Disappointment as boys fall short of the mark

IN a week which delivered some encouraging performances in Perthshire, notably from Stephen Gallacher, Marc Warren and amateur James Byrne, there was one bitter disappointment for Scottish golf.

It came with the announcement of the Great Britain & Ireland Boys’ team for the Jacques Leglise Trophy, an annual match against the Continent of Europe. This year’s affair will take place without a single Scot involved. The alarm bells should be ringing at the Scottish Golf Union because that situation has rarely, if ever, arisen over the past 20 years. We have had a great record at bringing through youngsters good enough to play in these sort of events – the likes of Byrne and Michael Stewart, the other Scot selected for the forthcoming Walker Cup, being prime examples.

The current crop weren’t good enough to catch the eye of Peter McEvoy, chairman of the R&A Boys’ selectors, and that doesn’t bode well in terms of the talent coming through the amateur ranks. Let’s hope it is a blip because there is lots of time and resources being devoted to Scotland trying to deliver a performance programme that is the envy of the Home Unions and Europe.