Scots Torrance and Rae

among PGA Master

Professional awards

PRESS RELEASE ISSUED BY PGA

A quartet of golf professionals have been awarded the PGA’s highest status of Master Professional.

Legendary coach Bob Torrance, Ian Rae, Colin Clingan and Mickey Walker were confirmed with the honour this month and join a select band of professionals to have attained the top honour including the likes of Pete Cowen and David Leadbetter.

Bob Torrance is recognised as one of the game’s top coaches, having helped guide Padraig Harrington to three Major triumphs in the past 18 months.

Huntly-born Ian Rae, pictured above by Cal Carson Golf Agency, is national coach for Scotland at the Scottish Golf Union and has coached a number of European Tour stars.

Fellow Scot Colin Clingan, who is based at Windmill Hill Golf Club in Milton Keynes and turns 70 next year, has been a distinguished servant of the PGA having served on a number of regional and national committees as well being a renowned business tutor and marker for the Association.

Essex-based Mickey Walker, who is attached to The Warren, has led a distinguished career including being chairman of the European Tour and captain of both the Solheim and Curtis Cup teams.

She was awarded an OBE for her services to golf in 1993.

“We should extend our congratulations to these latest members of the PGA who have been recognised as Master Professionals,” said PGA chief executive Sandy Jones.“They have clearly advanced the standards in their own particular area of expertise and set targets and marker posts for those within the membership who wish to aspire to such a high degree of competence.

“This reflects the great knowledge and high degree of skill that exists throughout the PGA membership.”

The award is given to professionals with a minimum of 15 years experience in the game and recognises a significant contribution to the development of golf.

The quartet were not the only professionals honoured with more than a dozen professionals receiving awards as part of the PGA’s APAL (Accreditation of Prior Achievement and Learning) programme.

The PGA’s David Colclough and Thurlestone’s Peter Laugher have been made Advanced Fellows of the PGA.

Mark Day (Whipsnade GC), Malcolm Scott (Alresford) and Jon Woodroffe (Pedham Place Golf Centre) have attained Fellow status.

Finally, Clive Coombs (Vale Hotel Golf & Spa), Mark Desmond (Swanmore Golf Centre), Colin Fisher (World of Golf - Glasgow), Ian Parker (Royal North Devon), Stuart Syme (Dumfries & County) and Karl Kelly (Elm Green) have achieved Advanced status.

Stewart Savage wins on points at Dundonald Links

Stewart Savage eased to a narrow victory in the second Tartan Tour Winter Series event at
Dundonald Links in Ayrshire.
The Dalmuir pro racked up 33 Stableford points and won by a point from host club pro Guy Redford, Stephen Gray of Hayston and former PGA champion Andrew Oldcorn.
Mark Loftus, the 2007 Scottish PGA champion, shared ninth spot with 29 points.

Great Gavin leads Dixie Amateur

at halfway stage after brilliant 62

No Scot has ever won the Dixie men's amateur golf championship in Florida - but Gavin Dear from Scone, a member of Murrayshall Golf Club, Perth, appears to have an excellent chance of ending the 78 "barren" years.
Dear, pictured right by Cal Carson Golf Agency, leads by two shots at the halfway stage of the 72-hole tournament at Heron Bay Golf Club, Coral Springs after a brilliant second round of 10-under-par 62 - over a course measuring 7258yd - for a 12-under-par tally of 132.
Dear, Wallace Booth and Callum Macaulay won the Eisenhower Trophy world men's amateur team championship for Scotland at Royal Adelaide in October.
The Dixie tournament is the biggest amateur golf event of the Festive season in Florida and this year's field of close on 200 includes many US college players.
The two other Scots in the starting line-up, Carnoustie's Keir McNicoll and Murrayshall member Steven Hume from Errol failed to survive the halfway cut even though they shot level par 144. Hume had a pair of 72s, McNicoll a 71 and 73.
"Gavin just went daft in the second round for his 62. Hopefully he can go on to win it," said Keir McNicoll.
The leading 60 players and ties who will contest the final two rounds all had to shoot at least one-under-par 143 or better.

If Gavin Dear could win the Dixie title he would be following in the footsteps of such previous winners at Frank Stranahan, Lanny Wadkins, Andy Bean, Hal Sutton and Jesper Parnevik.

The Scotland international leads by two shots from Bradenton Golf Academy, Florida student Byeong-Hun An and Ohio State University player Vaughn Snyder. An had a 63 in his second round and Snyder a 65.
LEADERBOARD
Par 144 (2 x 72)
132 Gavin Dear (Murrayshall) 70 62.
134 Byeong-Hun Ann (Bradenton Academy) 71 63, Vaughn Snyder (Ohio State University) 69 65.
135 Brady Exeber (Las Vegas) 69 66.

136 Peter Uhlein (Oklahoma State Univ) 69 67, Veinaon Polini (Princesse Anne CC) 66 70.

137 David Chung (Stanford Univ) 70 67, J C Horne (North Florida Univ) 73 64, Greg O'Mahony (Nova SE Univ)) 70 67, Mathieu Rivard (Royal Bromont) 70 67, Aaron Fitzpatrick (Texas Tech Univ) 68 69.

Selected scores:
MISSED THE CUT (143 or better)
144 Keir McNicoll (Carnoustie) 71 73, Steven Hume (Murrayshall) 72 72.

Richard Sterne goes from No 113 to 43

and a place in Masters in just two

year-ending tournaments

Forget about Vijay Singh & Co in California, officially the final shot of 2008 was Richard Sterne's South African Open-winning birdie in the play-off against Gareth Maybin.

That counted for the official world rankings - the Chevron World Challenge didn't. The top 50 ranked receive invitations to play in the US Masters in April.

Sterne, pictured above, was among 15 players who clinched a place on Sunday in the first Major of 2009.

