Wednesday, June 24, 2009

James Byrne, the hottest thing in Scottish amateur golf at the moment (Cal Carson Golf Agency images). Click on the image to enlarge.

It's that young man James Byrne again! Banchory player stars
in Open Regional Qualifying at Musselburgh with a 65

You just can't keep James Byrne down at the moment.
One of only two Scots to reach the last 16 of the British amateur championship at Formby ... winner by seven shots of the Tennant Cup 72-holer at the weekend ... and now, today, he shoots a terrific 65 to lead for most of the day in the Open Regional Qualifying competition at Musselburgh.
What a pity the Scotland team for the upcoming European team championship was chosen before Byrne hit his purple patch of form which has elevated his position in the R&A WAGR to fourth best Scot, which means he is actually officially rated more highly than two of the players who have been selected.
It might have been better had the Scottish Golf Union selectors delayed the team selection - based no doubt on R&A WAGR positions at that specific time - until after British amateur championship.
Late in the day, by a curious coincidence, Byrne was headed by the fellow Arizona State student Scott Pinckney whose improved form in the second half of the 2008-2009 US college circuit season cost the Scot his place in the AZU team of five for tournaments.
Great to see a field containing quite a few Tartan Tour pros headed by three young amaters - Pinckney, Byrne and last year's Scottish boys' match-play champion Michael Stewart (Troon Welbeck) who is a student at East Tennessee State>

QUALIFIERS
(A) denotes amateur
63 Scott Pinckney (US) (am).
65 James Byrne (Banchory) (am).
66 Michael Stewart (Troon Welbeck) (am).
67 Steven Taylor (Bothwell Castle), Mark Loftus (Cowglen).
68 Elliot Saltman (Archerfield Links), Chris Kelly (Cawder), Andrew Gunson (Shady Canyon) (am).
69 John Gallagher (Swanston), Jonnie Cliff (Murrayfield), Scott Henry (Cardross).
Reserves
70 James Hamilton (New Zealand) (am) (No 14), Michael Daily (Erskine) (am) (No 19), James McGhee (Turnhouse) (No 46), Malcolm Isaacs (Nairn Dunbar) (No 51).
NON-QUALIFIERS
70 Mark Barnard (Inchmarlo), Callum Nicoll (Prestwick), Zack Saltman (Archerfield Links).
71 Scott Jamieson (Cathkin Braes), Steven Buchan (Royal Aberdeen) (am), Philip McLean (Peterhead) (am), James Ross (Royal Burgess) (am), David Patrick (Elie SC), William Bremner (Edzell) (am).
72 Shaun McAllister (Craigielaw), Alan Reid (West Lothian), Steven Hume (Noah's Ark).
73 Alastair Love (Charleton), Carl Wahlin (Sweden), Paul Moultrie (Troon Portland) (am), Aaron Howard (Murrayshall) (am), Kenneth Glen (Royal Musselburgh), Paul Wardell (Whitekirk), Andrew Wallace (Glenbervie) (am), Brian Leishman (Gleneagles Hotel), Gordon Sherry (Kilmarnock Barassie)
74 Jason McCreadie (Buchanan Castle), Bobby Rushford (Grangemouth) (am), Alan Purdie (Kingsbarns), Myles Clapperton (Musselburgh) (am), Lee Harper (Archerfield Links), David Simpson (Malone) (am), Graeme Stewart (Gleddoch), Michael Main (Thornton) (am), Paul McKechnie (Braid Hills), Alfredo Da Corte (Italy), Stuart Robin (Prestwick St Nicholas), Scott Borrowman (Dollar) (am), Stewart Savage (Dalmuir).
75 Stephen Neilson (Dunbar) (am), Roberto Sebastian (Spain), Iain Kennedy, Mearns Castle), Liam McGowan (St Andrews New) (am), Ross Bell (Downfield) (am), Keith Aitken (Musselburgh) (am), Jamie Mackay (Kilmarnock (Barassie) (am), Lindsay Mann (Carnoustie), Ross Cameron (McDonald Ellon), Peter Brown (Aberdour) (am), Scott Stewart-Cation (Ladybank) (am).
76 Ronald Goudie (Machrie), John Yuille (Royal Burgess) (am), Duncan Stewart (Grantown on Spey), Alan Lockhart (Ladybank), Fraser Syme (Musselburgh) (am), Chris McCalman (unatt), Martin Stein (Craigielaw) (am).
77 Fraser McKenna (Balmore) (am), Richard Gill (Craigmillar Park) (am), Alistair Serrels (Royal Montrose) (am), Mark Hillson (Craigielaw) (am), Iain Galbraith (Scotland) (am), Walter Meiklem (Scotland) (am), Duncan Raitt (Murcar Links) (am), Stephen Murray (Troon Welbeck) (am).
78 Gordon Stevenson (Whitecraigs) (am), Craig Everett (Caldwell), Lee Vannet (Carnoustie).
79 Anthony Bews (Murcar Links) (am), Callum Trahan (Murcar Links) (am), Colin Mundie (Falkirk) (am), Scott Dixon (Marriott Dalmahoy), Allan McKie (Glencruitten) (am), David Addison (Kilmarnock Barassie) (am).
80 Yasushi Nakazaki (Japan), Mark Finlayson (Edzell), Nick Holligan (Royal Burgess), Clive Robertson (Green Haworth) (am), Duncan Williamson (Kirkhill).
81 Rick Valentine (Craigielaw), Andrew Barton (Cowal), Steven Rennie (Drumpellier) (am).
83 Francisco Pintor Smith (Spain) (am).
84 Jordan Findlay (Fraserburgh) (am).
85 Kieron Stevenson (Royal Troon)
87 Ian Sandbrook (Steigerwald), Alastair MacKenzie (Duddingston).
NRs Richard Clark (Bruntsfield Links), Steven Moir (unatt), Michael Sweenie (Turnberry).
Scratched - Kris Nicol (Fraserburgh) (am), Shiro Suzuki, Japan

