Wallace Booth GB&I star on

Day 1 of St Andrews Trophy

FROM THE R&A WEBSITE

Perthshire's Wallace Booth was the star of the first day of the St Andrews Trophy at Kingsbarns Links, Fife with a stunning display in the afternoon singles matches that helped the GB&I team to a 7 1/2 – 4 1/2 lead at the halfway stage of the men's amateur international two-day match.

Booth, pictured left by Cal Carson Golf Agency, fired seven 3s and seven 4s in 14 holes to beat comprehensively the highly-rated Spaniard Jorge Campillo – the world No 6 – by 5 and 4. His excellent day's performance also included a 4 and 3 victory in the morning foursomes alongside Shane Lowry.

The home team looked for a while as if their lead would be far greater than 3pt. They dominated the morning foursomes for a 4-0 lunchtime lead before suffering a narrow defeat in the singles. Though GB&I moved into early leads in seven of the eight afternoon matches, a feisty fightback from the Continent of Europe team saw them turn things round and win the afternoon session 4 1/2 – 3 1/2.
Benjamin Hebert, Andrea Pavan and Alexandre Kaleka all turned deficits into Continent of Europe victories.

That fightback bodes well for Saturday's concluding day, as does the general standard of golf on display.

Sweden's Jesper Kennegard, for example, was six under par for his first nine holes of the singles against England's Dale Whitnell, who scarcely put a foot wrong but found himself on the wrong end of a 3 & 2 defeat.

The morning foursomes had been a different matter, however. Great Britain and Ireland won all four of the first day foursomes matches to take a commanding 4-0 lead.The whitewash always looked possible from the start: as early as the third hole, the GB&I team was ahead in all four matches, and the none of the Continent of Europe pairings was ever ahead after that point.

First to register a point were Matt Haines and Chris Paisley, who won four holes on the trot from the 12th to soar past Stephan Gross and Jesper Kennegard.

A few moments later, Shane Lowry and Wallace Booth chalked up a point after three birdies in four holes from the 12th to complete a 4 and 3 win.

With Jonathan Caldwell and Callum Macaulay beating Reinier Saxton and Tim Sluiter 3 and 1, it was up to Andrea Pavan and Jorge Campillo to try to salvage a point for the Continent. Despite taking the match to the 18th, it was not to be, and their one-hole loss to Sam Hutsby and Dale Whitnell put GB&I firmly in the driving seat going into the afternoon.

Continent lead by 2pt in Jacques

Leglise Trophy boys' match

FROM THE R&A WEBSITE

After the first day of the Jacques Leglise Trophy international boys' match at Kingsbarns, the Continent of Europe came out with a two-point lead over Great Britain and Ireland. Honours were even after the morning foursomes, but the Continent team dominated the singles to take the well-deserved advantage into Saturday.

In the morning foursomes the Irish pairing of Alan Dunbar and Luke Lennox registered the first point in the 2008 event. They completed a comprehensive 5 and 3 victory over their Spanish opponents Emilio Cuartero and Carlos Pigem.

Dunbar and Lennox made the most of their two years' experience of playing foursomes with each other, and pars on the first eight holes followed by birdies on the next two holes took them five ahead. Though they lost the next two, they won the 14th with par, and when Cuartero hooked his tee shot on the par-3 15th hole the game was over.

"We just played really well," said Dunbar. "It's beautiful out there today."

A few moments later, the English pairing of Tommy Fleetwood and Stiggy Hodgson finished up a 3 and 2 victory over Fredrik Kollevold of Norway and Daniel Jennevret of Sweden.

But it wasn't all going the way of GB&I: Italians Cristiano Terragni and Matteo Manassero edged Michael Stewart and Ben Enoch in the first game out, and in the last of the four games France's Romain Wattel and Germany's Maximilian Kieffer won on the 18th green.

In the afternoon singles matches the Continent were ahead in six of the eight games at one point, but brave fightbacks from Eddie Pepperell and Alan Dunbar in the final two games limited the damage for the home side.

All the matches were tight, with all but two going down the last hole and some excellent golf played on both sides.