Murray, Hutcheon and McLean only three

Scots to progress from Stage 2 to Final Q

By COLIN FARQUHARSON

Only three Scots from the 22 who started Stage 2 of the European Tour School qualifying process at four Spanish venues last Friday have earned places in the Final Q School over six rounds at PGA Golf de Catalunya, nr Girona, still in Spain from Saturday to next Thursday (December 3).
Former Scottish amateur champion George Murray, pictured right by Cal Carson Golf Agency, from Anstruther and Banchory tour pro Greig Hutcheon made it through at Arcos Gardens - where former European Tour Rookie of the Year Scott Henderson (Kings Links) earned 10th alternate place, i.e. he needs 10 of the qualifiers to withdraw for one reason or another before Saturday, a highly unlikely proposition.
The third Scots qualifier was Glasgow-born Alan McLean who has spent most of his pro golf life in South Africa. Alan qualified at Sherry Golf Sherry.
So disappointment for such high-profile Scottish amateur names as Walker Cup man Wallace Booth from Comrie, Scotland international Keir McNicoll from Carnoustie, former Scottish amateur double champion Kevin McAlpine from Alyth, Walker Cup first reserve Paul O'Hara (Colville Park) who was the SGU Order of Merit this year.
Other leading amateurs, not Scots, who failed include Victor Dubuisson, the Frenchman who is No 1 in the R&A World Amateur Golf Rankings, and Walker Cup youngster Stiggy Hodgson (Sunningdale).
To all of these, it is perhaps worth recalling that future Major winner and Ryder Cup captain Ian Woosnam succeeded only on his SEVENTH attempt at the European Tour School.

SUMMARY FROM THE EUROPEAN TOUR WEBSITE

Seventy-five happy golfers emerged through the Second Qualifying Stage to take their places at this week’s Final Stage, most notably England’s Philip Archer, American Ryan Blaum, European Tour champion Santiago Luna of Spain and Sweden’s Fredrik Ohlsson.

That quartet all finished top of the pile at their respective courses, all of which are located in southern Spain: Sherry Golf Jerez, Hacienda Del Alamo, Arcos Gardens and Costa Ballena Ocean Golf Club.

Archer, who finished in the top 30 of The European Tour Order of Merit two years ago, led the 18 qualifiers from Sherry Golf Jerez, finishing two shots clear of second placed Manuel Quiros of Spain on 15 under par.

Frenchman Anthony Snobeck and Denmark’s Lasse Jensen took the last two available places, having prevailed in a four man play-off. Over at Arcos Gardens veteran Spaniard Luna led the way on 12 under par, two shots clear of Indonesia’s Rory Hie – who shot a stunning round of 64 – with South African Michiel Bothma a further two strokes back in third place.

Scotland’s Greig Hutcheon and Austrian Hans Peter Bacher took the 18th and 19th spots, having seen off all comers in a five man play-off.

There was no need for a play-off at Hacienda Del Alamao, where American Blaum kept up his fine form to prevail by five shots from 2008 European Amateur Champion Stephan Gross junior of Germany.

Brazilian Alexandre Rocha, the joint winner of the Qualifying School in 2006, also made it through to the final showdown in Girona, whilst England’s Michael Lowe took the 17th and final spot.An eight man play-off was needed to determine the final two places at Costa Ballena Ocean Golf Club, where Swede Ohlsson came out on top on 14 under par.

British Amateur Championship finalist and Walker Cup player Sam Hutsby of England also came through in tied 11th place, whilst the final two places were taken by Italian Marco Soffietti and Norway’s Marius Thorp, who needed extra holes to see off the other six hopefuls.

All 75 players will now take their places at the six round Final Stage, which starts this Saturday at PGA Golf de Catalunya in Girona, Spain.

