Scots fight back to reach semis

Published on Thursday 2 July 2009 23:02

SCOTLAND’S golfers produced a stirring fightback against Sweden to book a semi-final place in the European Amateur Team Championship at Conwy in Wales.

Scott Knowles’ side overturned a 2-0 deficit after the foursomes with a battling singles display to win 4-3.

The Scots faced an uphill struggle when the pairings of Michael Stewart and Wallace Booth, and Gavin Dear and Glenn Campbell lost the two foursomes matches.

But Colville Park’s Paul O’Hara kick-started a fine comeback in the afternoon as he powered to a 4 and 3 win over Henrik Norlander to post a morale-boosting point on the board. Though Stewart lost to Jesper Kennegard, narrow wins for Dear, Booth and Ross Kellett completed the turnaround.

“We were a bit scrappy in the foursomes,” said SGU national coach Ian Rae. “But we had a get- together at lunch to sort ourselves out and we came out all guns blazing for the singles.”

Scotland will face a testing clash with an impressive Italian side who romped to a 5-1 win over Germany. England eased past France 4-2 to set up a semi-final clash with Norway, who beat Finland 5-2.

Meanwhile, this week’s R&A world amateur rankings show that Murrayshall’s Dear has risen to his highest position yet of 15th and that Mark Hillson, of Craigielaw, and Banchory’s James Byrne have surged up the rankings by 77 and 44 places respectively.

After he had won the Craigmillar Park Open in April, 24-year-old Dear, from the Perth village of Scone, said his target was to make the top ten, which would exempt him from playing in the early stages of the European Tour Qualifying School. Dear plans to turn professional in September. He’s well on his way to doing that.