Statistics galore on US PGA Tour website

By US PGATOUR.COM staff
You want numbers? We got numbers. Lots of them.
PGATOUR.COM has just bulked up the amount of statistics for our readers, as we're now offering more than 450 statistical categories for the PGA TOUR, as well as 300 for the Champions Tour and 250 for the Nationwide Tour.
If you visit our main statistics page (click here), you'll see the eight main categories, and then you can drill down from there. If you like to crunch numbers or just want to check out a few unusual categories, you'll have plenty of categories to peruse.

KNOX CLEARS FIRST US OPEN Q HURDLE

Inverness-born Russell Knox shot a two-under-par 70 this week to finish joint third and be one of seven qualifiers at Timuquana Country Club, Jacksonville, Florida for the next stage of the eliminating process for the United States Open golf championship at Pebble Beach, California from June 17 to 20.
Knox now goes forward to one of the 36-hole sectional qualifying venues on June 7-8.

TARTAN TOUR SCOREBOARD
BELHAVEN BEST BEN SHOTGUN PRO-AM
Cardross Golf Club
FINAL TOTALS
Par 71
65 Craig Ronald (Carluke) (£826.33).
67 Robert Arnott (Bishopbriggs), Stephen Gray (Hayston) (£578.23 each).
68 Craig Lee (Aspire), Chris Doak (unattached) (£334.59 each).
69 Gordon Law (Uphall), Jason McCreadie (Buchanan Castle) (£231.24 each).
70 Campbell Elliott (Haggs Castle), Lee Harper (Archerfield Links) (£169.53 each).
71 Robert Farrell (Cardross) (£140.28).
73 David Patrick (Elie), Alan Lockhart (Ladybank), Mark King (Kingsfield), Chris Kelly (Cawder) (£111.53 each).
74 John McTear (McTear Golf), Lindsay Mann (Carnoustie), Scott Henderson (Kings Links) (£82.61 each).
75 Colin Gillies (Braid Hills), James McKinnon (Irvine), Steven Taylor (Bothwell Castle) (£57.83 each).
77 Graham Fox (East Kilbride) (£43.01).
*Official tour scoring and statistics provided by the Professional Golfers' Association website.

KELLETT POISED TO DISPLACE BYRNE AS
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SCOTLAND'S NO 1 IN WORLD RANKINGS

By COLIN FARQUHARSON
Motherwell's Ross Kellett is on the brink of overhauling Arizona State University State student James Byrne from Banchory as the leading Scot in the R&A World Amateur Golf Rankings.
Kellett's consistent form over the last few weeks - joint 17th in the Lytham Trophy and 10th in the Irish men's open amateur championship on Sunday - has enabled him to close to within one place of Byrne in this week's updated rankings.
Byrne is still the top Scot in 35th place but his Colville Park rival is now breathing down his neck in 36th place, having risen six spots from last week.
Fraserburgh greenkeeper Kris Nicol's second place finishes in both the Lytham Trophy and the Irish championship have seen him soar 113 places from last week to No 264. He is the third Scot in the world amateur rankings behind third-place Michael Stewart from Troon, a student at East Tennessee State University.
Two other Scots who have made significant improvements over the past seven days are Stirling University student Michael Daily (Erskine) who has gone up 177 places to No 778 after finishing fourth in the Golf Data Lab Scottish youths championship at Monifieth on Sunday.
Irvine-born Andrew Gunson, pictured above, a student at the University of California-Santa Barbara, has jumped 140 places to No 801. The 6ft 1in, 22-year-old third-year student finished joint 20th in the Big West Championship at Mission Viejo, California after looking a possible winner until he had a last-round 82 following two earlier 72s.
Thanks to Alasdair Malcolm of the Ayrshire Golf website, I can tell you that Andrew is the son of Brian Gunson who was a member at Ballochmyle and Prestwick St. Cuthbert before turning professional.between 1982 & 1987.
Brian played on the Safari Tour and the European Tour and eventually returned to Scotland where he was a professional at Turnberry, eventually succeeding Bob Jamieson as head professional there. Brian left Turnberry around 2002 - 2003 to become Director of Golf at Shady Canyon near Irvine, California, which explains why "Shady Canyon" is listed as Andrew Gunson's home golf club on the UCSB website.
Scots in the top 1,000 of the world amateur rankings (with movement from last week noted in brackets):
35 James Byrne (+1).
36 Ross Kellett (+6).
180 Michael Stewart (-6).
264 Kris Nicol (+113).
268 Glenn Campbell (-7).
287 Stuart Ballingall (-7).
321 Philip McLean (-15).
342 James White (-71).
362 Mark Hillson (-4).
423 David Law (+1).
525 Greg Paterson (+68).
535 Bobby Rushford (-10).
561 James Hamilton (-10).
568 Steven McEwan (+42).
640 Gordon Yates (+43).
651 Scott Crichton (+6).
674 Peter Latimer (-8).
675 Daniel Sommerville (-7).
690 James Ross (-48).
701 Fraser McKenna (-58).
733 Gordon Stevenson (-8).
747 Craig Watson (-8).
778 Michael Daily (+177).
798 Paul Ferrier (-9).
801 Andrew Gunson (+140).
824 Mark Bookless (-54).]
886 Scott Borrowman (-70).
897 Steven Rennie (-25).
928 Fraser Fotheringham (-18).
937 Ross Crowe (-15).
945 Sam Binning (-56).
990 Paul Betty (-52).