Rory McIlroy cemented his place in the top 50 by finishing joint third in the South African Open, which moved him up to No 39, 10 places ahead of Lin Wen-Tang of Taiwan, who tied for sixth in the Volvo Masters on the Asian Tour to be world ranked No. 49.
The 15 players not otherwise eligible, except for their top-50 ranking, were Justin Rose, Martin Kaymer, Ross Fisher, Luke Donald, Shingo Kayatama, Graeme McDowell, Rory Sabbatini, Jeev Milkha Singh, Aaron Baddeley, McIlroy, Oliver Wilson, Sterne, Soren Hansen, Tang and Soren Kjeldsen.
Along with other criteria, that puts the 2009 Masters field at 88 players who are expected to compete from April 10-13 at Augusta National.

Among those still NOT eligible are Woody Austin, Scott Verplank, Davis Love III and J.B. Holmes, the only Ryder Cup player who could miss the first major of the year.
Augusta National has the smallest field of the four majors, and it most likely will get larger.
Players still can qualify by winning one of 13 US PGA Tour events leading to the Masters, or by getting into the top 50 in the rankings published a week before the Masters. The Masters has not had more than 100 competitors since 1966.
No one made a bigger move than Sterne, who was ranked No. 113 two weeks ago. But he won the Alfred Dunhill Championship and the South African Open in consecutive weeks to move up 70 spots to No. 43.
Lin also was out of the top 100 in early November but began his move by winning the Hong Kong Open and securing his place with a tie for sixth in the Volvo Masters.

Chevron winner Vijay Singh makes

it an $18million year to remember

Vijay Singh raised his year's earnings to over $18million - an incredible figure for anyone, let along a 45-year-old Fijian - by winning the Chevron World Challenge by one shot at Sherwood Country Club, One Thousand Oaks in California yesterday.

The FedEx Cup winner (that was worth $10millon itself) and winner of a table-topping $6.6millon on the US PGA Tour in 2008 holed a 10ft birdie putt at the last for a five-under-par final round of 67 in his first stroke-play competition since the Tour Championship at the end of September.

A few shots back at the start of the day, Singh had drawn level in the lead with Jim Furyk at 10 under par after 13 holes, thanks to three straight birdies early on the back nine. Vijay completed his victory charge by holing a 10ft birdie putt on the home green to beat Steve Stricker by one stroke. Stricker closed with a 68 for 278.

"That was all very unexpected," said Singh after finishing at 11-under-under par 277 and winning Tiger Woods' charity event for the first time. "I was just hanging in there over the first two days. But I figured if I shot 67 or 68 in the last round, I would be right there with a chance."
Anthony Kim, the 54-hole leader, and Jim Furyk did their own charity work on a splendid afternoon of sunshine.
Kim was one shot out of the lead until making consecutive double bogeys, driving into the bushes on the 14th and hitting his 7-iron short and into the water on the par-3 15th. He birdied the next two holes, but by then it was over. Kim closed with a 73 and tied for third on 281 with Hunter Mahan, who shot 68.
Furyk, playing for the first time since the PGA Grand Slam of Golf in Bermuda on October 15, built a two-shot lead on the front nine until a pair of three-putt bogeys. He was tied with Singh after a 6ft birdie on the 13th, and still only one shot behind from the middle of the fairway on the par-5 16th when it all came undone.
Furyk twice went into the rough, bogeying the 16th, missing the par-3 17th green to drop another shot and with the tournament already decided, found the water on the 18th hole for the second straight day to make double bogey.

Furyk wound up dropping five shots over the final five holes for a 74 and tied for fifth with Camilo Villegas (73) on 282.
Ben Curtis was the only other player in the 16-man field to finish under par on 287.

English Ryder Cup player Luke Donald had the honour of returning the lowest round of the tournament, a six-under 66 on Sunday which was at least seven shots better than any of his previous rounds. Luke, who missed a fair chunk of the season with a hand injury, finished on level par 288.
Singh's fortunes began turning on the par-4 sixth hole, where he had made bogey each of the first three rounds. But in the final round he got a birdie there and when Furyk three-putted from long range in the group behind, the Fijian was back in the game big time.
"That got me all fired up," Singh said. "I played solidly. And the putter started working when it got inside 8 to 10 feet."
That was the range for his three straight birdies that put him in the lead, the biggest birdie of all on the 18th hole.
Singh jokingly told Woods at the trophy presentation, "Don't come back too soon. Take another year off."
Even with Woods at full strength, Singh has been up for the challenge. The big Fijian has won 23 times since turning 40, and his 34 career victories on the US PGA Tour are the most by a foreign-born player.
The Chevron World Challenge doesn't count as a Tour win or for the money table, but it felt like a victory considering the elite gathering. And it came at a good time for Singh, who starts the 2009 season in three weeks at Kapalua.
FINAL TOTALS

Par 288 (4 x 72)

277 Vijay Singh (Fiji) 71 72 67 67.

278 Steve Stricker (US) 71 71 68 68.

281 Anthony Kim (US) 71 70 67 73, Hunter Mahan (US) 71 72 70 68.

282 Jim Furyk (US) 68 71 70 74, Camilo Villegas (Colombie) 74 67 69 73.

287 Ben Curtis (US) 72 73 72 70.

288 Luke Donald (Eng) 73 75 74 66.

290 K J Choi (South Korea) 70 71 73 76, Boo Weekley (US) 70 73 72 75.

291 Paul Casey (Eng) 74 72 6976.

292 Fred Couples (US) 73 69 72 78.

293 Stephen Ames (Canada) 78 71 73 71.

295 Justin Leonard (US) 76 75 73 72, Kenny Perry (US) 73 72 75 75, Mike Weir (Canada) 78 71 70 76.