In the final part of our series on Scotland’s historic World Amateur Team Championship win a decade ago, Herald Sport scales the heights with Wallace Booth …

Trying to track down Wallace Booth these days just about requires an Ordnance Survey map and a slab of Kendal mint cake. “I’ve got the Munro-bagging bug,” said the 33-year-old of his robust new passion.

It would be tempting to paint a delightful picture and say that this wheezing, panting correspondent met Booth halfway up Ben Macdui for a blether. Instead, we settled for the slightly less vigorous expedition of a telephone call.

A decade ago, Booth and his compatriots, Callum Macaulay and Gavin Dear, scaled the heights in Australia as they conquered all in the Eisenhower Trophy.

In the injury-stricken years that followed, Booth has had his own mountains to climb. And if we shoehorn any more hilly clichés into this piece, we’ll have to pay an annual sub to the Scottish Mountaineering Club.

Having turned pro in 2009, a crippling shoulder injury required surgery in the April of 2010 and Booth effectively lost two years of his formative stages in the paid game.

A further shoulder operation last December has left him in yet another phase of prolonged rehabilitation. The solitude, the natural exhilaration and the calming sense of being at one with his surroundings has been something of a God send amid the futility and frustration.

“Doing the Munros keeps my mind away from worrying about my rehab and getting back to golf,” said Booth who is targeting a return to action in the new year. “I’ve bagged 85 Munros now and 81 since the end of April.

“People around me were saying I needed to find something to get me away from golf. I love golf and I love it as a hobby too. But as a pro, it is your job and you have to have something else.

“I can’t work out in the gym like I used to and that was my release. But the hills allow me to escape everything. It keeps my mind quiet.”

From a very young age, Booth, like his golfing sister Carly, was tipped to make a big noise in the Royal & Ancient game. His decorated amateur career offered plenty of encouragement ahead of the transition into the professional scene, but the devastating shoulder injuries hindered that progress.

With the kind of grim determination that used to be the reserve of the ancient mariner, though, Booth is not about to toss in the towel.

“I still have dreams to chase and all of this has not dampened my appetite for competition,” said the former Scottish Strokeplay champion, who keeps himself busy with coaching shifts and various golfing duties at the Pitlochry club when he’s not bounding up lofty peaks.

“All the momentum I had from my amateur days diminished in those first couple of years as a pro but I’m pretty stubborn. I’ve worked hard to try to achieve my goals and I’m not going to give up because of injury. Something inside me is keeping me going when it could be easy not to keep at it.”

The memories of Adelaide in 2008 will always be seared on the minds of those involved. A strong sense of unity and an unwavering self-belief were among the key attributes of this historic world championship success.

“We all thought we could go there and do something special,” reflected Booth. “Believing is one thing, actually doing it is another. But we pulled it off. It was the perfect trip.”

Booth’s celebratory backflip on the final green – “my wee party piece” – was one of the more iconic images from a memorable week.

“I’ve not tried the flip since my injury,” he said of that athletic, airborne birl which he learned from his other passion of wrestling. “It’s actually not as hard physically as it is mentally if that makes sense.

“The hardest thing about a backflip is believing you can throw yourself and still end up on your feet. It’s mind over matter, which in some ways, has got me through these last few difficult years.”

Booth is the last man standing of that triumphant triumvirate with both Dear and Macaulay opting to step away from the professional game. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.

“There are no guarantees in this game and we all go in different directions,” he said. “I’m only 33. That’s still young in golfing terms. But I know time is passing by too. I see leaderboards at tour events with guys I played with as an amateur. Rather than thinking ‘they are too far ahead of me now’ it drives me and gives me hope. I’ll not let the dream go yet.”

In 2008, Booth was on top of the golfing world. He may be in the foothills just now, but he’ll keep climbing.