Elliot Saltman in record form at Formby Hall

By ANTHONY LEAVER
Elliot Saltman set a new course record at the Formby Hall Classic near Liverpool with a 65 in the opening round at the Formby Hall Golf Resort & Spa to lead by two shots at seven under in the tenth event on the 2009 PGA EuroPro Tour.
Saltman (Aegon) entered the event in fourth spot in the Order of Merit with three events to play, and laid the foundations to take over at the summit with a brilliant front nine – an eagle at the third followed by three birdies to go out at five under.
Birdies at the tenth and 13th moved him to seven under and although he dropped a shot at 17, he notched his sixth birdie of the day at the last to finish at seven under par, a new course record since the venue’s lay-out was changed.
Saltman is joined in Liverpool by younger brothers Lloyd and Zack (both Aegon) who both finished the day at three over par (75).
Challenge Tour regular Tim Dykes (Wrexham GC) holds second spot at five under, reaching the 15th at four under where he dropped his only shot of the day – but a strong finish with birdies on the last two holes saw him card an opening round 67.
Andrew Oldcorn (Kings Acre) sits in third spot after a four under round of 68, with the Scot five under through 12 with an eagle at the third before bogeys at 13 and 15 put the skids on his progress – a fourth birdie at 16 steadied the ship for the 49 year-old.
With the top five on the Order of Merit gaining Challenge Tour cards, James Busby (The Shropshire) couldn’t have timed his opening round of 69 any better. Busby sits in sixth spot on the money list and picked up three birdies without dropping a shot to finish three under for the day and is joined in fourth spot by Scott Henry (Cardross GC), James Hepworth (Ilkley GC) and Mark Kerr (Golf Fit Ltd/Bathgate GC).
A calamitous finish by George Woolgar (Capitalservices.com) ruined his earlier good work to leave him six shots off the lead at one under. Woolgar was three under to the par-three 13th but moved to five under there with a hole in one – but he went on to bogey the last four holes of his round to record a 71.
Order of Merit leader Scott Jamieson is level after the opening round along with Jack Doherty (North Gailes) who is third in the money list. Daniel Brooks (Mill Hill) is in second spot on the list but has plenty of work to do if he is to keep the pressure on Jamieson after carding a six over 78 in Liverpool. Graeme Clark (Doncaster GC) holds fifth spot in the money list but failed to make an impression in the North West, finishing with a 75.
The second round of the Formby Hall Classic from the Formby Hall Golf Resort & Spa begins at 7.30am on Thursday morning, with live scoring available at http://www.europrotour.com/ via the Score Updates link, where you can also find the full Leaderboard from the opening round.
HOW THE SCOTS SCORED
Par 72
LEADER Elliot Saltman 65 -7 (course record)
Andrew Oldcorn 68 -4
Scott Henry 69 -3
Mark Kerr 69 -3
Shaun McAllister 70 -2
Jack Doherty 72 Lvl
Scott Jamieson 72 Lvl
Lee Harper 73 +1
Lorne Kelly 73 +1
John Gallagher 74 +2
Chris Kelly 75 +3
Lloyd Saltman 75 +3
Zack Saltman 75 +3
Christopher Campbell 77 +5
Duncan Stewart 77 +5
Graham Brown 78 +6
Paul Doherty 78 +6
Scott Herald 78 +6
Steven Mackie 78 +6
Barry Hume 81 +9
Steven Hume 81 +9
Stuart Burns 82 +10

