A slightly better performance by the South African junior amateur golf team in the second round of the Toyota World Junior Team Championships moves them up one place, to tenth overall on the team leaderboard.

The only two remaining South African amateur golfers, in the 113th Amateur Championship, Jacques Blaauw and Derik Ferreira, bowed out in the first round of the match play today which was played at Turnberry over the Ailsa course on the west coast of Scotland.

The South African team did not get the start they were hoping for in the first round of the Toyota World Junior Team Championships played today at the Chukyo Golf Club Ishino Course just outside Nagoya, Japan. They finished on 214, one over par, eight shots behind the leading country.

Jacques Blaauw and Derik Ferreira were the only South Africans to survive the difficult weather conditions yesterday and qualify for the match play stage of the 113th Amateur Championship being played at Turnberry on the west coast of Scotland, over the Ailsa and Kintyre courses.

Jacques Blaauw fired a one over par 71 today, on the Turnberry Ailsa course, in the first round of 36 hole Qualifying for the 113th Amateur Championship, being played over two links golf courses on the west coast of Scotland, making him the leading South African.

Four of South Africa's top junior golfers will be attempting to win, for the second time in the history of the event, the Toyota World Junior Team Championships which commences tomorrow over the par 72 Ishino Course, Chukyo Golf Club just outside Nagoya, Japan.

Nineteen of South Africa's leading amateur golfers have entered the 113th Amateur Championship, arguably amateur golfer's major, which is being played over both Ailsa and Kintyre Courses at the world renowned Turnberry Resort on the west coast of Scotland, commencing on Monday.

23 year old Matthew Carvell has been awarded the 2008 Men's Golf Student Athlete of the Year by the Southland Conference, the area in which his Southeastern Louisiana University in Frisco, Texas falls.

The South African Golf Association (SAGA) announced a team of three players to compete in the Barrett Amateur Championship, a 54 hole stroke play competition taking place from 2 to 4 August over the Algonquin Golf Course in St Andrews, New Brunswick, Canada.

Derik Ferreira was the only South African to make the 36 hole cut in the prestigious 72 hole St Andrews Links Trophy, played at the home of golf in St Andrews, Scotland, which concluded yesterday.

Lee Westwood, Jeev Milka Singh, Darren Clarke and Rory McIlroy join the challenge for the world's second-oldest national Open

The Scots did not believe it possible, but Johan de Beer gave it a good go.

The unheralded 18 year old Pretoria Country Club golfer teed up, on Saturday (31st May), in the 54 hole Bidwells Scottish Open Amateur Stroke Play Championship played on the Duke's Course (par 71) in Fife, Scotland, as a complete unknown quantity.

Adrian Ford, 20 year old Durbanville Golf Club member, recorded 70 and 73, one under and two over par respectively, in the last two rounds, played today, to finish on a 72 hole aggregate of 283, one under par, in the French International Stroke Play Championship being played on the Veneuil layout of the Chantilly Golf Club, north of Paris.

The Protea team had a proverbial mountain to climb in the final day of their amateur golf Test Match against France, being played on the Veneuil course at Chantilly Golf Club north of Paris today. The four South African players, needed to win three of their four singles matches to share the Test Match. They managed to win two, halved one and lost one and so lost the Test Match by 3½ to 4½ points, coming agonisingly close to securing enough points to share the spoils against the French.

The Protea team may have been the stronger side when looking at player World Amateur Golf Rankings (WAGR), however by the time the sun set today, on the Chantilly Golf Club north of Paris, it was clear that the rankings did not mean much as the less fancied French team dominated today's play winning all but one of a maximum of four points.

Playing on a Links golf course in the north of Wales is testing at the best of times, non more so than over this weekend.

South Africa's national amateur champion, 22 year old Jacques Blaauw, who plays most of his golf in the Boland, managed his way through the testing conditions to record a 72 hole score of 303, fifteen over par, giving him a share of 9th place in the 2008 Welsh Open Stroke Play Championship decided on Sunday at the Conwy Golf Club.

Cameron Johnston continued his fine run of form when he won the inaugural SA Mid-Amateur Stroke Play Championship at De Zalze Golf Club in Stellenbosch on Sunday.

This Johnston's fourth win in just over a month after capturing the Cape Province Amateur, the Western Province Amateur Stroke Play and the Western Province Mid-Amateur Stroke Play in quick succession.

Final Results

If the World Amateur Golf Rankings (WAGR) are anything to go by, the Protea team of Derik Ferreira (ranked 19), Jacques Blaauw (27), Adrian Ford (29) and Ryan Clarke (313) will start as the favourites to win the fourth annual amateur golf Test Match against France which starts tomorrow.

Four of South Africa's amateur golfers take on the 72 hole Welsh Open Amateur Stroke Play Championship which starts at Conwy Golf Club, in a town in North Wales of the same name, on Friday. The four players are Jacques Blaauw, Derik Ferreira, Lyle Rowe and Trevor Muggeridge.