Scottish amateur golf suffered in Italy yesterday when the senior side failed to make the top flight of eight for the matchplay phase of the European Team Championship at the Monticello Golf Club.
Team captain George Macgregor's men started the second round in tenth position and, despite improving their daily total by 11 shots, 356 to 367, finished in the same place.
Scotland's three-over par total of 723 tied them with Sweden, who took ninth on a countback, but crucially proved to be one shot more than eighth-placed Spain, who beat Scotland in the final of the last championship at Portmarnock in 1997.
Once again an inspirational performance from Lorne Kelly, who added a 68 to his opening 69 to take second in the individual competition, was not enough as the heart of the Scotland team failed to deliver.
''I just can't take it in that this has happened,'' said a distraught Kelly. ''For us to be four-under-par for the day and not move at all is just unbelievable.''
That was a sentiment echoed by Macgregor, who said, ''It shows you the standard of golf across Europe now, when being three-over par for 10 rounds of golf is not good enough.''
Top flight qualifiers. 701 - France 344, 357. 711 - England 359, 352 (G Wolstenholme 68, G Storm 69, L Donald 70, S Dyson 72, C Edwards 73. P Rowe 73 - non-counting). 713 - Germany 356, 357. 717 - Denmark 358, 359. 718 - Italy 362, 356. 719 - Wales 362, 357. Ireland 361, 358. 722 - Spain 362, 360.
Second Flight Qualifiers. 723 - Sweden 368, 355; Scotland 367, 356 (L Kelly 68, G Rankin 70, C Watson 71, D Patrick 73, S Mackenzie 74. G Fox 76 - non-counting). 730 - Portugal 365, 365. 731 - Finland 370, 361; Netherlands 369, 362. 736 - Norway 370, 366; Switzerland 369, 367. 742 - Austria 374, 368.
Third Flight Qualifiers. 744 - Belgium 368, 376. 778 - Iceland 402, 376. 782 - Czech Republic 392, 390. 810 - Greece 408, 402. 842 - Estonia 426, 416. 883 - Croatia 448, 435.
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