Jim Irvine, Craig Lee and Sam Cairns with the PGAs of Europe international team championship trophy last year. They will again be representing the Tartan Tour next month.

LEE GOING BACK TO SPAIN TO LEAD SCOTLAND
DEFENCE OF PGAs OF EUROPE TEAM TITLE

Craig Lee, fresh or otherwise from graduating to the 2008 European Tour from the Final Qualifying School at San Roque today, will be back in Spain shortly for the PGAs of Europe international team championship, supported by Glenmuir, at Roda Golf & Beach Resort, Murcia. Last year Lee won the PGAs of Europe individual title with a 21-under-par total of 267, breaking the course record twice. His score counted every day as Scotland won the team title by three shots from Ireland.
It will be the same Scotland trio on duty - Craig Lee, Sam Cairns (Westerwood) and Jim McKinnon (Irvine).
The Tartan Tour team is chosen from the final Order of Merit table on an automatic basis with the proviso that only players who have worked a minimum of 25 hours a week in a PGA establishment qualify for selection.
Craig Lee finished sixth in the table, Cairns eighth and McKinnon 13th.
Greig Hutcheon, Paul McKechnie, Mark Loftus, David Orr and Robert Arnott - the first five in the SPGA Order of Merit, did not meet the PGA-work stipulation. Neither did Stephen Gray (seventh), Murray Urquhart (ninth), Chris Kelly (10th), Chris Doak (11th) and Colin Gillies (12th).
It was much the same story last year but that did not stop Messrs Lee, Cairns and McKinnon doing a grand job as Scotland's representatives in Spain.
There will be a record field of 35 teams in the PGAs of Europe international team championship early next month - including India, Israel, Jamaica, Mexico and Russia for the first time. Perhaps the word "open" should be inserted into the tournament title.
Other Scots in the field apart from the Tartan Tour team will be Austria's Gordon Manson and Craig Martin, representing the United Arab Emirates.
To qualify for play for a country in this tournament, the players only have to be members of the PGA in that country. Nationality does not come into it.

TEAMS

AUSTRIA - Claude Grenier, Gordon Manson, Florian Ruprecht.
BELGIUM - Frank Dhondt, Arnaud Beaupain, Mathieu de Lille, Frank Dhondt.
BULGARIA - Neil Turley, Robin McGarr, Nikolay Stanew.
CROATIA - Miro Raic, Neno Smoljenovic, Darko Ljubanovic.
CZECH REPUBLIC - Jiri Nemecek, Jan Juhaniak, Petr Strougal.
DENMARK - Hans Henrik Larsen, Thomas Nilsson, Ronny Kert.
ENGLAND - James Whatley, Michael Nesbitt, Danny Taylor.
FINLAND - Harri Murtonen, Jyry-Jussi Peltomaki, Sakan Aho.
GERMANY - Simon Brown, Paul Archbold, Mark Stevenson.
GREECE - Eugene Papadolpoulos, Dimitiri Vlahos, Themis Ginis.
HOLLAND - Bronno Valk, Mark Reynolds, Johan Eerdmans.
HUNGARY - Team not selected.
ICELAND - Team not selected.
INDIA - Team not selected.
IRELAND - Brendan McGovern, Leslie Walker, Robert Giles.
ISRAEL - Team not selected.
ITALY - Mauro Bianco, Fernando Pasqualucci, Mario Tadini.
JAMAICA - Team not selected.
LUXEMBOURG - John Pickford, Leon Marks, Julian Pallier.
MALTA - Team not selected.
MEXICO - Arnulfo Romero, Israel Mendez, Ismael Estrada.
NORWAY - Thomas Oderud, Morten Haeras, Thomas Hansen.
POLAND - Mike O'Brien, Peter Bronson, Martyn Proctor.
PORTUGAL - Nelson Cavalheiro, Sergio Ribeiro, Almerino Sequeira.
RUSSIA - Alexander Gruzdov, Alexey Matrosov, Artem Nesterov.
SCOTLAND - Craig Lee, Sam Cairns, Jim McKinnon.
SLOVAKIA - Michael Oravec, Milan Sopko, Peter Spacek.
SLOVENIA - Andrej Kraljic, Daniel Kraljic, Rok Pisek.
SOUTH AFRICA - Paul Marks, David Riddle, Morne Botha.
SPAIN - Juan Angel Rosillo, Mariano Aparicio, Alberto Ocejo.
SWEDEN - Rickaro Thornqvist, Petter Johnsson, Niclas Bjornsson,
SWITZERLAND - Carl Robinson, Giles Hickman, David Clarke.
TURKEY - Team not selected.
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - Simon Payne, Greg Holmes, Craig Martin.
WALES - Andrew Barnett, Peter Evans, James Lee.