Scotland ease into Euro final

Published on Friday 3 July 2009 23:12

SCOTLAND'S golfers are on course to complete a famous double after powering into the final of the European Amateur Team championship at Conwy in Wales last night.

Scott Knowles' side battled to a fine 4.5-2.5 win over Italy and now have the chance to add the European crown to the world team title they already hold if they can overcome old foes England in today's final.

Scotland, who last won the European event in Sweden in 2001, managed to share the morning foursomes 1-1 after Wallace Booth and Michael Stewart eased to an impressive 4 and 2 win over the highly-rated duo of Andrea Pavan and newly-crowned Amateur champion, Matteo Manassero.

Booth, a member of the side that won last year's Eisenhower Trophy, then showed his class in the singles and swept to a 4 and 3 win over Niccolo Quintarelli to inch the Scots ahead.

Gavin Dear, also part of the world championship-winning squad, edged out Joon Kim on the final green to push Scotland to the brink of victory before Stewart, the former Scottish Boys' champion, beat Nino Bertasio 2 and 1 to clinch the win. "We've got a great team bond and we've got the momentum," said Dear. "Wallace and myself have taken a lot from winning the Eisenhower. We know we can do it, so we're trying to pull the other guys along."

In the last two games left on the course, Ross Kellett plundered a half point from his tussle with Pavan, while Paul O'Hara went down 6 and 4 to Manassero, but, by that time, the Scots were setting their sights on the final clash with England, who fought back from 2-0 down after the foursomes to beat Norway 4-3.

&#149 Kilmarnock's David Addison opens his defence of the Cameron Corbett Vase, the latest event on the SGU order of merit, at Haggs Castle in Glasgow today. The former Scottish under-16 champion forms part of an 80-strong field for an event which dates back to 1897.