QUALIFIERS FROM THE FOUR SPANISH VENUES

ARCOS GARDENS
Par 288 (4x72)
276 Santiago Luna (Spa) 66 69 71 70 (£1,500).
278 Rory Nie (Ina) 69 75 70 64 (£1,000).
280 Michiel Bothma (SAF) 68 65 73 74 (£700).
281 Victor Almstrom (Swe) 70 70 70 71, Nicolas Meitinger (Ger) 69 71 72 69 (£400 each).
282 Matthew Bliss (Can) 70 68 74 70, George Murray (Sco) 70 71 72 69, Tony Carolan (Aus) 69 73 74 78, Wil Besseling (Net) 68 70 71 73.
283 Oliver Whiteley (Eng) 65 72 72 74, Thomas Feyrsinger (Aut) 70 73 72 68, Julio Zapata (Arg) 72 71 71 69.
284 Graham Povey (Eng) 71 66 75 72, Liam Bond (Wal) 72 75 70 67.
285 Jamie Moul (Eng) 67 71 74 73, Lloyd Kennedy (Eng) 70 69 72 74, Joakim Rask (Swe) 73 75 68 69.
286 Greig Hutcheon (Sco) 72 69 71 74, Hans Peter Bacher (Aut) 70 75 73 69.

NON-QUALIFIERS
286 Raimo Sjoberg (Swe) 68 75 72 71 (2nd alternate), Oliver Bekker (SAF) 72 71 71 72 (6th alternate), Scott Henderson (Sco) 72 71 71 71 (10th alternate).
287 Sven Struver (Ger) 74 72 70 71.
288 John Mellor (Eng) 71 73 70 74, Tyrone Ferreira (SAf) 74 71 73 71, Johan Wahlqvist (Swe) 71 77 72 69, Michael Collins (Ire) 75 73 69 73, Mikko Korhonen (Fin) 70 72 71 76.
Selected non-qualifiers:
290 Jack Doherty (Sco) 72 75 72 71 (jt 29th).
292 Keir McNicoll (Sco) 76 76 71 69 (jt 44th).
293 Paul Doherty (Sco) 72 74 75 72 (jt 47th).
294 Joel A Hendry (Sco) 70 75 78 71 (jt 49th).
295 Gareth Shaw (NIr) 70 76 75 74 (jt 54th).

COSTA BALLENA

Par 288 (4x72)

274 Fredrik Ohlsson (Swe) 71 69 65 69 (£1,500).

276 Alvaro Velasco (Spa) 69 66 68 73, Paul Eales (Eng0 67 69 71 69 (£850 each), Niall Kearney (Ire) (am) 70 73 67 68.

277 Steven Tiley (Eng) 72 66 68 71 (£500).

278 James McLean (Aus) 71 68 67 72, Floris De Vries (Net) 69 70 68 70 (£150 each).

279 Luis Claverie (Spa) 71 70 71 67, Mark F Haastrup (Den) 68 70 68 73, Louis Moolman (SAf) 68 68 70 73.

280 Sam Hutsby (Eng) 71 68 71 70, Jesus Maria Arruti (Spa) 65 70 72 73, Eirik Tage Johansen (Nor) 71 70 67 72, Edouard Dubois (Fra) 66 67 72 75, James Ruth (Eng) 66 67 72 75, Guillaume Watremez (Bel) 70 70 67 73, John Kelly (Ire) 72 71 68 6.

281 Marius Thorp (Nor) 68 70 69 74, Marco Soffietti (Ita) 72 67 70 72.

NON-QUALIFIERS

281 Garry Houston (Wal) 71 67 780 73 (4th alternate), Jaakko Makitalo (Fin) 72 66 74 69 (8th alternate), Jurgen Maurer (Aut) 69 70 71 71 (13th alternate), Jamie Abbott (Eng) (am) 69 69 70 73, Johan Skold (Swe) 70 72 73 66, Ben Mason (Eng) 69 70 70 72.

282 Dennis Kupper (Ger) 65 72 74 71, Anders Sjostrand (Swe) 73 69 70 70, Thomas Haylock (Eng) 73 69 70 70, Chris Kelly (Sco) 69 69 70 74.

Selected non-qualifiers:

284 Craig Lee (Sco) 71 72 73 68, Matt Haines (Eng) (am) 69 68 72 75 (jt 33rd).

290 Jason McCreadie (Sco) 73 77 68 72, Stiggy Hodgson (Eng) (am) 73 71 73 73 (jt 55th).

HACIENDA DEL ALAMO

Par 288 (4x72)

268 Ryan Blaum (US) 68 65 67 68 (£1,500).

273 Stephan Gross jun (Ger) 64 73 65 71 (£1,000).

275 Thorbjorn Olesen (Den) 72 65 70 68 (£700).

277 Ghislain Rosier (Fra) 71 70 68 67, Clodomiro Carranza (Arg) 71 69 68 68 (£400 each).

278 Alexandre Rocha (Bra) 70 72 68 68, Chinnarat Phadungsil (Tha) 70 70 69 69, Charlie Ford (Eng) 68 72 69 69 Federico Colombo (Ita) 72 69 68 68.

