SCOTLAND'S NEW-LOOK SQUAD FOR ABU DHABI TRAINING

Following the success of the 2010 winter camp, a new-look Scottish Golf Union squad of ten players will depart on November 18 for a month of warm-weather training and practice, based at the Yas Links Golf Club in Abu Dhabi and the Centro Yas Island Hotel, who together with long-standing supporter of the SGU, Aberdeen Asset Management, will sponsor the four-week training programme in the Middle East sunshine.
The group of ten will include four members of the current Scotland boys’ squad, who will attend the training camp for a shorter period of 10 days. Only South African amateur championship runner-up Paul Shields, pictured, is making the trip from the players who attended in 2010 which means the next generation of international-class Scottish players will benefit from the use of world-class golf facilities.
Philip McLean (Peterhead), James White (Lundin) and Ross Kellett (Colville Park) are still amateurs but were unavailable in any case due to their commitments to Stage 2 of the European Tour Q School and the Alps Tour Qualifying School.
Scott Crichton (Aberdour) and Brian Soutar (Leven) are included, along with former boys' Order of Merit winner Conor O’Neil (Pollok), Fraser McKenna (Balmore) and this year's Scottish amateur championship beaten finalist Daniel Kay (Dunbar).
Blairgowrie’s Bradley Neil, winner of the recent Junior Champion of Champions event, joins the squad, alongside reigning boys' Order of Merit champion Greig Marchbank (Dumfries and County), with promising St Andrews youngster Ewan Scott and Lothians star Anthony Blaney also selected.
In addition to the preparation work the players will be undertaking on and off the course, a first-ever Test Match between Scotland and the Emirates Golf Federation is set to take place towards the end of their stay.
Key members of the SGU coaching team – head coach Ian Rae, Under-18s coach Neil Marr and Performance Manager Steve Paulding – will support the players, with input from expert staff at the sportscotland Institute of Sport.

The full Scotland squad for the trip to the United Arab Emirates is:
Scott Crichton (Aberdour)
Daniel Kay (Dunbar)
Fraser McKenna (Balmore)
Conor O’Neil (Pollok)
Paul Shields (Kirkhill)
Brian Soutar (Leven)
Anthony Blaney (Liberton)
Greig Marchbank (Dumfries and Co)
Bradley Neil (Blairgowrie)
Ewan Scott (St Andrews)

SERGIO GARCIA OPTS OUT OF HAT-TRICK BID IN SHANGHAI

FROM THE SKYSPORTS WEBSITE
Sergio Garcia has decided to rest rather than go looking for a third successive victory at this week's world championship in Shanghai.
The 31-year-old's victory in the Andalucia Masters at Valderrama on Sunday qualified him for the WGC-HSBC Champions event he won in 2008, but he is going to stay at home. His place in the Shanghai field goes instead to American Jim Furyk who is already there, having played in the Shanghai Masters.
Garcia is back into the world's top 20 after taking his home Castello Masters by a runaway 11-shot margin and then beating fellow Spaniard Miguel Angel Jimenez by one. He has gone up from 31st to 18th in the world rankings.
The China tournament is also without world number one Luke Donald - his wife Diane is expecting their second child - twice winner Phil Mickelson and a host of other eligible players.
Rory McIlroy will be there, though, after grabbing golf's richest prize of £1.25million in the Shanghai Masters and the other world top 10 players in the 78-man field are Lee Westwood, Martin Kaymer and Adam Scott.

THE WORLD PRO RANKINGS THIS WEEK
1 Luke Donald (England).
2 Lee Westwood (England).
3 Rory McIlroy (N Ireland).
4 Dustin Johnson (US).
5 Steve Stricker (US).
6 Martin Kaymer (Germany).
7 Jason Day (Australia).
8 Adam Scott (Australia).
9 Webb Simpson (US)
10 Matt Kuchar (US)
11 Phil Mickelson (US).
12 Nick Watney (US).
13 K J Choi (S Korea)
14 Charl Schwartzel (S Africa).
15 Graeme McDowell (N Ireland).
16 Bubba Watson (US)
17 Justin Rose (England).
18 Sergio Garcia (Spain)
19 David Toms (US)
20 Hunter Mahan (US).