'The way I'm playing, I just can't wait for the Final Qualifying,"
says James Byrne

MIKE AITKEN REPORTS
From the www.scotsman.sport.com website
Fuelled by the confidence of youth as he carded 65, six under par, during regional qualifying at Musselburgh, Banchory's James Byrne believes a spell of outstanding form will spur him on to contend for a place at Turnberry when he confronts the final hurdle for the Open in Ayrshire next month.
The 20-year-old amateur who attends Arizona State University, where Phil Mickelson and Paul Casey are among the alumni, was thrilled to post a round in East Lothian which included six birdies and an eagle 3 at the seventh. "It was all about good golf," he enthused.
"I was very steady and played with a lot of confidence. In fact, the way I'm playing I just can't wait for final qualifying because I feel I will have a great chance. I reached the last 16 of the Amateur last week at Formby and won the Tennant Cup at the weekend, so this was just a continuation of that good form. I was very positive from the moment I birdied the first."
In what turned out to be a friendly feud, Byrne's room-mate at college, Scott Pinckney, 20, from Phoenix, later set a new course record of 63, eight under, in blustery conditions at Musselburgh, thanks to a barrage of nine birdies, marred only by a bogey at the sixth.
"It was my best round ever," grinned the young American, whose white shirt and matching slacks hardly amounted to a flag of surrender."It all came together for me. I wanted to play in Scotland this summer and experience links golf in order to make me a better player. But I wouldn't be here if I wasn't a friend of James."
Andrew Gunson, 21, whose father, Brian, was director of golf at Turnberry before emigrating to the USA in 2001, returned to home turf from California to shoot 68, the same mark as pros Chris Kelly and Elliot Saltman.
"Because the Open is at Turnberry this year, the family decided to come back for a holiday," reported the student at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
"I entered qualifying in January and, hopefully, we'll be here a little longer."
On what was a grand day for the emerging amateurs, Troon's Michael Stewart, the Scottish boys' match-play champion in 2008, hopes local support will assist his quest to play in a major. With just 11 spots into local final qualifying on offer at Musselburgh for the field of 100 hopefuls to chase, Stewart chose to be adventurous in the quest to keep his Open dream alive.
"I played a practice round here for the first time on Tuesday and decided if I was going to make it through then I just had to be aggressive," observed the 19-year-old amateur.
"If you play sensible golf then you might not make it, because it's only one round. I hit lots of drivers and just went for it because I didn't want to leave anything out there."
In his comic golf novel, "The Amateurs," Scottish author John Niven describes the modern Open qualifying scene at Musselburgh as resembling a boy band convention. In reality, there was more of a mixture of mature campaigners and youthful aspirants in East Lothian, though no shortage of streaked highlights and iridescent polo shirts in the summer sunshine.
A Scottish internationalist attending East Tennessee State University at Johnson City, the exuberant Stewart plays out of Troon Wellbeck and is well acquainted with the links at Glasgow Gailes, Western Gailes and Kilmarnock Barassie which will decide who among the 150 final qualifiers earns one of the remaining dozen places available to join the world's leading golfers on the Ailsa.
"I know all the final qualifying courses really well and believe I will get fantastic support wherever I play next," he said. "This is the first time I've tried to qualify for the Open and it would be a dream to tee up at Turnberry. I played there in the Amateur championship last summer and, though I didn't make it through, I love the Ailsa. With all the changes which have been made to the links, it's going to be a really tough Open."
Mark Loftus, the Tartan Tour player who enjoys support from Paul Lawrie, the champion golfer at Carnoustie in 1999, was another dreaming the dream after signing for 67. The Cowglen golfer recalled how Lawrie himself was a qualifier for Carnoustie at Downfield ten years ago.
"That just goes to show anything is possible in golf, and when it's your day, it's your day."
For Gordon Sherry, whose glory days in the Open came in 1995 at St Andrews when he finished ahead of Tiger Woods, it was scorned opportunities on the greens which cost him dear.
"I just didn't get it in the hole," he rued after scoring 73.
Among the Scots who endured disappointment at some of the other 15 regional qualifiers held around the UK and Ireland yesterday was Gordon Strachan's son Craig, who returned 80 at Coventry.

