Homeless Eriskay prepare to do battle with Orkney

AN EXILED golf club will play host for an inter-island contest next month, despite being further from home than their opponents.

Eriskay Golf Club will welcome counterparts from Orkney for the second Battle of the Isles played in a shortened Ryder Cup format on 3 and 4 June.

The event will be held at the Torvean course in Inverness, some 250 miles from Eriskay, which has not had a course for 13 years.

In 1994 locals created a six-hole course from croftland and sand dunes on the Hebridean island. Three years later the course closed for good when a house was built on the fifth hole, but the club continued.

In 2000 it moved its base to Inverness where Willie Rusk, the former Eriskay boatman and co-founder of the golf club, now works at Torvean.

Rusk, who also organised the Battle of the Isles, said: "

The quality of the course and friendliness of the club support the intentions of the match. It provides a fair challenge for all, even if the trees are a bit higher than those on Orkney."