Bradley Neil is right on course for one of his main season goals after securing a place in the Great Britain and Ireland training squad for 2014.
The Blairgowrie player is one of five Scots, along with St Andrews’ Ewan Scott, Craigielaw’s Grant Forrest, James Ross (Royal Burgess) and Jack McDonald of the Kilmarnock Barassie club, in the 21-strong squad announced by GB&I captain Nigel Edwards.
Nine from the squad will be selected to play against the Continent of Europe in the St Andrews Trophy matches at Barsebck in Sweden on August 29 and 30.
Making the senior GB&I team was one of Bradley’s goals for this season, which will be his first full campaign in the top-ranking men’s events.
Bradley captained the GB&I Boys team last year to victory in the junior version of the event, the Jacques Leglise Trophy, but wins promotion on the back of his performances for Scotland in last year’s European Team Championships and in the Nations Cup in Spain earlier this spring.
There, the 18-year-old finished second in the overall individual event and then won a play-off to secure the team title for Scotland.
Bradley is currently 100th in the World Amateur Golf Rankings, where Forrest, the 2012 Scottish Amateur champion, is the highest ranked at 37th after two wins in high ranking events while at college in San Diego this spring.
Scott, the former Scottish Youths champion, is currently in his first year at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga while Ross, who is at the University of Houston, was the Order of merit winner in Scottish Amateur golf last year.
McDonald, a pure maths student at the Stirling University, currently lies 101st just behind Neil in the WAGR.
The squad, featuring 11 Englishmen, five Scots, four from Ireland and one Welshman, is led by US Amateur champion Matthew Fitzpatrick, currently ranked second in the world.
The squad is likely to form the basis for the team aiming to regain the Walker Cup at Royal Lytham and St Annes next year.