WALKER CUP TEAM CHASE STARTS WITH LYTHAM TROPHY THIS WEEKEND

FROM THE HERALD WEBSITE

By NICK RODGER

Golf Correspondent

Scotland's Walker Cup hopefuls will be aiming to shine in front of the selectors this weekend as the amateur game's first major of the season, the Lytham Trophy, takes place over the Royal Lytham and St Annes links.

For the first time since 1995, the GB and I squad system, an elite pool of players from which the majority of the final team was picked, has been abandoned and Nigel Edwards, the captain, has made it clear that the door to selection is very much open. 
The message is simple.
"The team will be selected on what the guys do over the summer," said Edwards, who captained GB and I to victory at Royal Aberdeen in 2011 and is now preparing for the defence of the cup on American soil this September.
"Often, we would pick a squad in the past, and some of the guys would turn professional and drop out. Others playing college golf would not be named in the original squad, then would play well in the winter and would look conspicuous by their absence from the squad. At the end of the day, we're not just picking a team based on a squad session."
Graeme Robertson, who opened his account on the Scottish circuit with an order-of-merit win in the Battle Trophy recently, heads a strong home contingent which also features Jack McDonald, last year's Scottish Golfer of the Year, and international regulars, James White and Fraser McKenna.
Ewan Scott, runner-up in last month's Scottish Boys' Championship, has also made the trip to the Lancashire coast, as have Edward Trophy winner Matthew Clark and former Scottish champion and past Walker Cup player Graham Gordon, who tied sixth in the Lytham Trophy last season.