Ten years ago, the Scottish trio of Gavin Dear, Callum Macaulay and Wallace Booth won the World Amateur Team Championship title. Over the next three days in the build up to this week’s Eisenhower Trophy, Herald Sport talks to the three men who made golfing history …

You could say they were the red lions rampant … even if certain members of tut-tutting officialdom wanted them roaring in another colour.

The picture of Gavin Dear, Callum Macaulay and Wallace Booth decked out in Tiger-esque Sunday red and pawing at an Eisenhower Trophy which was such a vast, triumphant edifice it just about required guy ropes, scaffolding and a pulley system to complete the prize-giving ceremony will remain one of Scottish amateur golf’s most cherished and enduring images.

Some may say that Dear and Macaulay’s spikey hair-dos were equally as memorable. Time goes by eh? A decade ago in sun-soaked Australia, the Scots were on top of the world down under. And as for being dressed for success?

“We got a number of different coloured shirts from the clothing supplier at the time and Callum suggested we should wear them in certain orders,” recalled Dear of that sartorial stooshie.

“We decided on red on the last day but a call came through to say ‘you need to wear navy blue’. We were in a zone and we didn’t want to change what had been set in motion. So we thought ‘b****r it, we’ll stick with the red’. Little things like that were a big part of the success. We made plans and stuck to them.”

Those best laid schemes didn’t go awry. The Scottish triumvirate swept to a rampaging nine-shot win over an American team which featured Rickie Fowler and Billy Horschel to record an historic World Team Championship success.

Up until 2002, any Scottish representation in the event had been through the combined fleet of a GB&I force and there were plenty of tartan-tinged successes during those years with Ronnie Shade, Ian Hutcheon, Steve Martin, Jim Milligan and Lorne Kelly all part of victorious teams. After the various home unions had opted to go it alone, Scotland’s win was a watershed moment.

Between the event’s inception in 1958 and this Caledonian conquest in 2008, the superpower of the USA had won 13 world titles. Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods were both on winning sides. At Royal Adelaide, li’l ol’ Scotland spanked the Yanks with a win for the ages.

“I didn’t understand the level of achievement until I started looking at the results and the size of countries that won it and you look at us and our size and you think how amazing it was,” said the 34-year-old Dear, who loans his medal to the British Golf Museum.

“We didn’t just win it. We won it by a huge margin. I don’t think we’ll see it again from a Scottish perspective. Maybe not even from a British perspective?

“The three of us were at our peak, we weren’t carrying anyone. We got to Australia early, we got over the jet-lag, we got adjusted to the heat but most importantly we just had a good time. By the time the event started, we were totally prepared and relaxed.”

Dear stayed in the amateur game for another year. He helped Scotland add the European Team title to the world crown in 2009 and played for GB&I in the Walker Cup. His stint in the pro scene lasted four years and was largely unfulfilling, however.

As often is the case in this fickle game, amateur dramatics don’t guarantee show stopping performances on the pro stage. “I just didn’t understand the professional game,” admitted Dear, who has his amateur status back and is a busy man in the world of performance-tracking golf devices with Edinburgh-based company, Shot Scope.

“I should have pushed to get more pro starts as an amateur to get experience. I always said that if you can’t get on the European Tour within four years of turning pro then you’re not going to be good enough.”

Achieving Scotland’s greatest amateur victory became something of a double-edged sword. Macaulay, who nearly won on the European Tour in 2009, is waiting to be re-instated as an amateur while Booth’s injury-blighted professional career has not got off the launching pad.

From world champions to the wilderness? Critics often highlight the trio’s fortunes when it comes to the long-standing problem that is the amateur-to-pro transition.

“It is a disappointment and if I didn’t make it then you’d hope Callum or Wallace would,” conceded Dear. “There is a sense of ‘guys, what happened?’. Now, 99 per cent of that is down to us but I don’t think the processes were in place to give us an idea of what to expect on the pro circuit. That area is improving now, though.

“But you have to take your chances. We took ours in Australia but didn’t as professionals. The only time I think of what might have been is when I’m doing my fantasy picks for the Masters each year.

“You look at players who played in 2008 and say ‘we beat him, him and him’. I’ll always have a world champion’s medal. I wouldn’t mind Rickie Fowler’s bank balance though ...”