Gavin Dear to join up with old team-mates in Florida

GAVIN Dear, who won the Alps Tour Qualifying School at the end of last season, has headed to Florida to prepare for his 2010 campaign and is going to be spending some of his time there practising with a group of Scotland's leading amateurs.

The Murrayshall man, who made the breakthrough in the paid ranks on the Minor League Mini Tour, a circuit that is based around West Palm Beach in Florida, towards the end of last year, is currently in the south of the American state, where he is working on his game alongside fellow Scot Keir McNicoll at Lynn University, his old college.

Later in the month, Dear will head to Bradington, where he is meeting up with Ian Rae, the Scottish Golf Union national coach, and the five amateurs who are heading there to prepare for the Jones Cup in Georgia early next month.

"Due to the weather at home, it was impossible to get any meaningful practice done, so I've come out here for a month to work on my game and get ready for the new season," said the former Walker Cup player.

Dear is preparing for the start of the Alps Tour season, which tees off with two events in Morocco next month. "I'm working with my management company, WMG, to try and fit together a schedule with some Challenge Tour invites," he added. "I'm looking forward to the year. I feel as though my game has improved again from last season and that I'm a better rounded player. I just want to get going and playing competitively."

Colville Park's Ross Kellett, the leading Scot in the World Amateur Golf Rankings at No 26, and last year's double Scottish champion, David Law of Hazlehead, will both be in the group that Dear is joining up with in Florida.

Former Scottish Boys' champion James White (Lundin), 2008 SGU Order of Merit winner Steven McEwan (Caprington) and last year's Leven Gold Medal winner, Philip McLean from Peterhead, make up the SGU squad that will be preparing for the Jones Cup.

"Obviously the weather in Scotland hasn't been great but I've been working hard over the winter and still managed to hit balls at the range," said Kellett, who finished runner-up in the Argentinean Amateur Championship at the end of last season.

"My game's been in good shape for the last year and I'm looking forward to competing against the world's best amateurs again."