Macaulay birdies eight of last 9

to win £71,309 runner-up

prize in Madeira Open

FROM THE EUROPEAN TOUR WEBSITE
Argentina's Estanislao Goya survived a late scare and an amazing birdie burst by Callum Macaulay to win a European Tour title at just the sixth attempt.
The 20-year-old from Cordoba, a graduate from last season's European Challenge Tour, won the Madeira Islands Open BPI - Portugal at Porto Santo Golfe by one stroke with a closing 73 and a six-under-par total of 278.
“It’s great for me – I am so happy to have made one of my dreams come true,” said Goya - the Tour de las Americas 2008 Order of Merit winner.
“I want to be one of the best players in the world and this is one of the steps that I have to take to do that. It’s amazing that I have my Tour card for the next two years and a win here in Madeira. It was just over a year ago that I was thinking how much I would love to play in Europe and here I am now having won – it has happened so quickly.”
Goya’s win launches him from 150th to 50th in The Race to Dubai, and after his victory he admitted the opportunity to compete in the inaugural Dubai World Championships come November would now be at the forefront of his mind.
He added: “I am going to change my schedule now because there are a lot of big events that I am going to play for sure now. The Race to Dubai is going to be great and hopefully I can get into the top 60 and be there when the final happens.
“Every tournament that I have won has been on the last hole. In Cordoba in my first win I made a 30 foot putt in the play-off and then in the Grand Final last year I won by one on the last. And you saw today, I had to make that putt on the last which was not an easy downhill putt to make.”
Macaulay, himself playing only his fifth event after coming through 252 holes at Qualifying School on the circuit and ranked 1,009th in the world, incredibly birdied the last six holes and eight of the last nine for an inward 28 that was just one outside the Tour record.
“I’m over the moon with that – I certainly couldn’t do any more than I did over the back because it’s not an easy golf course,” said Macauley who put Tulliallan Golf Club on the map during his stellar amateur career.
“To come back in 28 is unbelievable really. I don’t think I have ever done that at my home course, never mind here on The European Tour.
“It’s a great result for me, and it will certainly help the confidence. I always felt that I could compete out here if I played my best and I suppose this just confirms that. It’s brilliant to have finished second and I can go to the next two tournaments with a lot of belief in myself.”
While equalling the course record with a 64, the 25-year-old, last year's Scottish amateur champion and part of the three-man side which won the world amateur team title for the Eisenhower Trophy in Australia last October, thought he had left his blistering run too late to seriously trouble Goya. He had only just scraped through the cut at six over par on Friday before a third round 67 propelled him into a tie for 10th.
However, the South American then double bogeyed the 492yd par-4 16th and suddenly found himself needing to par the final two holes to grab the first prize of just under €116,660 plus the two-year Tour exemption which comes with it.
Goya held his nerve and managed it, leaving Macaulay - incredibly 11 strokes back with nine to play - to take the €77,770 runners-up cheque.
Irishman Damien McGrane and Dutchman Wil Besseling shared third place on four under, McGrane leaving himself with too much to do after double bogeying the short 13th.
SCOTSWATCH:
David Drysdale made it two Scots in the top 10 in a European Tour event - that's not happened for a while - with a final round of 69 for level par 284, a total that would not normally earn such a high finishing spot, underlining that the Madeira Islands course was a difficult one on which to score well. The Dunbar tour pro earned 14,840 Euros.
Scott Drummond finished on 290 with a closing round of 72, earning a joint top 20 finish and 8,143 Euros.
Richie Ramsay finished 69th of the 74 who beat the halfway cut. The Aberdonian shot 147 (73-74) to qualify and 153 (78-75) for the last two rounds. He will be disappointed with that. A pay-out of 1,330 Euros would hardly have paid his expenses for the week. Macaulay's performance could inspire Ritchie to greater things. The ability to score low is there.