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Scroll down if you want to read Paul Lawrie's comments on the attitude of some sections of the golf writers' corps (not in Scotland) to Monday's victory by an "outsider," Lucas Glover in the United States Open.
We invited readers to give their view. Here's one from the doyen of Scottish golf writers

Jock MacVicar
Scottish Daily Express

I couldn't agree more with Paul's view on Lucas Glover winning the US Open.
Why shouldn't a player who has been on Tour since 2001, played in the Walker Cup, won on the PGA Tour and selected by Jack Nicklaus to play in the Presidents Cup be worthy of the US title?
So many people in the media and outside are blinkered regarding those capable of winning a major.
Unless it's Tiger or Mickelson or another top 10 player in the world rankings they seem to think anyone outside that category is a fluke winner. Rubbish!

Jock MacVicar
Colin,

and another from
Steven Carmichael

Great website. I've been a regular reader since you started.
I'm just emailing about Lucas Glover. I haven't been getting the same negative feeling as the rest of you about these articles.
Lucas Glover is a shock winner. Paul Lawrie was a shock winner in 1999 at Carnoustie. There is nothing wrong with that it is surely just a statement of fact?
Lucas himself said he hoped he didn't 'downgrade' the trophy by winning it. That was very humble of him. He did very well and played like a champion but the fact is the next few years will decide if he was and is a champion golfer or simply a golfer who won a big championship.
I'm not hugely knowledgeable about the facts and figures but if you compare Shaun Micheel with Jim Furyk - one major each I believe - then one is a champion golfer and one has simply one a big championship. Surely that's not as offensive as some of you are making out?
Paul Lawrie did fantastically well at Carnoustie and it remains one of my greatest memories of watching golf despite the weather and he was very harshly treated as Stevie McIntosh said (scroll down for that view) mainly through jealousy by other players but he was a shock winner of the Championship.
That is factual and although the way it was subsequently reported was disgraceful the fact does remain that shock winners will always attract that type of coverage.
As you know,Colin, part of this reporting style is to stimulate debate and discussion and it certainly does that.

Steven Carmichael

EDITOR'S NOTE: If, like me, you are wondering if this is the same "Steven Carmichael" who was a regular in the Scotland amateur international team from the late 1990s through to about 2004, the answer is "Yes." I put an E-mail back to Steven to confirm and asked if he had ever considered a comeback. Here is his answer:

Steven Carmichael writes:
Yes. I play a bit now and then. I actually shot 60 last week at Richmond and have shot some other very low scores in corporate events this year. I work overseas though and, with young twins, life is a bit hectic.
I miss the buzz of competing. I'll reappear soon and see how it goes. My game is currently good enough for the gentle courses but not in good enough shape for places like Lytham or Carnoustie!


