In stepping down from the post of Scotland head coach after overseeing a transformation in his players' fortunes at international level, David Gourlay admits he could not see any way of surpassing this year's Commonwealth Games success on home soil.

The Ayrshireman took on the job three years ago soon after what had been a catastrophic performance at the previous Commonwealth Games in Delhi where Scotland, one of the dominant nations in bowls, failed to register a single medal.

Originally overlooked by Bowls Scotland administrators who did not believe there was a Scottish candidate capable of taking on the role, Gourlay's vast experience, which included several years representing Australia, the sport's other leading country, made the former world champion an obvious candidate.

He wasted little time in demonstrating why the combination of the knowledge he had accrued from the more professionalised Australian set-up, with his understanding of the Scottish bowling culture, was essential to overhauling the set-up as his team returned from the World Championships in Adelaide two years ago with six medals, three of them gold.

However, the Commonwealth Games - in which bowls is one of the few sports that is truly world class - is seen by most of those eligible as the pinnacle in the sport, so Gourlay's main target was always this year's showpiece where the Scottish team, which also included para bowlers, picked up four medals in all, three of them gold.

"For me, the head coach role was only ever going to be for the Glasgow Commonwealth Games and I don't think that anything will ever beat that experience of being coach at a home Games, so I feel now is the time is right to move on," Gourlay said yesterday.

"It's an incredibly hard decision to make because the squad and I have grown really close over the past three years. It's been a long journey and you get to know people really well in a way that you never knew them before. I'll miss working in the sport but most of all I'll miss the players."

In saying so, he believes the sport is now now seen in a different light.

"One of the highlights for me was the recognition and respect that bowls got at the Games, not only through the media but with other sports," Gourlay observed.

"We've got to be a professional sport if we want to be taken seriously and we've taken a couple of steps on the performance ladder. The players were fully committed in terms of their attitudes and behaviour leading up to and during the Games."

He did acknowledge, however, that the tournament had not been an unmitigated success, with the women failing to pick up a medal after he had shown his support for those who did make the team when making the bold decision to omit arguably the best female bowler in the country Lorna Smith, a multiple Scottish, British, Commonwealth and world champion, in favour of team dynamics. "I have mixed emotions about the results," Gourlay admitted.

"The men excelled themselves but I was disappointed with the women's results. I thought we had a really good team, but they were so unlucky the first week. They could easily have won two medals and I'm not sure we recovered from those near misses."

However, the overall strides made in terms of improving the programme were acknowledged by Alex Marshall, another of the multiple world champions at Gourlay's disposal who was a double gold medallist in Glasgow and paid tribute to the work of the out-going coach.

"David has made fantastic progress with bowls over the past three years and the medal stats from the Commonwealth Games and World Championships speak for themselves," said Marshall.

"Do we keep up the high performance approach? Without a doubt we do. We've got to continue at the same level because other countries will be striving to try to do the same as we have done in the next Worlds and Commonwealth Games."

The challenge for the sport as a whole, meanwhile, is to demonstrate that those making the appointments have learned what is required to bring the best out of Scottish bowlers as they begin the search for a replacement.