Golf: Dick all set for Scottish Champion of Champions title tilt

LOTHIANS champion Allyn Dick will be looking to get his season off to a flying start when the men's domestic campaign tees off tomorrow with the Scottish Champion of Champions at Leven.

The Kingsknowe player broke into the Scotland set-up last season on the back of the best year of his career and is determined to stay there.

He's played in events in Portugal and Spain in recent weeks and now Dick will be hoping to come flying out of the blocks in Fife.

It will be good for him to guage where his game is at the start of the season compared to Scott Gibson, his playing partner in the opening two rounds. That's because Gibson was one of the SGU elite squad players who recently spent eight weeks playing and practising in South Africa.

Dick, who will be aiming to draw on the experience he has gained from winning SGU Order of Merit titles in the past, is joined in the elite field by Craig Elliot and David Ewen.

Elliot's playing partner in tomorrow's opening two rounds is local hero Brian Soutar, while Ewen has Michael Robertson for company.

Craigielaw's Grant Forrest is also in the field and will be looking for a strong performance in his final warm-up for the forthcoming Scottish Boys at Dunbar. Forrest has been paired with Jordan Findlay, last year's Scottish Amateur runner-up and another of the players who has been tuning up for the new season in South Africa.

Completing the Lothians line up in Fife are Dunbar's Stephen Neilson and Graham Robertson of Silverknowes.

Michael Stewart, the player who beat Findlay in the final at Gullane, is absent as he is on European Nations Cup duty in Spain.