SCOTLAND WIN TITLE WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM ENGLAND
Scotland’s
amateur golfers have won the Men's Home
Internationals for the first time since 2006 on a thrilling final day’s
play at Glasgow Golf Club’s Gailes Links.
The
Scots powered to a 9.5 – 5.5 win over Wales and were then reliant on an
English victory over Ireland, which was clinched when Chipstead’s Joshua
White earned England’s eighth point of the match with a 6 and 4 defeat of
Richard O’Donovan.
That
result earned Scotland the Raymond Trophy on a countback thanks to their
superior ‘goal difference’ after the hosts, Ireland and England all
finished on two points each.
It
was Scotland’s first win on home soil since tasting success at Carnoustie
12 years ago and marked a superb comeback by Scott Knowles’ men, having
been edged out 8 – 7 by Ireland in the opening match early on Thursday
morning.
Scotland
took a narrow 3 – 2 lead into the afternoon singles after wins from the
excellent Graeme Robertson/Jack McDonald partnership, backed up by a win for
Scott Borrowman and Paul Shields.
Captain
Knowles had ordered his troops to get off to a fast start and his call was
answered with a wave of blue numbers on the board, as Scotland raced to the
status of being up in eight matches early in the games.
Graeme
Robertson delivered his sixth win from six to maintain his superb 100% record
in the series with a 3/2 win over European Amateur runner-up James Frazer,
before Paul Shields clinched his third successive singles with a
resounding 6/5 defeat of Jason Shufflebotham.
Ayrshire’s
Jack McDonald narrowly lost to Will Jones and Brian Soutar was edged out 2/1,
but more success followed for the Scots as Balmore’s Fraser McKenna
romped to a 5/4 win against Luke Thomas.
James
White kept up his unbeaten run by ousting Welsh number one Rhys Pugh 3/2 to
make it five points from six for the Fifer, while Scottish Amateur Champion
earned his first win of the week with an impressive performance against Geraint
Jones by a 6/5 margin.
Paul
Ferrier clinched Scotland’s ninth point of the day with a 3/1 success
over Ben Westgate while Matthew Clark earned Scotland a half point in the final
game in a hard fought battle with David Boote.
A
delighted captain Scott Knowles was full of praise for his players in what may
be his last Home Internationals leading the team:
“It’s
a great feeling to win and doing it in Scotland makes it even more special.
Although the foursomes matches were tight this morning, we were confident that
we could reach our target of nine and a half points in the singles and I asked
the guys to get off to a fast start.”
“Credit
to every one of them, they did just that and getting so much blue on the board
early was infectious. We wanted to focus on our own game and not worry about
the England versus Ireland match and again they responded.
“The
players have all got great belief and really worked for each other.
They’ve been fantastic on all three days, played as a team and supported
each other. We emphasised every point would be crucial and that’s how it
turned out.”
Ireland’s
hopes of a the ‘Triple Crown’ were dashed as a resurgent England
side came back from a 3 – 2 morning foursomes deficit to storm to a 9.5
– 5.5 winning margin, Garrick Porteous setting the tone with a
crushing 6 and 4 defeat of Amateur Champion Alan Dunbar.
>>
Click here for final results from Glasgow Golf Club’s Gailes Links.
ENDS
Ross Duncan
Marketing,
Media & Sponsorship Manager
Direct
Line: 01334 466482
Mobile
No: 07834 191896
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Labels: Amateur Men
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