish boys’ international and
freshman at the University of Toledo won
the recent Irish Close Championship at
Royal Portrush and quickly backed up that
success by carding rounds of 74, 73, 69 and
70 at Co. Louth and then defeating Nicky
Grant from Knock in a three-hole play-off.
Selfridge joins the likes of Garth Mc-
David Lane heads the British Chal-
lenge at this week’s European Senior
Men’s Championship at Golf & Landclub
Achensee in Austria.
Past winners include France’s Francois
Illouz (2000 and ‘ 10), Englishmen Stephen
East (2009), Gary Wolstenholme (2006 and
’07), John Marks (1995) and Lane McKenzie (1994) and Spain’s Jose Maria Zamora
(2005). Zamora is now a Rules official on
the European Tour. He is not the only Tour
staffer to play well in the championship
because Chief Referee John Paramor finished third at Chantilly in 1996.
Scotland’s Christine McAndrew and
Jane Rees from Wales are the only British
competitors in the field for the concurrent
European Seniors Ladies’ Championship
at the same venue. McAndrew has made
a big sacrifice in order to travel to Austria.
She hails from Nairn but elected to travel
to Achensee rather than watch GB&I Curtis
Cup team take on America in her hometown.
A 15 year-old English youngster has
recently been awarded a place in the International Junior Golf Tour All-IJGT Team
for 2011-12. Lohith Ramaraju, from London, who is a full-time student at the Hank
Haney Junior Golf Academy in Hilton Head
Island, South Carolina, earned his place on
the team after amassing three wins and 14
top- 10 finishes in 15 starts during the fall
2011-spring 2012 season. The wins came at
Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, Savannah, Georgia and Saddlebrook, Florida. l