Carnoustie cut-price offer for over-50s

NEWS RLEASE
Carnoustie has recently been announced as the venue for both the 2010 Senior Open Championship presented by MasterCard and the 2011 Ricoh Women’s British Open and to celebrate this double accolade the Carnoustie Golf Links Management Committee is offering women and men over 50 a special 4 for 2 tee time deal on its Championship course on specified dates this September and October.
Under the terms of the deal, four women, four males over 50, or a combination of both, can purchase a tee time for just £260 – a 50% saving on the normal price.
The offer is available from September 1st to October 31st subject to availability.
“We are delighted to have been selected as the venue for both the 2010 Senior Open Championship and the 2011 Ricoh Women’s Open Championship and look forward to welcoming the world’s leading Senior and Women golfers over the next couple of years,” said Graeme Duncan, General Manager of the Carnoustie Golf Links Management Committee.
“It’s a great honour to be asked to stage two such prestigious Championships and to celebrate we thought it would be appropriate to offer women and seniors this unique one-off deal.
“The deal is open to four men over 50, four women of any age, or any combination of both. All you have to do is to call our Reservations team on 01241 802270 to select an available tee time. Unfortunately, for administrative reasons, this offer is not available to golfers purchasing a tee time on line at www.carnoustiegolflinks.co.uk.”
The announcement that the 2010 Senior Open Championship and the 2011 Ricoh Women’s British Open will be played at Carnoustie means its Championship course will join Turnberry and Royal Lytham & St Annes as the only three British courses to have hosted not just the Open Championship, but its Senior and Women’s equivalent as well.
The 2010 Senior Open Championship presented by MasterCard will be staged at Carnoustie for the first time on July 22-25, 2010. It becomes the ninth different venue to be used for the Championship, including five other Open venues, Turnberry, Royal Lytham & St Annes, Royal Portrush, Muirfield and Royal Troon. The other courses to be used were Royal Aberdeen, Royal County Down and Sunningdale where this year’s Championship was won by American, Loren Roberts, after a play-off against compatriot, Fred Funk, and Ireland ’s Mark McNulty. The field also included Greg Norman, Bernhard Langer, Sandy Lyle, Sam Torrance, Sir Nick Faldo and the legendary American, Tom Watson, who just seven days before came close to winning his sixth Open Championship at the age of 59.
The 2011 Ricoh Women’s British Open is scheduled to be played at Carnoustie in July 2011 and marks the first time the Championship has been held in Scotland since World No. 1, Lorena Ochoa, won the 2007 title over the Old Course, St Andrews . On that occasion, the Championship delivered over £7.5 million to the Scottish economy and received over 356 hours of global broadcast coverage to almost 400 million households.
This year’s event, held earlier this month at Royal Lytham & St Annes, was won by Scotland’s Catriona Matthew, who was only making her second tournament appearance after giving birth to her second daughter, Sophie, a mere 11 weeks before.
Carnoustie hosted its seventh Open Championship back in 2007, when Ireland ’s Padraig amHarrington won the first of his two back-to-back victories after a play-off with Spain ’s Sergio Garcia. The other previous Open champions at Carnoustie were Tommy Armour (1931), Henry Cotton (1937), Ben Hogan (1953), Gary Player (1968), Tom Watson (1975) and Paul Lawrie (1999).

To take advantage of this offer please contact our Reservations team on 01241 802270

O'HARA NOW SECOND BEST SCOT IN WAGR

Kris Nicol's win at Peterhead

lifts him 39 places in R&A

World Amateur Rankings

Fraserburgh Golf Club greenkeeper Kris Nicol's victory in the North-east District Open at Peterhead on Sunday has lifted him 39 places in the new list of R&A World Amateur Golf Rankings. Nicol, 25, who beat home-course player Philip McLean in a play-off, is now 775th. McLean has gone up 18 places to No 352. Nicol will be defending the North of Scotland open amateur stroke-play championship at Lossiemouth this coming weekend when McLean will also be in the field. Banchory's James Byrne, who did not defend his title in the North-east District Open, has fallen back from second best Scot behind Murrayshall's Gavin Dear - still 12th - to fourth with Walker Cup reserve Paul O'Hara, ranked 85, now the second leading Scot, ahead of Ross Kellett (91st) and Byrne (93rd). Walker Cup team selection Wallace Booth is the fifth best Scot in 157th position. Scots in updated R&A World Amateur Golf Rankings (with movement from last week in brackets): 12 Gavin Dear (Murrayshall) (0). 85 Paul O'Hara (Colville Park) (+1). 91 Ross Kellett (Colville Park) (+4). 93 James Byrne (Banchory) (-10). 157 Wallace Booth (Comrie) (-7). 179 Mark Hillson (Craigielaw) (-9). 190 Michael Stewart (Troon Welbeck (-6). 265 James White (Lundin) (+11). 274 Glenn Campbell (Blairgowrie) (-4). 352 Philip McLean (Peterhead) (+18). 354 David Law (Hazlehead) (+21). 367 Steven McEwan (Caprington) (-3). 377 Scott Borrowman (Dollar) (+17). 379 Keir McNicoll (Carnoustie) (+2). Other Scots: 502 Fraser McKenna (Balmore) (+2). 508 Greg Paterson (St Andrews New) (-1). 579 Peter Latimer (St Andrews) (-1)_. 625 James Ross (Royal Burgess) (+65). 628 Gordon Yates (Hilton Park) (-7). 656 Paul Ferrier (Baberton) (-2). 696 Bobby Rushford (Grangemouth) (+7). 775 Kris Nicol (Fraserburgh) (+39). 792 Craig Watson (East Renfrewshire) (-8). +Kris Nicol is pictured above with his North-east District Open championship trophies. In answer to some readers' queries about why he is holding two trophies - one if the championship trophy, the other is the award for being the leading player from the North-east District. The R&A WAGR leaders are: 1 Nick Taylor (Canada). 2 Morgan Hoffman (US). 3 Matt Hill (Canada). 4 Matteo Manassero (Italy). 5 Rickie Fowler (US). 6 Sam Hutsby (England). 7 Nicol Van Wyk (South Africa). 8 Luke Goddard (England).