Gavin Dear driving from the third tee at Murcar Links on Sunday in the Bidwells Scottish open amateur stroke-play championship (image by Cal Carson Golf Agency; click on it to enlarge).

Gavin Dear climbs 12 places to No 16

in R&A World Amateur Golf Rankings

By COLIN FARQUHARSON
Murrayshall's Gavin Dear, runner-up in the weekend Bidwells Scottish open amateur stroke-play golf championship, is getting closer to his ambition of making the top 10 in the R&A World Amateur Golf Rankings.
Because he missed the cut in last year's "Scottish," Dear's performance at Murcar Links pushed him up 12 places to 16th in the updated rankings issued this evening by R&A staff man David Moir.
"If I can make the top 10, then I can skip the early stages of the European Tour Qualifying School process," said 24-year-old Gavin who lives at Scone, Perthshire.
Tommy Fleetwood, the Lancashire 18-year-old who won the Scottish stroke-play shot up 36 places from 60th to 24th in the rankings.
Wallace Booth (Comrie) suffered the reverse effect from Dear. Wallace won the stroke play title last year so he has plummeted 21 places to No 68.
The only other Scot in the top 100 is Colville Park's consisistent player Ross Kellett who is 92nd, down seven places from last week.
Banchory's James Byrne, the Arizona State University student who tied for fourth place at Murcar Links, improved 34 places to No 292.
Those players in the top 10 rankings who have entered the Open and are not otherwise exempt gain exemption from the Regional Qualifyng and go straight into Local Final Qualifying at Glasgow Gailes, Kilmarnock Barassie or Western Gailes on July 6 and 7.

TOP TEN
(+ or - indicates how many places a player has gone up or down since last week).
1 Morgan Hoffman (US) 1202.94.
2 Rickie Fowler (US) 1194.67.
3 Nicol Van Wyk (SAf) 1168.75 (+1).
4 Matt Hill (Can) 1163.93 (+3).
5 Nick Taylor (Can) 1155.56 (-2).
6 Stephan Gross (Ger) 1151.52 (-1).
7 Jorge Campillo (Spa) 1121.13 (-1).
8 Mike Van Sickle (US) 1114.52 (+1).
9 Billy Horschel (US) 1111.54 (-1).
10 Kyle Stanley (US) 1089.06 (+3).
Selected rankings:
16 Gavin Dear (Sco) 1023.68 (+12).
24 Tommy Fleetwood (Eng) 998.18 (+36).
68 Wallace Booth (Sco) 889.74 (-21).
92 Ross Kellett (Sco) 858.21 (-7).
172 Steven McEwan (Sco) 781.25 (-42).
180 Michael Stewart (Sco) 774.14 (-9).
251 Glenn Campbell (Sco) 722.22 (-7).
292 James Byrne (Sco) 700.00 (+34).
300 Keir McNicoll (Sco) 692.96 (-8).
308 Scott Borrowman (Sco) 688.75 (+53).
323 Mark Hillson (Sco) 683.61 (-23).
328 Paul O'Hara (Sco) 681.97 (-16).
389 Philip McLean (Sco) 643.75 (+21).
396 James White (Sco) 640.32 (-34).
404 Craig Watson (Sco) 637.50 (-10).
410 Lewis Kirton (Sco) 635.00 (-10).
448 Gordon Yates (Sco) 612.50 (-31).
531 Greg Paterson (Sco) 571.43 (+42).
580 Peter Latimer (Sco) 548.78 (+20).
595 David Law (Sco) 539.52 (-158).
625 Stephen Speirs (Sco) 525.00 (-5).
635 Kris Nicol (Sco) 520.31 (+37).
648 Bryan Fotheringham (Sco) 515.00 (+128).
653 David Addison (Sco) 513.95 (+32).
663 Mark Lamb (Sco) 506.67 (+27).