Millport man Jim Thomson skippered Scotland disabled golf team to victory over England in the Phoenix Cup at last!

Team Scotland, made up of golfers from the Scottish Disability Golf Partnership, secured the big win over the 'Auld Enemy', after three days of match play competition at the Murrayshall Resort in Perth.

The Phoenix Cup, which is much like the Ryder Cup format took place over the Perthshire course earlier this week, where 12 players from each team battled it out over the parkland course, in the traditional match play formats like fourball and foursomes and took the Cup on the third day by 12 points to 6.

Day one in very wet conditions, saw Scotland take a narrow one point lead over the English disabled golfers. Day two in much brighter conditions saw the Scots batter the opposition by taking five of the six matches and a half point from a drawn game. This set the Scots on track for a historic victory, as to date, Team Scotland has won other international Phoenix formats, but never won at home.

Ian Halliwell the English captain said, "This was a great opportunity to compete in a much coveted competition, to play at a wonderful venue in Murrayshall, but primarily to let people know that having a disability is not a barrier to playing golf. We would have loved to give the Scots a better run for their money, but we can’t always have things all our own way.”

Jim Thomson the Scottish Captain said, “We thought we had a strong team on paper, but its one thing to theorise, and you can never tell how individuals will gel or not during a competition. The first day was more of a struggle against the elements, but we had them on day two, by taking five of the six available points and halving the last. A great competition and a result to relish.”

In an interview with the 'News', Jim said that he was lucky to be alive after a freak road accident left him as an amputee, and was honoured to be selected as one of the baton bearers for the Queen’s Relay in the Commonwealth Games in 2014.

Jim, of Golf Road, lost the lower half of his left leg below the knee, after a horror accident on the A760 Haylie Brae around five years ago.

And last year in disability golf, Jim was the the Scottish Order of Merit Championship winner after 15 events, recording a total of 134 points.