BYRNE BACK IN WORLD TOP TWENTY

James Byrne's joint fourth in the individual standings at last week's world amateur team championship has enabled him to climb back into the top 20 of the revised R and A World Amateur Golf Rankings.
The Banchory man, a student at Arizona State University, has gone up three places to No 19.
Scottish champion Michael Stewart (Troon Welbeck) has gone up eight places to No 53 but Ross Kellett (Colville Park), who completed only one round of the Eisenhower Trophy due to illness, has fallen 17 places to No 90.
The next best Scot in the world rankings is Fraserburgh's Kris Nicol who has gone down three places to 154.
Former US college circuit player Scott Crichton (Aberdour) has gone up 34 places to No 260, even though he left Western New Mexico University at the end of the 2009-2010 season.
Angus MacBride of the RandA WAGR backroom team explains:
"Scott Crichton has not played in a WAGR recognised event since 2010/32. An event from 2009/44 dropped out for calculation purposes of 2010/44 with the result that although he lost 14 points, he also lost a divisor of 3 and his average improved. Even though he has not played recently his ranking has improved due to these circumstances."

REVISED RandA WORLD AMATEUR RANKINGS
1 Peter Uihlein (US) no change.
2 David Chung (US) no change.
3 Romain Wattel (France) no change.
4 Andrea Pavan (Italy) no change.
5 Kevan Tway (US) no change.

SCOTS' RANKINGS IN TOP 300
19 James Byrne +3.
53 Michael Stewart +8.
90 Ross Kellett -17.
154 Kris Nicol -3.
184 Stuart Ballingall -8.
260 Scott Crichton +34.
278 James White -3.
288 Scott Larkin -3.

WORLD NO 4 AMATEUR PAVAN TURNS PRO

NEWS RELEASEItalian golfer Andrea Pavan has signed a long term, exclusive representation contract with 4SPORTS and ENTERTAINMENT, the leading Swiss sports management agency.

Pavan, who has shone on the World stage as an amateur golfer, has taken the decision to turn to the professional ranks of the game following his participation in the recent World Amateur Team Championships in Argentina. From the rankings in 2010 it is clear to see that the prospects look extremely good for the 21 year old from Rome, having been ranked 5th on the R and A’s World Amateur Rankings, 2nd on the EGA’s European Amateur Rankings, and 1st on the Italian National Rankings.

Pavan, who in December will be graduating in Economics from the Texas A and M University in the US, has recorded impressive results both through his college career in the States and across Europe. At Texas A and M, he was a first team All-American this year and also a winner of the John Burns Intercollegiate event in Hawaii. He also tied 3rd in the Big 12 Championship and picked up the Ellis Leadership Award from the University. In the last 18 months alone he’s had 25 rounds of par or better in competition play and in 2009 he was a member of the team that won the NCAA Championship, the most prestigious event in US college golf.

Outside of the US, Pavan was a member of Team Europe to play against GB amd I for the boys' Jacques Leglise Trophy from 2004-2006, and again for the men's St. Andrews Trophy in 2008. He was also a member of the European Team that took on the USA for the Palmer Cup in both 2009 and 2010.
He has been a quarter-finalist at the British Amateur Championship in 2008 and 2010, and was runner up at the European Amateur Championship earlier this year. A member of the Italian National squad since 2002, Pavan enjoyed a succession of wins as a junior where he took the U14 and U16 Italian Championships and also held the title of Italian Stroke Play Champion in 2005 and 2007. In 2006 he won the ‘Omnium’ in Italy, the equivalent of the National Pro Championships.
On signing with 4SPORTS, Andrea commented “I am very much looking forward to working closely with the team at 4sports. I have followed of course with great interest Edoardo Molinari’s career and it gives me great confidence that I will be in the same stable as him, and that the team at 4sports already have a great positioning within the Italian market.”

“Andrea is another very talented golfer from Italy who we believe has the potential to follow Edoardo Molinari to the top of the world game”, said Marcus Day, Managing Director 4sports Golf Division. “Italian golf is currently riding the crest of a wave and Andrea has the attributes to be a major part of this. 4sports are very much looking forward to helping Andrea achieve his goals in the professional game.”