TOP TEN IN THE R&A WAGR
1 Peter Uihlein (US) (no change).
2 Nick Taylor (Canada) (no change).
3 Tommy Fleetwood (England) (no change).
4 Victor Dubuisson (France) (no change).
5 Bud Cauley (US) (no change).
6 Jonathan Randolph (US) (no change).
7 Andrea Pavan (Italy) +4).
8 Patrick Reed (US) (-1).
9 Jesper Kennegard (Sweden) (-1).
10 David Lingmerth (Swden) (-1).

World One-Armed Championship at Nairn Dunbar

NEWS RELEASE
The Society of World One-Armed Golfers are visiting Nairn Dunbar Golf Club for the World Championships, the first time the event has gone to the Highlands of Scotland and members from USA, Australia, Indonesia, South Africa, Europe, Ireland and the UK are looking forward to playing the challenging links course.
The week’s programme commences on Monday, June 7 and will consist of two days of 18-hole qualifying medal rounds where everyone plays off scratch. The top 16 then go into a match-play knock-out format with the final taking place on the afternoon of Friday, June 11.
Stableford competitions also take place on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday mornings.
The Society was founded in Glasgow in 1932 when members were primarily war victims but now include polio, thalidomide, motor accident and industrial accident victims. Since the Society was founded it has attracted an aggregate membership of around 1,000.
The current World Champion is Nick Champness from Royal Ashdown GC. He won his first championship in 1998 and has won the last four events to equal the record of seven wins set by Scot Alex Wilmott (Carnoustie) and Andy Robinson from England.
The 2009 and 2010 Championships are also the qualifying stages for the Fightmaster Cup where the top 10 players plus two captain’s picks will compete against disabled one-armed golfers from USA and Canada in a Ryder Cup format at St Pierre GC in South Wales from September 10 to 12.
Further details on the Society of One-Armed Golfer available from its website http://www.soags.co.uk/

Ryder Cup captain shows how it's done at Deeside clinic

Ryder Cup captain Colin Montgomerie was in the North-east of Scotland today, primarly to begin fund-raising for a new Maggie's cancer caring cente in Aberdeen.
The aim is to raise £3million for the project over the next two to three years.
He is pictured above, by Cal Carson Golf Agency, giving a clinic at the Deeside Golf Club driving range prior to an am-am fund-raising tournament in his name.
This evening he will be guest of honour at a prize-giving dinner for about 200 people, hosted by building firm supremo Stewart Milne.
Colin's mother Elizabeth died of lung cancer in 1991.

