SGU may introduce stroke-play qualifying

to Scottish match-play championship

This could be the last year that the Allied Surveyors Scottish men’s amateur golf championship is entirely decided on a match-play format.
England, Ireland and Wales have all introduced two stroke-play qualifying rounds in recent years to produce 64 qualifiers for the match-play stages.
World amateur ranking points are awarded for the stroke-play rounds but not until the quarter-finals of a match-play tournament.
Gavin Dear (Murrayshall), No 12 in the R&A WAGR list this week, thus earned no points for going out in the third round of this week’s SGU flagship tournament at Royal Troon.
Dear will turn pro in September so future formats for the Scottish amateur championship will make no difference to him but he did say after his shock defeat by Grant Carnie (Newburgh on Ythan) that he felt the way forward for the SGU was to come into line with the other home unions and introduce a 36-hole stroke-play qualifying test in the national championship.
SGU chief executive Hamish Grey said he had not been approached by any Scottish players about such a change but it would certainly be on the agenda for the organising body’s customary assessment of how things have gone at all their championships.
“World amateur ranking points are becoming a more and more important factor in golf and the SGU has to keep apace of developments,” he said.
Mr Grey hinted that there could also be major changes in the Scottish men's area team championship next year.
There has been dis-satisfaction in certain quarteres with the current league table format which puts the areas into all-play-all sections, played over almost the length of the season, and, depending on the luck of the draw, sometimes involving expensive trips for the teams of six players and officials to the other end of the country.
An announcement is expected next week.