Craigmillar Park victory lifts

Gavin Dear to 33 in rankings

Craigmillar Park Open winner Gavin Dear from Scone has improved seven places in the R&A World Amateur Rankings with his victory in the weekend 72-hole event at the Edinburgh venue. Murrayshall member Gavin is now No 33. The only other Scottish player in the top 100 is Wallace Booth (Comrie) in 60th position, a drop of three places from last week.
After his victory on Sunday, his first in a 72-hole tournament, 24-year-old Dear, pictured right, said he would be turning professional in late September but before then he had two targets.
"I want to make the Walker Cup team (for the match at Merion, Pennsylvania, September 12-13) and I want to get into the top 10 of the world amateur rankings before I leave the amateur ranks," said Dear.
"At 24, I cannot delay much longer than this year so I will be entering the European Tour School qualifying process. Even if I don't make it through that, I will still turn pro and go to some of the satellite tours in the States.
"I spent four years at Lynn University, Boca Ration in Florida so I have a lot of contacts out there. I won't stick."
This week's R&A World Amateur Golf Rankings:
1 Danny Lee (NZ), 2 Scott Arnold (Aus), 3 Jorge Campillo (Spa), 4 Stephan Gross (Ger), 5 Morgan Hoffman (US), 6 Sam Hutsby (Eng), 7 Rickie Fowler (US), 8 Reinier Saxton (Net) 9 Nick Taylor (Can), 10 Mike Van Sickle (US).
The WAGR will play an important part in the selection of the GB&I team for the Walker Cup match so we have listed all the Scottish, England, Welsh and Irish players in the top 200:
19 Shane Lowry (Ire), 23 Chris Paisley (Eng), 33 Gavin Dear (Sco), 34 Luke Goddard (Eng), 43 Tom Sherreard (Eng).
60 Wallace Booth (Sco), 63 Dale Whitnell (Eng), 78 Seamus Power (Ire), 89 Tommy Fleetwood (Eng), 92 Todd Adcock (Eng), 93 Matt Haines (Eng), 94 Charles Ford (Eng).
102 Steven McEwan (Sco), 103 Rhys Enoch (Wal), 113 Niall Kearney (Ire), 115 Paul Cutler (Ire), 137 Steven Uzell (Eng), 138 Ross Kellett (Sco), 143 Simon Ward (Ire).
156 Jamie Abbott (Eng), 163 Stiggy Hodgson (Eng), 180 Paul O'Hara (Sco), 183 Jake Amos (Eng), 184 Matthew Nixon (Eng), 185 Ben Rickett (Eng), 197 Andrew Cooley (Wal), 198 James Byrne (Sco).

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