WORLD UNIVERSITIES CHAMPIONSHIPS

GORDON YATES ON TOP OF
THE WORLD IN ITALY

Another great round by Stirling student Gordon Yates, pictured right, hoisted him into a share of the men’s individual lead and Great Britain into a two-stroke lead in the men’s team standings at the halfway stage of the X1 world university golf championships at Circolo Golf Torino in Italy today.
Yates, 23, beat off the challenge of the cream of the American college circuit to win the International Collegiate championship at St Andrews Bay last weekend.
Then bang-in-form Gordon, who was a Scotland boy and youth cap a few years back, flies to Italy and shoots 67 and 69 over a course he has never seen before for an eight-under-par aggregate of 136.
He is bracketed with Chen-Chih Chiang from Taipei for the lead, two shots clear of the field.
Team-mate Daniel Willett is in ninth place on 141 with Jason Palmer joint 28th on 146 and Ed Parker sharing third place on 147.
In the team championship, Great Britain are two shots ahead with a 36-hole tally (best three from four scores count daily) of 421.
United States (423) come next with Chinese Taipei (427) third. Ireland (433 are back in seventh place in a field of 15.
Dunblane’s Heather MacRae, a one-time student at San Diego State University, has had a pair of 76s to be lying joint 13th on 152 in the women’s individual section.
But team-mates Olivia Briggs (82-83) and Faye Sanderson (77-83) have not been able to provide strong support so Great Britain are ninth of 14 in women’s team standings at the halfway stage.

TEAM TWO-ROUND TOTALS
MEN
421 Great Britain. 423 United States. 437 Chinese Taipei. 428 Japan. 431 Canada. 433 South Africa. 433 Ireland. 434 Thailand. 435 France. 436 New Zealand. 445 Italy. 451 Switzerland. 463 Russia. 475 Slovenia. 506 Germany.
WOMEN
290 Japan. 291 United States. 294 France. 297 Italy. 299 Chinese Taipei. 301 Russia. 308 Ireland. 309 Thailand. 312 Great Britain. 315 South Africa. 320 New Zealand. 324 Germany. 327 Canada. 357 Slovakia.

LEADING INDIVIDUALS
MEN
136 G Yates (GB) 67 68, C-C Chiang (Chinese Taipei) 70 66.
138 Y Ikeda (Jap) 74 64, A Manning (US) 71 67.
139 P Relecom (Bel) 68 71.
140 L Motta (Ita) 71 69, S Jeuffrain (Fra) 70 70, A Campanile (Ita) 67 73.
141 D Willett (GB) 69 72.
142 A McCloy (Ire) 70 72.
Other scores:
144 M Campbell (Ire) 73 71, A McAllister (Ire) 69 75.
146 J Palmer (GB) 75 71, P O’Hanlon (Ire) 73 73.
147 E Parker (GB) 77 70.
152 A McKinley (Ire) 78 74.
WOMEN
143 M Bazin de Jessey (Fra) 76 67, E Hara (Jap) 72 71, S Lewis (US) 72 71.
148 M Vertchenova (Rus) 75 73, Lu Kwan-Chih (Tai) 72 76, S Brown (US) 71 77, A Roscio (Ita) 69 79.
Other scores:
152 H MacRae (GB) 76 76.
153 C Tucker (Ire) 77 76.
155 G O’Leary (Ire) 81 74.
160 N Kitching (Ire) 82 78.
160 F Sanderson (GB) 77 83.
165 O Briggs (GB) 82 83. 177 E Getty (Ire) 85 92.