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David Law leads Scots

boys' Euro challenge

NEWS RELEASE ISSUED BY SCOTTISH GOLF UNION
Scottish boys champion David Law from Hazlehead will lead Scotland’s challenge at next month’s European boys' team championship at the Utrecht Golf Club de Pan in Holland from July 7 to 11.
Aberdonian Law, pictured right by Cal Carson Golf Agency, will be joined in the six-strong team by the Paul Shields, runner-up to him in the Scottish boys' final at Royal Aberdeen, as well as Ayrshire’s rising starlet Jack McDonald, who has enjoyed two recent wins on the SGU Junior Tour including an impressive five-shot victory at his home course of Kilmarnock (Barassie).
Inchmarlo’s Chris Robb, currently lying second in the SGU Junior Order of Merit this season, also receives a call-up while another recent Junior Tour winner, Daniel Young from Craigiehill, makes his European team debut.
Buckinghamshire-based Anglo Scot Sandy Bolton (Magnolia Park) completes the line-up.
The six youngsters will be hoping that history repeats itself in Holland, the country where Scotland last triumphed in the event back in 2000 with a team that included current US PGA Tour player Martin Laird and former Walker Cup player David Inglis.
National Junior Coach Spencer Henderson commented: “Scotland has a good record in this Championship and I’m sure the team we have this year will be up there challenging Europe’s best once again. There is strength in depth throughout the line-up with some good experience added in.”
Meanwhile, 16-year-old duo Callum Stewart (Brora) and Grant Forrest (Craigielaw) have been selected to represent Scotland at the European Young Masters in France which also takes place next month.
One handicapper Stewart has enjoyed a first and third place in the Junior Tour this season, whilst Forrest, another product of the Craigielaw junior conveyor belt, has impressed with a series of consistent finishes.
They will be joined by Minto’s Lesley Atkins, the reigning Scottish Under-14 girls’ champion and Ailsa Summers from Carnoustie Ladies, who recently won the Angus women's county championship.
The two teams are as follows:

European Amateur Boys Team Championship, Utrechtse Golf Club de Pan, Holland, July 7 to 11

David Law (Hazlehead)
Paul Shields (Kirkhill)
Chris Robb (Inchmarlo)
Daniel Young (Craigiehill)
Sandy Bolton (Magnolia Park)
Jack McDonald (Kilmarnock Barassie)

European Young Masters, Guyancourt, France, July 23 to 25.


Grant Forrest (Craigielaw)
Calum Stewart (Brora)
Lesley Atkins (Minto)
Ailsa Summers (Carnoustie Ladies’)

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Got a golf story or picture for us?

E-mail your golf news and images to Colin@scottishgolfview.com

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US tour pro Chris Smith mourns death

of wife in car-bus collision

US PGA Tour golfer Chris Smith says that he and his family are in shock after a weekend car-bus collison that killed his wife and critically injured his two children.
"Words cannot begin to express how difficult of a time this is for our family and we appreciate the generous outpouring of support that we have received," Smith said in a statement released through the PGA Tour.
"We would appreciate it if you would continue to keep our family in your thoughts and prayers, and kindly ask that you please respect our privacy during this extremely difficult time."
Beth Smith, 42, was killed when the sport utility vehicle she was a passenger in struck a Greyhound bus carrying members of a Canadian football team, the London Silverbacks, about 11:35 a.m. Sunday. More than 20 people were hurt in the fiery crash in northern Indiana.
Steuben County Coroner Rodney Snyder said he identified Mrs Smith by using her dental records.
Smith's children, 16-year-old Abigail and 12-year-old Cameron, are listed in critical condition at a Fort Wayne hospital.
Authorities say Abigail Smith was driving the SUV when it veered across the median on Interstate 69.
Chris Smith, 40, made the US PGA Tour in 1995 and won the 2002 Buick Classic. He has been a part-time PGA Tour player in recent years although he does compete on the Nationwide Tour.


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"Nearly man" Ross Fisher too tired to

