Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
Last November, Colin Montgomerie and Marc Warren claimed Scotland's first World Cup of Golf at Mission Hills in China. Now their amateur counterparts have completed a historic double in the Eisenhower Trophy at the World Amateur Team Championships in Adelaide, Australia.
The Eisenhower Trophy is a biennial event organised by the International Golf Federation. Each team comprises of three of the finest amateur players from each country and the tournament is named after Dwight D Eisenhower who was the United States president when it was first played. He was an extremely keen amateur golfer. Recent tournaments have featured teams from more than 60 countries.
Scotland is widely recognised as the 'home of golf'; where the game as we know it today began way back in the 15th Century when 'gowf' was played on the links land between the sea and mainland.
Scotland is steeped in the history of the game, and I think any serious golfer should make the pilgrimage to St Andrews at least once in their life, but this achievement is history in the making for such a small nation. The game of golf is booming all over the world and the way it is developing is making it more difficult for smaller nations to compete.
But on this occasion, David defeated Goliath again, and in convincing style with Scotland finally victorious by nine strokes over the golfing superpower of the US at the Royal Adelaide Golf Club. The windy conditions worked to Scotland's advantage with the team used to the testing weather (believe me, if you've ever been to Scotland you'll know what I'm talking about).
History was on the US team's side having tasted success 13 times previously in this competition but the Scots were not to be outdone, and in only their fourth appearance under their own flag they managed to take home the title.
With victory, Scotland closed an historic circle. In the first championship in 1958 at the Old Course in St Andrews, Scotland, the Australians won. Fifty years later, the Scots have the trophy in Australia.
The Eisenhower trophy has been a stepping stone over the years for many of the game's greatest ever players who have since gone on to become leading professional players.
Major champions such as Jack Nicklaus, Tom Kite, Ben Crenshaw, Curtis Strange, Tiger Woods and Michael Campbell (who is joining us here in Bahrain in a couple for weeks for the opening of the Royal Golf Club) have all featured in winning Eisenhower Trophy teams. Maybe in the future the names of Callum Macaulay, Wallace Booth and Gavin Dear will be added to that list of illustrious names, who knows.
Well done guys, a fantastic achievement.
