Top-20 finish for

Paul Ferrier on

US college

circuit debut

Last year's Scottish boys' match-play champion Paul Ferrier, a member of Baberton Golf Club, Edinburgh, finished a creditable joint 18th in a field of 76 players on his debut on the American college golf circuit on Wednesday.
Ferrier, 19, a freshman student at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte, had rounds of 72, 74 and 76 for a total of six-over-par 222 in the CordeValley Collegiate tournament at CordeValle Country Club, San Martin, California over a long course of 7,119yd with a par of 72.
A double-bogey 7 - his only double of the 54 holes - at the 18th in his final round after birdies at the 11th and 16th cost him a higher finish but it was still a performance that pleased his college coach who had felt the Scot was ready to play for the team after a few months' settling-in process and before the winter break.
Only one other member of the Charlotte squad of six finished higher than Ferrier - David Rawluk from Dublin who scored 74, 68 and 78 to tie for 15th place on 220 after being third with one round to go. Rawluk had double-bogeys at two short holes in his final round.
Tim Sluiter (Southern California) and Nick Taylor (Washington) headed the field jointly on the four-under-par 212 mark.
Charlotte (1114) finished fifth of 12 behind runaway winners Southern California (1080) in the team event.

++Picture shows Paul Ferrier's happy day in 2007 when he won the Scottish boys' match-play championship.
LEADING INDIVIDUAL FINAL TOTALS
Par 216 (3 x 72). 7119yd
212 Tim Sluiter (Southern California) 70 70 72, Nick Taylor (Washington) 71 71 70.
213 Tom Glissmeyer (Southern California) 74 71 68.
214 Matthew Giles (Southern California) 69 72 73, Sihwan Kim (Stanford) 69 74 71.
Selected scores:
220 David Rawluk (Charlotte) 74 68 78 (jt 15th).
222 Paul Ferrier (Charlotte) 72 74 76 (jt 18th).

LEADING TEAM FINAL TOTALS
1080 Southern California. 1106 Stanford. 1107 UCLA. 1110 Washington. 1114 Charlotte. 12 Teams took part.