Fifers selected for team Scotland

The Scottish Disability Golf Partnership has just announced their team to play against England in the inaugural "Auld Enemies" Ryder Cup style match, which will be held at the Slaley Hall Resort in Northumberland from Friday 7 to Sunday 9 October.

The team, consisting of players of varying disabilities, includes amputee, stroke and car accident victims the blind and Cerebral Palsy golfers, and are led by, Jim Gales MBE (Team Captain) from Fife & Stevie Cunningham (Vice Captain) from West Lothian with Kevin Harmison of Newcastle Bryan Neave of Aberdeenshire Kerr Scott of Glasgow, Mark Belcher of Edinburgh Garry McNulty of Glasgow Peter Osborne of Lancashire, Bob Drysdale of Fife Jim Davidson of Glasgow Kenny, Raeburn of Glasgow, Davey More of Edinburgh Gary Gardner of Edinburgh

They will also be accompanied by five coaches, including John Murray and Paul Shepherd of Fife who will be guiding blind and vision impaired golfers and Peter Belcher of Edinburgh, who will be caddying for his son Mark during the event.

Jim Gales the Captain of Team Scotland has led three other similar teams to victory. Two were against England and a third, the most recent, was when he took a squad of 20 from 9 different countries, including Australia, South Africa and Germany, across to Ontario, Canada to play a Ryder Cup style match against a combined Canada and US team representing North America. Jim's World Team came out victorious by 21.5 to 3.5 to win the Phoenix Cup.

Jim said, "This is the first ever pan-disability Ryder Cup style match between Scotland and England, and although its called the Auld Enemies Cup, we know a lot of the English team and I'm sure that everyone wants to go out and win their games, but I know the banter and camaraderie will be great, especially when we 'send them hameward tae think again'!!

The competition, which has been organised and operated by the SDGP, will begin on Friday 7 October with the traditional foursome format and fourball on Saturday, finishing off with the twelve singles matches on Sunday 9 October.

Gavin Barr, the Golf Executive at Slaley Hotel who helped bring about this event said, "It's always good to meet up with the guys from the SDGP again and we hope that we can assist in promoting disabled golf more. This will be a great event and the camaraderie between the two teams will be fantastic."

Stevie Cunningham, the Team Scotland Vice Captain said, "We have quite a strong team selected from our Order of Merit for this year, all we need now is the weather. Many of our players are good matchplay golfers, so we are hoping to get the pairings right for a steady start with the foursomes on day one. It will also be nice if we do manage to win, to come home and say that Scotland actually can produce a winning sporting team?"

The Scottish Disability Golf Partnership is governed and operated by disabled people and is the only group in Scotland which actively encourages and involves anyone of any age, with a disability, serious health problem or mobility issue and their coaches, who wish to play golf and includes amputees, the blind, deaf, those with learning difficulties, downs syndrome, stroke and heart attack victims, wheelchair users and anyone with other similar issues, who wish to learn or play the sport.

More information can be found at www.sdgp.co.uk or by calling 01334650963