IF WORLD RANKINGS DECIDE, THEN STEWART COULD BE ONLY SCOT IN GB AND I WALKER CUP TEAM FOR ROYAL ABERDEEN

By COLIN FARQUHARSON
Colin@scottishgolfview.com
In terms of world-ranked players in the respective line-ups, the Walker Cup match at Royal Aberdeen on September 10-11 is a no contest ... and I hope that GB and I captain Nigel Edwards (pictured right) is not reading this!
This week's updated RandA World Amateur Rankings has EIGHT Americans in the top 10 ... and you can bet your boots they will all be in the US team bidding to add to their victories in 2005-2007-2009.
GB and I's glory years of 1999 (a 15-9 victory at Nairn), 2001 (a 15-9 victory at Sea Island) and 2003 (a 12.5 to 11.5 victory at Ganton) seem a fond and distant memory.
There are only two Britons in the World 10 amateurs - England's Andrew Sullivan, winner of the Scottish open amateur stroke-play at Blairgowrie this year, and our own national champion Michael Stewart (Troon Welbeck), ranked No 8.
Gavin Dear never quite made it into the WAGR top 10 during his amateur career and I believe that Stewart is the first Scot to achieve that lofty status since Aberdonian Richie Ramsay won the 2006 US amateur championship and made it to No 1 world ranking.
If the GB and I Walker Cup selectors go strictly by the World Amateur Rankings, then Sullivan and Stewart, plus the current No 13, Tom Lewis (Welwyn Garden City) are automatic selections.
It's after that, the GB and I players are a bit thin on the ground in the World Rankings.
England's Jack Senior is No 30, Ireland's Paul Cutler No 74 and England's David Coupland No 77.  Even if we put them all in the GB and I team to face the mighty Americans, that still leaves us looking for another four players to make up the home team of 10 .... and we are talking about players outwith the WAGR top 100, from whom the United States could probably field half a dozen teams!
England's Stiggy Hodgson, who played in the last Walker Cup match, comes next at 103, followed by Ireland's Dermot McElroy at No 110. That's eight down and still two needed.
And this is where the World Amateur Rankings loses just a bit of its credibility.
The ninth highest ranked British or Irish player, in 135th place, is Paisley-born, Norwich player, Stuart Ballingall, whose ranking is based solely on his performances on the US college circuit for Missouri University.
If he played in this year's British amateur championship or Brabazon Trophy, then I must have missed it. Ballingall certainly did not figure prominently in either event, which he could have played in, given that US college students have been on holiday from the end of May-early June.
The flaw in the WAGR system, in my humble opinion, is that if you don't play, you don't "lose" any points in your rating.
Looking further down this week's rankings, Banchory's James Byrne, for so long a top-20 rated player, has come tumbling down the rankings after a miserable 2010-2011 season on the US college circuit, his final year as an Arizona State University student.
James is this week ranked at No 165, down 39 places from last week.
If there is only Scot - Michael Stewart - in the GB and I team for the Walker Cup match when it is announced, don't say I didn't warn you.

THIS WEEK'S WORLD TOP TEN AMATEURS
1 Patrick Cantlay (US).
2 Peter Uihlein (US).
3 Amond Vangwanij (US).
4 Jordan Spieth (US).
5 Andrew Sullivan (England).
6 Andrew Yun (US).
7 James White (US).
8 Michael Stewart (Scotland)
9 Blayne Barber (US)
10 Luke Guthrie (US).

REST OF PLAYERS ELIGIBLE TO PLAY FOR GB AND I
13 Tom Lewis (England).
30 Jack Senior (England).
74 Paul Cutler (Ireland).
77 David Coupland (England).
103 Stiggy Hodgson (England).
110 Dermot McElroy (Ireland).
135 Stuart Ballingall (Scotland).
143 Garrick Porteous (England).
151 Gregory Eason (England).
165 James Byrne (Scotland).
172 Ben Shaw (England).
200 Ben Westgate (Wales).
210 Rhys Pugh (Wales).
216 Alan Dunbar (Ireland).
224 Paul Shields (Scotland).
226 Steven Brown (England).
233 David Law (Scotland).
235 Tyrrell Hatton (England).
243 Neil Raymond (Eng).

Other Scots' rankings:
259 Ross Kellett
344 Kris Nicol.