Golf: Stewart opts for Crail ahead of Craigmillar Park opener

SCOTTISH champion Michael Stewart will be a notable absentee in this year's Craigmillar Park Open, the opening event on the SGU Order of Merit.

The Troon Welbeck player, who lifted the national title at Gullane last summer, has decided to wait until the following weekend's Battle Trophy at Crail, a new event on the Order of Merit, to make his first domestic appearance of the season.

"I've never played at Craigmillar Park before, first because it clashed with the Scottish Boys' Championship then due to the fact I was at college in America," Stewart told the Evening News.

"And this year I've decided to play in the event at Crail instead of Craigmillar Park.

"I've got a busy start to the season and will be playing three weeks in a row with the Crail event, the Edward Trophy (at Glasgow Gailes] and then the Lytham Trophy."

Stewart, who beat Jordan Findlay in the final at Gullane to claim the Scottish title, is off to South Africa later in the month with nine other members of the SGU elite squad.

The same group of players have already spent a month in the United Arab Emirates and will be out in South Africa for eight weeks.

The Scots will also face their South African counterparts in a Test match at Leopard's Creek before heading home on March 21 - just before the start of the domestic campaign.

Lothians champion Allyn Dick is among the five members of the elite squad not involved in the latest training camp.

He's due to warm up for the new campaign instead, with trips to both Spain and Portugal in the coming weeks along with Peter Latimer and Brian Souter.

James Byrne and Conor O'Neil, the other two elite squad members, weren't considered for the South African trip as they are heading back to the United States soon to resume college scholarships.