279 Christophe Brazillier (Fra) 72 71 68 67, Bernd Wiesberger (Aut) 71 69 76 63.

281 Mattias Eliasson (Swe) 71 69 68 72, Jonathan Caldwell (NIr) 69 72 71 69, Benjamim Hebert (Fra) 74 67 70 70, James Kamte (SAf) 72 71 69 69.

282 West Hefferman (Can) 69 72 73 68, Michael Lowe (Eng) 74 71 67 70.

283 Andrea Maestroni (Ita) 9 73 70 71, George Coetzee (SAf) 72 68 71 72.

NON-QUALIFIERS

284 Sandro Piaget (Mo) 74 71 70 69 (7th alternate), Paul Nilbrink (Nor) 71 69 71 73, Graeme A Clark (Eng) 71 73 72 68 (11th alternate), Chris Paisley (Eng) (am) 69 69 74 72 (3rd alternate).

285 Carlos Balmaseda (Spa) 73 71 69 72, Zane Scotland (Eng) 73 67 74 71, Inder Van Weerelt (Net) 74 70 71 70, Juan Abbate (Arg) 76 73 70 66, Marcus Palm (Swe) 75 69 67 74.

Selected non-qualifiers:

286 Lee Corfield (Eng) 75 69 70 72, Luke Goddard (Eng) 70 72 75 69, David Griffiths (Eng) 71 72 71 72, Dale Whitnell (Eng) 70 73 73 70 (jt 29th).

288 Paul O'Hara (Sco) 74 70 74 70, Jonathan Lomas (Eng) 74 71 72 71 (jt 38th).

292 Stephen Gray (Sco) 75 73 73 71 (jt 58th).

294 Mark Hillson (Sco) (am) 79 69 73 73 (jt 62nd).

298 Lee Harper (Sco) 72 78 73 73 (jt 66th).

SHERRY GOLF JEREZ

Par 288 (4x72)

273 Philip Archer (Eng) 68 69 68 68 (£1,500).

275 Manuel Quiros (Spa) 69 69 70 67 (£1,000).

276 Tim Stewart (Aus) 68 72 72 64 (£700).

280 Thomas Norret (Den) 69 69 72 70, Jamie Elson (Eng) 72 73 65 70 (£400 each).

282 Eduardo De La Riva (Spa) 68 68 75 71.

283 Jason Knutzon (US) 67 71 75 70.

284 Iain Pyman (Eng) 69 70 74 71, Simon Thornton (Ire) 658 73 71 72, Paul Dwyer (Eng) 70 71 76 67, Alan McLean (Sco) 69 71 71 73, Paul Pinto (Arg) 64 75 74 71, Ally Mellor (Eng) 68 73 73 70.

285 Marco Ruiza (Par) 70 75 71 69, Julien Clement (Swi) 75 67 69 74, Colm Moriarty (Ire) 69 70 74 72.

286 Anthony Snobeck (Fra) 71 70 71 74, Lasse Jensen (Den) 70 73 71 72.

NON-QUALIFIERS

286 Johan Axgren (Swe) 66 75 72 73 (1st alternate), Martin Rominger (Swi) 67 76 70 73 (5th alternate).

287 Ricardo Santos (Por) 74 71 71 71 (9th alternate), Elliot Saltman (Sco) 73 69 71 74, Max Glauert (Ger) 71 70 71 75, Sebastian Saavedra (Arg) 71 73 73 70, Russell Surber (US) 70 74 71 72, Ricard Santos (Por) 74 71 71 71, Magnus Persson (Swe) 72 75 72 68.

Selected non-qualifiers:

289 Kevin McAlpine (Sco) 72 74 73 70, Victor Dubuisson (Fra) (am) 68 76 74 71 (jt 28th).

292 Mark Kerr (Sco) 72 73 72 75 (jt 38th).

293 Wallace Booth (Sco) 71 77 72 73 (jt 41st).

296 Scott Jamieson (Sco) 71 71 73 81 (jt 53rd).

Withdrew: Chris Doak (Sco) 72 78 76 wd.