Scots amateurs hope for Open bid boost after European title victory

Published on Sunday 5 July 2009 23:31

GAVIN Dear, Ross Kellett and Michael Stewart, three members of the Scotland side that claimed a famous victory in the European Amateur Team championship in Wales at the weekend, will be hoping to carry that winning form into final qualifying for the Open, which starts today at three venues in Ayrshire.

The Scots trio, along with team-mates Paul O'Hara, Glenn Campbell and Wallace Booth, notched a historic double for the country's amateurs at Conwy on Saturday as they beat England 5-2 in the final to add the European crown to the world title they landed in Australia last year.

Dear, Kellett and Stewart will now switch their attention to the 36-hole qualifying scramble where 288 players will be battling it out at Glasgow Gailes, Western Gailes and Kilmarnock Barassie for just 12 Turnberry spots up for grabs.

"It's going to be a real shoot-out and the three of us are looking forward to it," said Dear, who competes at Barassie in the company of Englishman Ken Ferrie and former Ryder Cup player Per Ulrik Johansson. "With only four qualifying places at each course it will be hit or miss so you just have to go out and give it a rip.

"We're all on a bit of a high after the European win. It was one of those weeks where we improved as the tournament went on and hopefully we can carry the momentum into the qualifying."

Scotland's success in Wales was their sixth in the European championship and their first since 2001. With the foundations for victory nailed down with a clean sweep of the morning foursomes, Scott Knowles' side went into the five singles matches needing just two points to claim the crown.

England came out fighting in the afternoon and Sam Hutsby, runner-up in the Amateur championship a fortnight ago, reduced the deficit with a 5 and 4 pounding of Booth.

The Scots still had the upper hand, however, and former national boys' champion Stewart took them a point closer to the title when he beat Dale Whitnell 5 and 4.

Dear went down at the 19th hole of a tense tussle with Matt Haines as the English battled on, but Paul O'Hara finally pushed the Scots over the winning line with a 2 and 1 defeat of Luke Goddard.

O'Hara's Colville Park clubmate Ross Kellett gilded the lily with a one-hole win over Tommy Fleetwood in the last remaining tie as new team skipper Knowles celebrated a memorable win in his first major event in charge.

Dear added: "The encouraging thing was that the younger players, like Michael and Ross, came through when the pressure was on. The standard of the teams we played was very high and the fact that we came out on top shows what a good win it was."

Those high standards will need to be maintained over the next two days for a qualifying contest which features some big names including former Masters champions, Fred Couples and Jose Maria Olazabal, and Frenchman Jean Van de Velde, runner-up in the 1999 Open at Carnoustie.

Lloyd Saltman, the silver medal winner as top amateur in the 2005 championship at St Andrews, and his older brother Elliot are also in the line-up as is in-form Banchory amateur James Byrne, who won back-to-back order of merit titles on the Scottish circuit last month.