SCOT MANSON WINS PGAS OF EUROPE
TITLE FOR AUSTRIA

Defending champions Scotland finished a disappointing 11th in the PGAs of Europe International team golf championship at Roda Golf & Beach Resort, Murcia in Spain today (WED).
Sam Cairns (Westerwood) shot a three-under-par 69 on the final day but it was too little too late for the Tartan Tour trio who had a final team total of seven-under-par 576.
At the top of the leaderboard, Austria and Wales were out on their own, tieing on 25-under-par 551, 12 shots ahead of third-placed Italy.
St Andrews-born Gordon Manson, a former European Tour player and Austrian Federation national coach for several years, sank a 12 foot put at the second hole of a sudden death play-off in fading light to win the title for Austria for the first time.
Manson was a shade disappointed with his day’s work, good though a closing round of 70 was. “I just couldn’t get close enough to the flags today to get more birdie chances,” he explained. As it turned out he was saving it for the final thrust.
Manson's Austrian team-mate Florian Ruprecht and Welshman Andrew Barnett tied for the individual honours on 12-under-par 276.
Cairns was the top Scot with 283, followed by Gary McFarlane (Clober) with 286 and Jim McKinnon (Irvine) on 295.

FINAL TOTALS
Par 576 (8 x 72)
551 Austria 142 134 135 140 (F Ruprecht 70, G Manson 70, C Grenier 73), Wales 137 138 138 138 (A Barnett 67, J Lee 71, P Evans 72). Austria won sudden-death play-off at second extra hole.
564 Italy 139 143 141 140 (F Pasqualucci 68, M Bianco 72, M Tadini 74).
565 Germany 140 142 143 140 (P Archbold 69, S Brown 71, M Stevenson 73).
566 Ireland 145 141 138 142 (R Giles 69, B McGovern 73, L Walker 76).
567 South Africa 141 140 143 143 (M Botha 69, P Marks 74, W Guy 78), England 141 149 138 139 (J Whatley 69, M Nesbit 70, D Taylor 72).
568 Finland 145 139 142 142 (H Murtonen 71, S Aho 71, J Peltomaki 74), Poland 144 143 138 143 (P Bronson 71, M O'Brien 72, M Proctor 73), Switzerland 144 138 143 143 (G Hickman 71, D Clarke 72, C Robinson 73).
569 Scotland 145 138 143 143 (S Cairns 69, G McFarlane 74, J McKinnon 75).
570 United Arab Emirates 139 146 140 145 (S Payne 72, C Martin 73, G Holmes 75).
571 Norway 140 140 144 147 ()T Hansen 71, T Oderud 76, M Haeras retired).
572 Portugal 139 145 143 145 (N Cavalheiro 72, S Ribeiro 73, A Sequeira 73), Holland 137 146 142 147 (B Valk 72, M Reynolds 75, J Eerdmans 75).
576 Spain 143 143 144 146 (A Ocejo 71, M Aparico 75, J Rosillo 76), Czech Republic 144148 144 140 (J Juhaniak 68, P Strougal 72, J Nemeck 74).
579 Denmark 143 136 146 154 (T Nilsson 74, R Kert 80, H Larsen 84).
587 Sweden 145 142 148 152 (P Jonsson 76, R Thornqvist 76, N Bjornsson 77).
590 Croatia 148 150 144 148 (N Smoljenivic 71, M Raic 77, D Ljubanovic 79).
594 Slovena 147 145 155 147 (A Kraljic 73, R Pisek 74, J Grilc 76).
595 Mexico 150 150 147 148 (A Romero 71, I Mendez 77, I Estrada 84).
601 Belgium 150 150 144 157 (F Dhondt 78, M De Little 79, A Beaupain retired).
604 Russia 152 153 145 153 (A Nesterov 76, A Gruzdov 77, A Matrosov 79).
609 Luxembourg 158 149 156 146 (L Marks 70, J Pallier 76, J Pickford 80).
618 Greece 152 148 157 161 (T Ginis 79, E Papadolpoulos 82, H Zervos 87).
622 Bulgaria 162 153 152 155 (N Turley 75, R McGarr 80, N Stanew 80).
626 Slovakia 152 159 157 158 (M Oravec 78, P Spacek 80, L Valuch 82).
LEADING INDIVIDUALS
Par 288
276 F Ruprecht (Austria) 71 68 67 70, A Barnett (Wales) 69 72 68 67.
278 R Giles (Ireland) 71 70 68 69, J Lee (Wales) 68 69 70 71.
280 G Manson (Austria) 76 66 68 70, M O'Brien Poland) 72 75 71 72, N Cavalheiro (Portugal) 66 71 71 72, S Payne (United Arab Emirates) 68 71 69 72, P ARchbold (Germany) 72 70 69 211.