McArthur's maiden win, Lloyd

Saltman, Richie Ramsay make

it three Scots in leading six

From Steve Todd, ChallengeTour Press Officer
Former Scottish amateur champion Andrew McArthur from Windyhill secured the first professional victory of his career on a superb final day for the European Challenge Tour's Scottish contingent at the Reale Challenge de España in Madrid.
The 29 year old Glaswegian, pictured right by Cal Carson Golf Agency (all rights reserved), came through some tough final round conditions to secure a one-shot victory over another Scot, Lloyd Saltman, and Spain's Alfredo Garcia Heredia at the Casino Club de Golf Retamares, after a final round of two over par 74 was good enough to take the €22,400 top prize.
Richie Ramsay made it three Scots in the top six after a final round of 70 saw the man from Royal Aberdeen finished on four under.
McArthur, the 2004 Scottish amateur champion, thought he was two shots off the lead as he played the closing holes, having been told by his fellow Challenge Tour pro – England's Gary Lockerbie – that he was behind with just a couple of holes remaining.
It wasn't until he birdied the par-3 17th that he saw the leaderboard and realised he was two clear with just the 18th to play.
"Gary had said to me that I was a couple behind, but then said 'just try and win as much money as you can'. Then I birdied 17 and had a look at the board and realised I was two clear. I hit a good drive down the 18th but had a terrible hanging lie for my approach to the green. I managed to knock it up there and chipped it on and two putted.
"It was a strange feeling only finding out I could win when I got to the 18th tee, but I am delighted. It's a big hurdle to get over to get your first win out here – hopefully I can kick on and get my card for the main Tour for next year now. I came close last year and all I was missing was a win, so this is a big step for me."
McArthur's win earned him 22,400 Euros and saw him into the top ten of the Challenge Tour Rankings. He made a huge leap of 55 places, from 64th to ninth with season's earnings of €29,795. The top 20 players at the end of the Challenge Tour season win a place on The 2009 European Tour.

Lloyd Saltman pocked 12,600 Euros and Ramsay earned 5,040 Euros.

FINAL TOTALS

Par 288 (4 x 72)

280 A McArthur (Sco) 69 65 72 74 (22,400 Euros).

281 L Saltman (Sco) 66 75 69 71, A Garcia-Heredia (Spa) 70 71 67 73 (12,600 Euros each).

283 R Karlberg (Swe) 69 71 67 76, G Molteni (Ita) 67 70 67 79 (7,700 Euros each).

284 R Ramsay (Sco) 70 734 71 70, M Tullo (Chi) 70 69 68 77 (5,040 Euros each).

Other totals:

285 G Maybin (NIr) 71 68 73 72, O Whiteley (Eng) 69 71 71 74, P Worthington (Eng) 74 70 69 72 (2,960 Euros each).

287 J McLeary (Sco) 65 72 74 76 (jt 17th) (1,768 Euros).

288 E Saltman (Sco) 72 67 74 75 (jt 21st) (1,330 Euros).

296 S Jamieson (Sco) 69 75 78 74 (jt 48th) (616 Euros).

ALL THE FINAL TOTALS

280 Andrew Mcarthur (Sco) 69 65 72 74
281 Alfredo Garcia-Heredia (Spa) 70 71 67 73, Lloyd Saltman (Sco) 66 75 69 71
283 Gregory Molteni (Ita) 67 70 67 79, Rikard Karlberg (Swe) 69 71 67 76
284 Mark Tullo (Chi) 70 69 68 77, Richie Ramsay (Sco) 70 73 71 70
285 Gareth Maybin (NIrl) 71 68 73 73, Fredrik Ohlsson (Swe) 68 72 73 72, Vicente Blazquez (Spa) 67 74 69 75, Estanislao Goya (Arg) 72 70 71 72, Oliver Whiteley (Eng) 69 71 71 74, Wil Besseling (Ned) 70 68 73 74, Phil Worthington (Eng) 74 70 69 72
286 Eduardo De La Riva (Spa) 68 71 71 76, Rodolfo Gonzalez (Arg) 72 70 73 71
287 Jamie Mcleary (Sco) 65 72 74 76, Peter O'keeffe (Irl) 71 74 72 70, Marco Ruiz (Par) 67 71 75 74, Michele Reale (Ita) 71 72 72 72
288 Franois Calmels (Fra) 71 72 72 73, Carlos Garcia (Spa) 73 71 74 70, Johan Skld (Swe) 71 72 70 75, Mark Searle (Eng) 72 70 70 76, Elliot Saltman (Sco) 72 67 74 75, Matthew Zions (Aus) 70 76 69 73
289 Roland Steiner (Aut) 70 73 71 75, Oscar Floren (Swe) 68 74 72 75, Steve Lewton (Eng) 71 74 70 74, Ricardo Santos (Por) 69 71 75 74, Bjorn Pettersson (Swe) 70 72 70 77, Gustavo Acosta (Arg) 71 73 72 ose Manuel Carriles (Spa) 70 73 75 73
292 Matthew Bliss (Can) 70 73 70 79, Alvaro Salto (Spa) 71 75 74 72, Marcus Higley (Eng) 71 73 72 76
293 Miguel Angel Martin (Spa) 70 76 74 73
294 Raul Quiros (Spa) 70 74 74 76, Johan Wahlqvist (Swe) 71 74 73 76, Inigo Urquizu (Spa) 74 72 70 78, Lars Brovold (Nor) 65 76 75 78
295 Alessio Bruschi (Ita) 71 71 73 80, Younes El Hassani (Mar) 72 73 75 75, Pablo Del Grosso (Arg) 71 73 76 75
296 Gareth Davies (Eng) 69 69 74 84, Joonas Granberg (Fin) 73 71 78 74, Scott Jamieson (Sco) 69 75 78 74
297 Sandro Piaget (Mon) 72 73 75 77, Simon Robinson (Eng) 70 72 77 78
298 Carlos De Corral (Spa) 69 76 77 76, Daniel Quiros (Spa) 74 72 78 74
299 Rob Harris (Eng) 73 70 74 82
300 Daniel Seron (Spa) 69 76 78 77
301 James Heath (Eng) 71 75 74 81, Shaun P Webster (Eng) 70 75 78 78, Peter Bronson (USA) 69 73 79 80
302 Alejandro Villavicencio (Gua) 71 71 77 83, Juan Parron (Spa) 73 73 73 83
303 Richard Kilpatrick (NIrl) 72 74 79 78
304 Stephen Grant (Irl) 69 73 81 81
306 Jose Luis Adarraga Gomez (Spa) 70 75 77 84