BYRNE NOW RANKED NO. 18 IN WORLD


James Byrne rose one place in this week's updated RandA World Amateur Golf Rankings to No 18 following the decision of world No 4 Andrea Pavan (Italy) to turn professional since last week's rankings were published.
The Banchory student at Arizona State University is the highest ranked British or Irish player, one place ahead of England's Michael Nixon who won the British boys championship at Royal Aberdeen in 2006.
Scottish men's champion Michael Stewart (Troon Welbeck) has fallen five places to No. 58 while Ross Kellett (Colville Park) has remained at No 90.
The fifth highest ranked Scot is "Anglo" Stuart Ballingall from Norwich who is a student at the University of Missouri. Stuart, who was a Scotland boy cap, has gone up nine places to No 175. He finished fourth behind England's Jack Hiluta in the recent Memphis Intercollegiate tournament at Colonial CC, Memphis in Tennessee.
Fraserburgh's Kris Nicol has come down 22 places to No. 176 and Scott Larkin (Royal Aberdeen) has suffered an even bigger demotion, dropping 56 places to No 344.
LEADING SCOTS IN THE RandA WORLD AMATEUR RANKINGS
18 James Byrne +1 (compared with last week).
58 Michael Stewart -5.
90 Ross Kellett no change.
175 Stuart Ballingall +9.
176 Kris Nicol -22.
312 Scott Crichton -52.
330 James White -52.
344 Scott Larkin -56.
370 Peter Latimer -64.
388 Brian Soutar +94.