Scots look to impress GB&I selectors at Lytham Trophy

AFTER some early-season jousting, both in far-flung places and closer to home, the battle for spots in the Great Britain & Ireland team for September's Walker Cup clash against the Americans at Royal Aberdeen starts in earnest today with the opening round of the Lytham Trophy.

Thirty Scots have travelled down to Lancashire for the biggest event of the amateur season to date, with Welshman Nigel Edwards, the GB&I captain, and his team of selectors set to be out in force over the next three days at the beginning of a crucial period in the season for contenders.

May sees the Welsh, Irish and Scottish Open Stroke Play Championships all take place and they are quickly followed by three other events the selectors will be watching closely - the St Andrews Links Trophy, the Amateur Championship and the Brabazon Trophy, the latter being the prize up for grabs in the English Open Stroke Play Championship. With student James Byrne of Banchory still in America, where he is in the Arizona State team for this weekend's PAC-10 Championship at Stanford, Troon Welbeck's Michael Stewart, 38th in the latest World Amateur Golf Rankings, heads the Scottish challenge at Lytham, where Stuart Wilson (2003) and Lloyd Saltman (2007) both recorded wins in the past decade.

Twelve months ago, only four Scots made the cut, Fraserburgh's Kris Nicol taking pride of place as he finished runner-up to Irishman Paul Cutler. That performance helped Nicol secure a place in the GB&I squad named towards the end of last year, with Stewart, Byrne and Ross Kellett of Colville Park being the three other Scottish players to secure that boost.

Stewart, last year's Scottish champion, has since bolstered his Walker Cup credentials by adding the South African title and, in all probability, the 21-year-old Ayrshireman will secure his crack at the Americans on home soil if he performs well in two or three of the aforementioned events.

While Byrne has a smaller window to impress the selectors once he returns home, probably in time for the Amateur Championship - he was runner-up in last year's event at Muirfield - the Lytham event can certainly be the launchpad for the likes of Nicol and Kellett, who was 17th a year ago, as well as Hazlehead's David Law and Philip McLean of Peterhead to step up their bids to also be on that team at Balgownie.