Golf

Barclay Howard cemented his place in this year's Walker Cup team when he strolled to an eight-shot victory in the Scottish Strokeplay Championship at Monifieth yesterday. The 44-year-old Cochrane Castle veteran, who played in the victory over the Americans at Royal Porthcawl two years ago, had a 12-under-par total of 271 which left Australian Geoff Ogilvy and Geordie Robert Wiggins a distant joint second on 279, with newly-crowned amateur champion Craig Watson fourth on 281.

Sailing

Graham Bailey will add the British Admiral's Cup team to his curriculum after winning the Hackett Etchells National Championship last week in Lymington. Bailey went into the final race leading the 30-boat fleet but by only a small margin from Poul-Ricard Hoj-Jensen, the Danish double Olympic gold medallist. Hoj-Jensen needed to beat Bailey by at least two places but, although he won that last race in Christchurch Bay, Bailey was in second place and so secured the title as Adam Gosling, the reigning world champion, failed to find form in all three final races. Bailey has been invited by skipper Chris Law to join Graham Walker's Corum Indulgence as a helmsman/tactician, especially for the offshore races in the Admiral's Cup.