Andrew Coltart says PGA must change its ways

FROM THE SCOTTISH DAILY EXPRESS
By JOCK MacVICAR
Andrew Coltart is urging the PGA to change the system that is failing to produce Scottish tournament winners.
Coltart, a Ryder Cup player and former member of the European Tour's tournament committee, made his plea because, once again, Scotland does not have a player in the top 100 in the world rankings.
He said: "We keep blaming Scotland for not producing winning golfers so something in the system has to change. Let's look at it and work it out.
"The PGA boast that Paul Lawrie came through their system and went on to win the Open. It was a fantastic achievement but he is the only one.
"The return could be a bit higher than that. If we genuinely want winning Scottish golfers, then something has to give, and I'd like to help out. I phoned the PGA chief executive Sandy Jones recently to ask him if there is any way we could get together - the PGA, the SGU, the lot."
Coltart's declaration comes only a few weeks after the new Scottish PGA's strategic head of golf development, Colin Pearson, conceded that tradition in Scottish golf can have a stifling effect on progress.
Pearson doesn't promise quick fixes but Coltart is adamant there has to be a change in attitude and a throwing away of the old, restrictive PGA practices.
He is appalled that two Scottish golfers, David Orr and Mark Kerr, were banned from competing in PGA events for more than six months because they did not follow the association's training programme properly.
He also shook his head sadly when he heard of the new Sprint to St Andrews - a £35,000 series of five one-day events for Scottish professionals and amateurs.
Coltart is more than suspicious that it has been hurriedly cobbled together to spike the Xltec Tour recently launched by Alan Tait.
Coltyart said: "It is a bit strange that after Alan has done something, the PGA starts to do something. Why has this not been done before by the PGA? And why are they not working together instead of against one another. I gather Alan said he would be happy if the PGA were to take over his scheme.
"Anyway, one-rounders are no good for preparing people for the Tour. We need more 72-hole events.
Edinburgh-based Coltart's view that the PGA and, to an extent the European Tour, are not doing enough for young talent, is shared by many.
World Cup pair David Drysdale and Alastair Forsyth would be in that category.
"Some years ago David was trying to get into a Scottish PGA event but was told by the then secretary there was nothing they dould do for him," said Coltart.
"Later, after finishing fourth in a European Tour event, David was told: 'Yes, well, we can fit you in after all.'
"It would have been his eighth tournament in a row so David said he couldn't play. He was fined."
Coltart, who turns 40 today, also cites the time Forsyth went to Gleneagles before a Johnnie alker Championship with three low-handicap golfers and was told he couldn't play off the back tees.
It is this restrictive, tradition-bound attitude that Coltart detests. But he is not soured enough to refuse to help, if invited.
He added:L "If the PGA are trying to put peple on the (European) Tour, maybe need to start talking to pepople who have been iin that environment."
+The above article appears in full in the Scottish Daily Express newspaper today.

Snow at Hazlehead hits Aberdeen Trades Foursomes

The return of winter conditions of snow and sleet, covering the Hazlehead No 1 course, caused the postponement of last night's Aberdeen Trades Foursomes.
The ninth, 10th and 11th holes were under snow.
Another attempt to play the round of the last eight will be made this evening.
Organiser Tony Robertson says:
"Hopefuly the course will be open tonight so that we can get the quarter-finals played. If not, we shall play into next week."

Walker Cup skipper Noel looks ahead to Royal Aberdeen

FROM THE SCOTSMAN WEBSITE
By Martin Dempster
During a get-together this week at Celtic Manor, Nigel Edwards only needed to take the members of the Great Britain & Ireland squad into his office at the Golf Union of Wales to show them how passionate he is about amateur golf and, in particular, the Walker Cup.
Edwards played four times in the biennial match against the Americans and, above the Tour-style golf bags from those events, the wall is adorned with pictures capturing magical moments like a fist-pumping celebration after securing the win for Peter McEvoy's team at Ganton in 1993.
Next year, at Royal Aberdeen, the 41-year-old Welshman's connection with the Walker Cup will enter a new phase when he captains the GB&I team, having been appointed by the R&A after Colin Dalgleish's two-match term came to an end.
Edwards, the Director of Player Development and Coaching at the Golf Union of Wales, is excited about the challenge and admits leading GB&I to victory over the Americans would mean as much to him as it undoubtedly will to Colin Montgomerie if he can achieve that feat for Europe in this year's Ryder Cup.
"It (the Ryder Cup] is very different circumstances but obviously the Walker Cup means a lot to me," said Edwards. "There is no financial gain – it is all from the heart. I am pretty passionate about amateur golf and I think people can see that from my past experiences in the Walker Cup."
This week's two-day get-together marked the start of the build-up to the 2010 match and involved two Scots, Colville Park's Ross Kellett and David Law of Hazlehead. Banchory's James Byrne and Michael Stewart of Troon Welbeck are also in the squad but they have not yet returned for the summer from their respective US colleges.
Edwards was pleased to see Kellett lay down a marker when he reached the final of the Argentine Amateur Championship at the end of last year and has certainly been impressed by Byrne's progress.
"I think James is a very good player – he's someone who isn't frightened of winning," said the Welshman. The added incentive for both Byrne and Law, of course, is the chance to play in a Walker Cup on their own doorstep and Edwards, for one, believes Royal Aberdeen will prove a great venue for the event.
"I played there 20 years ago and know what type of course it is, though I believe there have been some changes since then, so it will be interesting to see what it's like now," he said.
+The full article above appears in The Scotsman newspaper today.