Scotland have selected new national champion George Duncan as one of their two final picks for next week’s Home Internationals at Nairn.
Duncan (21) was a shock winner of the Scottish Amateur Championship at Royal Aberdeen The Windyhill player coming in unseeded, unranked and largely unknown but defeating Andrew Burgess 3 and 1 in the final at Balgownie.
The Scotland women’s selectors had a week previously left out Scottish Ladies champion Ailsa Summers from their Home International team playing at Conwy this week because the Carnoustie player was deemed to have an insufficient ranking, and were expected to place the same criteria on Duncan.
However both he and Graeme Robertson, a former GB&I player who stepped back from full-time amateur golf last year, have been named as the two extra players for the team to play at Nairn.
Scottish Golf Performance manager Steve Paulding said the two additions meant the Scots would field “a great blend of youth and experience.”
“George is a player in form, having handled the pressure extremely well to come out on top of a very strong field at Royal Aberdeen last week, while Graeme has a great track record for his country and will add his considerable experience to the team.
“It will be a great test for the players to compete against some of the best players from the other home countries over such a fantastic and challenging course and I’m sure they’ll all relish the occasion.”
Four of Scotland’s leading players – Grant Forrest, Connor Syme, Ewen Ferguson and Robert MacIntyre – will not play at Nairn as they have qualified for the US Amateur as top 50 players on the World Amateur Golf Ranking.
Meanwhile the ten Scots who were set to withdraw from the opening round of the European Individual Amateur Championship in Estonia yesterday because their clubs were lost in transit all eventually teed off.
Forrest, Syme, Ferguson and MacIntyre were among players who found their clubs, balls, waterproofs and shoes had failed to transfer at Amsterdam Airport.
With insufficient rental sets available at the remote Estonian GC venue the Scots contingent were poised to withdraw from one of the most prestigious events on the amateur calendar.
However a rain delay to the start of the first round of the championship gave the Scots a crucial window and their equipment arrived at the eleventh hour. After discussions with European Golf Association officials several of the Scottish contingent were permitted to play later than their official tee-times, six of them teeing off in the last two groups of the day.
Forrest, with an early tee-time, played with a set of borrowed clubs and shot a three-under 69, three shots behind the early leader.
National coach Ian Rae said he’d never experienced anything like the last 24 hours in his years with the Scotland team.
“I really was a race against time to get the players on the course the way events unfolded and we thank the EGA for their co-operation in this bizarre situation,” he said.
