Scotland secures Homes victory

Home favourites: A win over Wales on the final day earned Scotland the Home Internationals title on home soil

Welsh defeat sees Scots clinch first Home Internationals title since 2006

Scotland’s leading amateurs rallied to a 9.5-5.5 victory over Wales on their way to a first success in the Home Internationals since 2006 at Glasgow Golf Club’s Gailes Links.

The home side dispatched of their Welsh counterparts but were forced to delay their celebrations as the result hung in the balance of England and Ireland’s final-day encounter on the West Coast.

Reliant on an English win, the Scots were overjoyed when it was duly delivered by Chipstead’s Joshua White, who earned the decisive point in England’s own 9.5-5.5 success.

That result proved to be crucial, earning the home side the Raymond Trophy on countback thanks to their superior points tally after Scotland, Ireland and England all finished on two points each.

A delighted captain Scott Knowles was full of praise for his players in what has been suggested may be his last Home Internationals. He said: “It’s a great feeling to win and doing it in Scotland makes it even more special.

“Although the foursomes matches were tight this morning, we were confident that we could reach our target of nine and a half points in the singles and I asked the guys to get off to a fast start.

“Credit to every one of them, they did just that and getting so much blue on the board early was infectious. We wanted to focus on our own game and not worry about the England versus Ireland match and again they responded.

“The players have all got great belief and really worked for each other. They’ve been fantastic on all three days, played as a team and supported each other. We emphasised every point would be crucial and that’s how it turned out.”

It was Scotland’s first win on home soil since tasting success at Carnoustie 12 years ago and marked a superb comeback by Knowles’ men, having been edged out 8-7 by Ireland in the opening match early on Thursday morning.

Scotland took a narrow 3-2 lead into the afternoon singles after wins from the excellent Graeme Robertson/Jack McDonald partnership, backed up by a win for Scott Borrowman and Paul Shields.

Following a resounding 10.5-4.5 defeat of Auld Enemy England, captain Knowles had ordered his troops to get off to a fast start against Wales, and his call was answered with a wave of blue numbers on the board, as Scotland raced to the status of being up in eight matches early in the games.

Graeme Robertson delivered his sixth win from six to maintain his superb 100% record in the series with a 3&2 win over European Amateur runner-up James Frazer, before Paul Shields clinched his third successive singles with a resounding 6&5 defeat of Jason Shufflebotham.

Ayrshire’s Jack McDonald narrowly lost to Will Jones and Brian Soutar was edged out 2&1, but more success followed for the Scots as Balmore’s Fraser McKenna romped to a 5&4 win against Luke Thomas.

James White kept up his unbeaten run by ousting Welsh number one Rhys Pugh 3&2 to make it five points from six for the Fifer, while Scottish Amateur Champion Grant Forrest earned his first win of the week with an impressive performance against Geraint Jones by a 6&5 margin.

Paul Ferrier clinched Scotland’s ninth point of the day with a 3&1 success over Ben Westgate while Matthew Clark earned Scotland a half point in the final game in a hard fought battle with David Boote.

Ireland’s hopes of a the ‘Triple Crown’ were dashed as a resurgent England side came back from a 3-2 morning foursomes deficit to storm to a 9.5 – 5.5 winning margin, Garrick Porteous setting the tone with a crushing 6&4 defeat of Amateur Champion Alan Dunbar.

Bryce Ritchie is the Editor of bunkered and, in addition to leading on content and strategy, oversees all aspects of the brand. The first full-time journalist employed by bunkered, he joined the company in 2001 and has been editor since 2009. A member of Balfron Golfing Society, he currently plays off nine and once got a lesson from Justin Thomas’ dad.

Editor of bunkered