SCOTS RANKED IN WORLD'S TOP 1000 PROS
40 Martin Laird
120 Stephen Gallacher
121 Richie Ramsay
138 Paul Lawrie
190 Scott Jamieson
241 George Murray
253 Peter Whiteford
300 Russell Knox
310 Colin Montgomerie
332 Gary Orr
349 David Drysdale
361 Marc Warren
410 Doug McGuigan
420 Craig Lee
471 Chris Doak
476 Lloyd Saltman
511 Raymond Russell
532 Steven O'Hara
666 Callum Macaulay
693 Ross Bain
725 Elliot Saltman
750 Andrew McArthur
767 Simon Yates
872 Alan McLean
970 James Byrne
990 Greig Hutcheon

TWO-TIME HEART TRANSPLANT COMPTON MAKES IT TO US TOUR

FROM THE GOLF.COM WEBSITE
CHARLESTON, South Carolina (AP) — Two-time heart transplant recipient Erik Compton earned a US PGA Tour card when he finished in the top 25 on the Nationwide Tour money list, while Ken Duke won the season-ended Nationwide Tour Championship on Sunday to also secure a spot on the big tour.
Duke closed with a 4-under 68 to finish at 10 under on Daniel Island Club's Ralston Creek Course, two better than Scott Brown. The 42-year-old Duke earned $180,000 and went from 36th to seventh on the money list.
At one time, Compton wasn't sure he'd ever play pro golf, let alone be member of the US PGA Tour.
Yet the two-time heart transplant recipient finished off his dream Sunday. Compton mostly secured his spot in June when he won his first Nationwide title at the Mexico Open. He ended 13th overall with $239,737 to advance.
The 31-year-old Compton has played 30 career US PGA events, but none with a tour card in his bag.
"It's a miracle," he said. "It really is a miracle what I've been able to achieve."
J.J. Killeen won the money title, which made him fully exempt on the US PGA Tour and gave him entry into the The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass in May.
And the day ended with some drama as Scott Brown made a long par-saving putt on the 17th and birdie on the 18th to finish alone in second when a bogey down the stretch would've dropped Billy Hurley III from the final qualifying spot at No. 25.
Hurley, a former Naval lieutenant who was on active duty in the Persian Gulf guarding Iraqi oil platforms two years ago, hugged his wife when Brown's last put dropped.
James Nitties, who began the week in 23rd, fell to 26th, just outside what it took to join the US PGA Tour.
There were plenty of smiles and disappointments as loud, celebratory music blared from the clubhouse when the event was over. None of the triumphs, though, seemed as amazing as Compton's rise from two heart transplants. He was diagnosed at age 9 with cardiomyopathy, an enlarging of the heart that deters its ability to pump blood. Three years later in 1992, Compton received a new heart. He needed another donor heart in 2008 when the first one failed.
Compton took up golf after his first transplant as a way to exercise. It's turned into much, much more.
"This game has been such a rehab for life for me, where I could go out and not think about the issues I have," he said.
Compton had another setback this summer after playing in the PGA Tour's AT and T National last July when his body rejected his heart, something doctors got under control with additional medicine. He took several weeks off and struggled to find his earlier form until recently. His tie for 18th at Daniel Island was his best placing since the win in Mexico.
"I came in here and just till the end I was pretty frustrated because I really wanted to play well and have a top finish," Compton said. "At the end of the day, we're all perfectionists."
Duke said he's ready to take once again take on the challenges of the sport's top series. He might want to circle any events played in South Carolina. Duke's only other Nationwide victory came at the BMW Classic around Greenville in 2006. He lost in a play-off on this course a year later to Aberdeen-born Aussie-reared Michael Sim when the event was the Palmetto Pride Classic. He's already planning an early April stop in Hilton Head for next year's RBC Heritage at Harbour Town Golf Links.
"I knew I had some good memories here and I just had to be patient," Duke said.
That was good advice for everyone who sweatted out the final round with their futures on the line.
Hurley was 25th when the tournament began, then bounced back and forth on the qualifying line as the round played out. He seemed destined for disappointment when as Sweden's David Lingmerth worked his way into second place for a while, but bogeys on the 15th and 16th holes dropped him back into a tie for third - and gave Hurley the last spot by fewer than $6,000 over Nitties.
"It was nice to see the cameras out there," Hurley said. "I knew I was close."
+Scotland's Russell Knox and England's Gary Christian earned promotion to the US PGA Tour by finishing well inside the top 25 money-earners for the season. But another Englishman, Greg Owen, failed to regain the US Tour card he lost a year or two ago.

SCROLL DOWN TO READ MORE ABOUT RUSSELL KNOX JOINING MARTIN LAIRD ON THE US PGA TOUR NEXT SEASON.