FINAL TOTALS
Par 284 (4 x 71)
278 Estanislao Goya (Arg) 68 68 69 73 (116,660 Euros).
279 Callum Macaulay 74 74 67 64 (77,770 Euros).
280 Wil Besseling (Net) 69 72 70 69, Damien McGrane (Ire) 66 72 70 72 (39,410 Euros each).
281 Anthony Wall (Eng) 72 659 73 67 (29,680 Euros).
282 Michael Hoey (NIr) 69 66 75 72 (24,500 Euros).
283 Thomas Aiken (SAf) v72 69 71 71, Joakim Haeggman (Swe) 66 70 75 72 (19,250 Euros each).
284 David Drysdale 72 72 71 69, Jan Are Larsen (Nor) 71 71 76 66 (14,840 Euros each).
285 Jose Manuel Lara (Spa) 71 76 69 69 (12,880 Euros).
286 Jose-Filipe Lima (Por) 72 74 69 71, Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (Fra) 69 75 71 71, Jarmo Sandelin (Swe) 72 74 69 71 (11,340 Euros each).
288 Inder Van Weerelt (Ned) 75 72 71 70, Marcel Siem (Ger) 75 70 73 70, Carlos Rodiles (Spa) 73 65 71 79 (9,870 Euros each).
289 Carl Suneson (Spa) 68 72 78 71, Marc Cayeux (Zim) 73 72 71 73
290 Santiago Luna (Spa) 69 78 73 70, Scott Drummond 71 71 76 72, Rafael Cabrera Bello (Spa) 76 72 69 73 (jt 20th) (8,143 Euros each).
291 Richard Bland 78 64 75 74, Ulrich Van Den Berg (Rsa) 74 69 78 70, Gary Boyd 72 76 70 73, Ake Nilsson (Rsa) 73 74 71 73, David Horsey 73 73 72 73, James Kamte (Rsa) 76 71 73 71, Paul Broadhurst 70 72 78 71
292 Alexandre Rocha (Bra) 74 70 75 73, Andrew Butterfield 68 73 75 76, Alvaro Velasco (Spa) 69 74 74 75, Stuart Davis 70 71 76 75, Niclas Fasth (Swe) 71 70 76 75, Robert Coles 74 74 72 72, Klas Eriksson (Swe) 74 74 73 71
293 Liam Bond 75 69 77 72, Branden Grace (Rsa) 72 72 77 72, Birgir Hafthorsson (Ice) 73 70 78 72, Clodomiro Carranza (Arg) 74 69 76 74, Bradley Dredge 72 74 76 71
294 Garry Houston 71 73 80 70, John E Morgan 74 74 73 73, Roope Kakko (Fin) 74 72 75 73, Jesus Maria Arruti (Spa) 70 75 75 74, Per-Ulrik Johansson (Swe) 72 73 75 74, Javier Colomo (Spa) 71 74 80 69
295 Jeppe Huldahl (Den) 76 72 72 75, Antonio Sobrinho (Por) 75 73 74 73, Ricardo Santos (Por) 74 73 74 74
296 Martin Wiegele (Aut) 76 69 75 76, Jean Van de Velde (Fra) 71 72 73 80, Ignacio Garrido (Spa) 75 68 72 81
297 Iain Pyman 76 70 75 76, Adilson Da Silva (Bra) 72 76 75 74, Matthew Mills 73 70 79 75
298 Gary Clark 71 73 79 75, Nuno Campino (Por) 79 69 77 73, Julien Clement (Swi) 77 71 74 76, Richard McEvoy 70 75 71 82, Rafael Echenique (Arg) 77 69 79 73, Anthony Snobeck (Fra) 75 69 74 80
299 Nathan T Smith (USA) 75 72 78 74, Christian Nilsson (Swe) 71 75 77 76, Francois Delamontagne (Fra) 76 71 79 73, Phillip Price 75 73 77 74, Michele Reale (Ita) 71 73 78 77
300 Richie Ramsay 73 74 78 75 (69th) (1,330 Euros).
301 Carlos Del Moral (Spa) 74 72 74 81
304 Paul Waring 69 74 80 81