Inverness-born Rory Franssen is among members of Scotland’s 2021 Home Internationals team who will be in the field at this week’s Scottish Men’s Area Team Championship at The Kings Golf Club in Inverness.
Franssen, who now lives in Auchterarder (Perth and Kinross), will be joined by Scottish men’s champion Angus Carrick along with his Lothians team-mate Connor Wilson.
Matt Clark (North East), Darren Howie (Borders), Lewis Irvine (Lanarkshire) and Ruben Lindsay (Ayrshire) are also among an elite field featuring 96 players from the 16 areas of Scotland.
The three-day Scottish Golf event starts on Friday when six players from each of the 16 areas play the first round of a 36-hole stroke play qualifier to determine the four teams who will progress to the match play stage contested on Sunday.
The semi-finals are played that morning with the two winning teams contesting the final in the afternoon.
In recent years the Scottish Men’s Area Team Championship has proved to be one of the most competitive events on the Scottish Golf calendar with each of the last six competitions being won by different areas.
That run started when Renfrewshire prevailed in 2014 and they were succeeded as championship by Ayrshire (2015), Lanarkshire (2016), the North East (2017, the North (2018) before Fife claimed the trophy the last time the event was played at Leven Links and Scoonie in 2019.
The 2020 competition was cancelled because of Covid-19.
There have also been six successive winners of the individual competition with Craig Ross (Kirkhill) being followed by Ewen Ferguson (Bearsden), Connor Syme (Drumoig), Calum Fyfe (Cawder), Christopher Lamb (Newmachar) and Greg Wishart (Lundin).
The Kings Golf Club was established in 2019 having emerged from the demise of the old Torvean Golf Club which was forced to close to make way for new roads and bridges over the Caledonian Canal.
Its 6,612-yard par-70 course was designed by Scottish architect Stuart Rennie incorporating land used by the previous club and offering panoramic views over Inverness.
Graham Ramsay, the club secretary of Kings Golf club, said: “The Kings Golf Club Inverness are delighted and proud to be the host club of the Scottish Men’s Area Team Championship for 2021.
“To host such an event, having only opened in 2019, is a tremendous testament to the architect, Stuart Rennie, our greenkeeping team, led by Steven McIntosh and our members, who help enormously on and off the course.
“We would like to welcome Scottish Golf and all 96 competitors to the Kings Golf Club Inverness and wish them all good luck for the Championship.”