Nine Scots through in South Africa

THE South African Amateur Championship, won in the last two years by Michael Stewart and Brian Soutar, continues to bring out the best in Scottish golfers.

Out of a 12-strong starting contingent, nine have made it through to the knock-out phase of this year’s event at Johannesburg Country Club.

Ewan Scott, joint-fifth in the recent South African Stroke-Play Championship, maintained his good form with a second-round 69 to qualify easily in joint-sixth on 140, one better than fellow Fifer Scot Crichton (72).

Cawder’s Jamie Savage also made it comfortably after a second successive 71 for a two-under, the same total Graham Gordon, the former Scottish champion and now a reinstated amateur, was on after he catapulted himself through the field following a four-under 68.

Downfield’s Ross Bell made it on 144, one less than Glenbervie’s Graeme Robertson and Fraser McKenna (Balmore) and three better than McDonald’s Adam Dunton, while Pollok’s Conor O’Neil progressed after he birdied the first extra hole in a play-off involving those on 150.

Among those to miss out were James White, the 2011 Scottish Order of Merit winner. He finished on 151 alongside Glenbervie’s Fraser Moore, with Erskine’s Michael Dailly on 152.