Scottish Golf shines light on Cameron Adam missing out on Home Internationals

Cameron Adam's impressive win in the Scottish Amateur Championship last week came too late for the Home Internationals at Machynys in Wales this week. Picture: Scottish Golf.

Scotland would have had to omit one of the players already selected to accommodate new national champion Cameron Adam in the team for this week’s Home Internationals in Wales.

The closing date set by The R&A, which runs all four Home International events, was Monday, 31 July - the day before the Scottish Amateur Championship got underway at Royal Dornoch.

That was actually a week later than last year, with a cut-off in place to allow The R&A to press ahead with preparations for the four-cornered event.

It meant Scottish Golf had to submit the names of all nine players in its team before Adam shot two course-record 63s in the stroke-play qualifying at Royal Dornoch and Tain then went on to win six games in the match-play phase as the top seed.

Criticism has been aimed at the governing body for Adam missing out on the Home Internationals, which start at Machynys on Wednesday, but it was out of its control.

“We had to stop the tradition of our men’s champion being selected due to The R&A requiring the team names prior to the Scottish Amateur,” said a Scottish Golf spokesperson. “We asked for an extension last year to ensure our future champions are awarded a spot in the Homes to follow the remaining five teams, but we weren’t successful.”

The only way Adam could have been drafted in was through a Term of Competition that allows a team to make a change to the one selected 24 hours prior to the first match. Indeed, Ireland utilised that for the women’s event this week when Anna Foster qualified for the AIG Women’s Open.