Monday, July 5th, 2010 
Laura
Stewart confident Scots can do two-in-a-row
Michael Stewart believes Scots can defend Amateur Team Championship title
Scotland's bid for a second consecutive European Men's Amateur Team Championship title gets underway this week at Osterakers in Sweden.
Michael Stewart, who along with Ross Kellett are the remaining members of the team which defeated England 5 -2 in last year's final, was in confident mood as the Scots, captained by Scott Knowles, aim to retain the title for the first time since 1977.
"There's a really good vibe in the team and I think we're every bit as strong as last year. Kris Nicol, Philip McLean and Greg Paterson and relishing playing in the event for the first time and, with James Byrne bang on form, we're really looking forward to defending the title," said Stewart, who narrowly missed out on a place in the Open by two shots at Ladybank last week.
"James, Ross and I were all part of the European Boys' team that finished second in Malmo back in 2006, so we have good memories of playing in Sweden. All the players in this year's side have shown good form this season so there's no reason why we can't go out and challenge strongly again." added the 20-year-old from Troon.
Looking back on last year's success in Wales, Stewart reflected: "The key to our success was team spirit, and having guys like Gavin [Dear] and Wallace [Booth] on-board was a real calming influence, with their experience of winning the World Championship. The national coach, Ian Rae, also brings bags of experience at this level and he knows how to get the best out of us.
"Our first objective is making it through to the top flight of eight from the strokeplay qualifying and then take each game as it comes. As we showed last year, Scotland teams are good at stepping up to the big occasion and we can take confidence from our achievement twelve months ago." concluded the former Scottish Boys' champion.
Byrne is Scotland's man of the moment, having finished runner-up in the Amateur Championship at Muirfield before being edged out a place in the Open via a play-off at Kingsbarns. He then went on to represent Europe in the Palmer Cup in Ireland. Kellett, the second highest ranked Scot in amateur golf behind Byrne, collected his first SGU Order of Merit title recently in the Tennant Cup and played a key role in Scotland's victory in the event last year.
Commencing on Tuesday, the first two rounds involve strokeplay qualifying, with the five best scores from six counting towards the team's aggregate total. The leading eight nations then compete for the championship in a matchplay knock-out format, with the final taking place on Saturday, July 10.
Click here for the official Championship website
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Murrayshall Golf Club
The worst kept secret in golf is finally out. Tiger Woods will play in this year’s Ryder Cup, captain Corey Pavin having elected to give the embattled 14-time major winner one of his four wild cards.
No great surprise there. As poor a season as he has had by his own high standards, compared to the rest of the guys ... 
