19/03/12
Aberdeen golfer Graham Gordon has been reinstated as an amateur following an unsuccessful spell in the professional ranks.
Injuries and illness have dogged the Newmachar player, 31, since he won the Scottish amateur championship by beating Forfar’s Stuart Wilson – recently-appointed the European Junior Ryder Cup captain – 4&3 in the final at the Duke’s Course, St Andrews in 2003.
Gordon, a former Scotland international, also played in the winning Great Britain and Ireland team at Ganton in the Walker Cup that same year, playing alongside the likes of fellow Scots Wilson and David Inglis and Englishman Oliver Wilson.
Gordon has been given a handicap of +2.5 on his return to the amateur ranks – at his peak in 2003 he played off +4.5 – and is planning to play as many SGU Order of Merit events as he can.
The north-east player said: "I’m a far better player now even with the injury and I shall be targeting a handicap of +6, subject to keeping fit to play.
"Whether this is achievable remains to be seen but I have a successful track record around the venues on the 2012 SGU schedule of events.
"My entries have been made for all of the SGU ranking events, and my participation shall be very much subject to being healthy enough to do so."