play in this week's event at Munich

Englishman Ross Fisher, one of the "nearly men" in the US Open at Bethpage Black, has pulled out of the BMW International Open which tees off in Munich tomorrow.
No European has won the US Open since Tony Jacklin at Chaka in 1970 but Fisher was only one stroke off the lead with two holes to play after the second major of the season overshot the runway into a fifth day on Monday.
Fisher three-putted the short 17th and finished fifth behind winner Lucas Glover.
After his overnight flight home from New York, the 28-year-old's management company informed the European Tour that he was feeling too tired to compete this week in Germany, where more rain is forecast throughout the tournament.
Fisher is entered for next week's French Open, but his schedule is up in the air with his wife Joanne expecting their first child in the middle of next month – during Open week. He has already stated that even if he was six ahead with a round to play at Turnberry he would return home for the birth.
Lucas Glover won the US Open but, with world Nos 1 and 2 Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson also coming to grief over the closing holes as well as former Open champion David Duval, Fisher took heart that he was in good company.
"It was tough," Fisher said. "You are looking at the leaderboard. You've got Lucas Glover and Phil Mickelson and a certain Mr Woods. So there's some good golfers playing in this tournament – some good names on the leaderboard."
Duval, meanwhile, believes he is back where he belongs in golf after landing his biggest pay day since winning the 2001 Open.
"It may be arrogance, but it's where I feel like I belong," Duval said. "I was glad to come up here and hit the golf ball and control myself like I've been saying I've been doing, and how I've been talking about how I know I'm playing a lot better than my results have been showing."

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Monty hires Professor Purdie as

"speech caddie" for Ryder Cup

FROM THE SCOTSMAN.SPORT.COM WEBSITE
By Mike Aitken
European Ryder Cup captain Colin Montgomerie has already secured the services of a Scot for his support team at Celtic Manor next year after asking David Purdie, one of Britain's most accomplished speakers, to reprise his role of speech caddie in Wales.
Professor Purdie last offered advice on public speaking to a Ryder Cup captain when he worked with Sam Torrance at The Belfry in 2002. A former specialist in brittle bone disease – he retired from leading the centre for metabolic bone disease two years ago and now concentrates on writing and speaking about golf as well as medical matters.
Purdie played an important role in helping make Torrance the voice of European golf seven years ago.
Purdie made it clear he wasn't Torrance's speech-writer and it was the golfer who coined phrases such as "out of the shadows come heroes" and "they have a Tiger but I've got 12 lions". Instead Purdie saw his role as helping Torrance to sound like himself.
"I was his speech caddie," he said. "I carried the bag of words."
Montgomerie, who was an unbeaten member of the European team in that match seven years ago, had not forgotten the impact made by Torrance off the course at The Belfry as well as on it and resolved to ask Purdie this month to help shape his speeches.
The men, who both hail from Ayrshire, met at Gleneagles and agreed to collaborate. Purdie now has a full house of team captains from this side of the Atlantic on his client list since the Scot is already helping Colin Dalgleish, the Great Britain and Ireland Walker Cup captain, and European Solheim Cup captain Alison Nicholas, with their speeches.
Although Montgomerie will take to the boards at Celtic Manor with more experience of public speaking than Torrance, the recruitment of Purdie should ensure Europe are one up on the USA before the match starts at Celtic Manor rather than two down, as happened when Sir Nick Faldo was in front of the microphone at Valhalla last year.
+The full article contains 349 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.

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US Tour look for successor to

bankrupt Setanta TV

United States PGA Tour tournaments are televised to more than 230 countries in 35 languages with a maximum reach of just under 600 million homes. For the moment, it has gone dark in Britain.
Irish-based Setanta Sports, which had broadcast rights to the US PGA Tour among other sports in Britain, filed for bankruptcy protection on Tuesday and said it will soon stop broadcasting to customers in Britain.
Setanta's contract with the US PGA Tour started in 2007 and was to expire in 2012.
"The PGA Tour is disappointed that Setanta has gone into administration," the US PGA Tour said in a statement, referring to the British term for bankruptcy. "Our main focus going forward will be to immediately and aggressively explore all options that will ensure that the US PGA Tour will continue to be made available on television in the U.K."
US PGA Tour spokesman Ty Votaw said the Travelers Championship in Cromwell, Connecticutt this week would not be televised in Britain.
Sky Sports previously had the US PGA Tour rights for Britain, and it continues to broadcast the majors and the World Golf Championships through an agreement with the European Tour. Other options for the US PGA Tour could include Eurosport and ESPN, which has a presence in Europe to televise English Premier League football, among other things.
"I don't think we're going to be off long," Votaw said. "We think we have a valuable product, an attractive product. We have a lot of international players, including players from the U.K., and it's shown in prime time."
Watch this space!

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Grammar win Aberdeen Schools League Final

To see a full report and pictures from last night's Aberdeen Schools League Trophy final between Grammar School and Cults Academy, switch over to our sister website, www.kirkwoodgolf.co.uk

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