Scone man 15th in this week's R&A WAGR

Gavin Dear closing in on world

top 10 ranking target

This week’s R&A World Amateur Golf Rankings show that Murrayshall’s Gavin Dear has risen to his highest position yet – 15th – and that Mark Hillson (Craigielaw) and Banchory’s James Byrne have surged up the rankings by 77 and 44 places respectively over a one-week span.
After he had won the Craigmillar Park Open in April, the 24-year-old Dear from the Perth village of Scone said that his target was to make the top 10 of the R&A WAGR for the simple reason that it would exempt him from playing in the early stages of the European Tour Qualifying School process.
Dear. pictured above by Cal Carson Golf Agency, is quite emphatic that he will turn professional in September, hopefully after playing for GB&I in the Walker Cup match that month at Merion Golf Club, USA.
“I’m nearly in my mid-20s. I can’t delay any longer in turning pro after this amateur season,” says Gavin.
Byrne, winner of back-to-back SGU Order of Merit events – the Tennant Cup and the East of Scotland Open, has gone up from 204 to 160 in the world rankings.
Hillson, the only Scot to make the last eight of the British amateur championship, has surged 77 places to No 178.
Byrne and Hillson have now risen in the Scottish rankings to third and fourth place behind Gavin Dear and Comrie’s Wallace Booth, displacing two men who are in the Scotland line-up at the European amateur team championship this week, Paul O’Hara (Colville Park) and Michael Stewart.
O’Hara is currently in 192nd position and Stewart is 240th.
There are 15 Scots in the top 500 of the R&A WAGR. You can argue both ways on that statistic. That’s a fairly good achievement for a country with a population of only five million.
The other side of the coin is that Scotland is the Home of Golf and we probably have more male amateur golfers percentage wise than a lot of bigger countries – and we should have twice as many in the top 500.
You pays your money …
The world’s top 15 amateurs, as calculated by R&A staffer David Moir who is so heavily involved in working out the weekly rankings, based on tournament returns from all over the world, that he had to cancel a guest appearance at the Scottish golf writers’ championship prizegiving meal at Fairmont St Andrews late Tuesday afternoon, are:
1 Nick Taylor ( Canada ) 1300.00.
2 Morgan Hoffman ( US ) 1243.08.
3 Matt Haill ( Canada ) 1235.19.
4 Sam Hutsby ( England ) 1147.89 (+3 from last week).
5 Matteo Manassero ( Italy ) 1146.15 (+3).
6 Nicol Van Wyk ( South Africa ) 1144.00 (+3).
7 Rickie Fowler (US) 1138.67 (+3).
8 Mike Van Sickle ( US ) 1116.39 (-2).
9 Stephan Gross ( Germany ) 1104.29 (-4).
10 Cameron Tringale (US) 1087.72 (+2).
11 Erik Flores (US) 1087.14 (+2).
12 Victor Dubuisson (France) 1056.86 (+4).
13 Matt Jaeger ( Australia ) 1051.25 (+1).
14 Brian Harman (US) 1051.02 (+1).
15 Gavin Dear ( Scotland ) 1047.37 (+2).

Other Scottish player rankings:
91 Wallace Booth (Comrie) 865.38 (+5).
105 Ross Kellett ( Colville Park ) 847.62 (-13).
160 James Byrne (Banchory) 791.94 (+44).
178 Mark Hillson (Craigielaw) 776.79 (+77).
192 Paul O’Hara ( Colville Park ) 769.23 (-2).
240 Michael Stewart (Troon Welbeck) 736.21 (-4).
249 Steven McEwan (Caprington) 731.65 (-4).
284 Scott Borrowman (Dollar) 706.25 (-4).
285 Glenn Campbell (Blairgowrie) 706.25 (-10).
340 James White (Lundin) 674.60 (+8).
386 Philip McLean (Peterhead) 648.10 (+17).
421 Keir McNicoll (Carnoustie) 625.33 (+35).
423 Greg Paterson ( St Andrews New) 624.66 (+6).
426 Gordon Yates ( Hilton Park ) 622.50 (-1).