AGGRESSION PAYS OFF FOR CALLUM MACAULAY IN ROME

By Michael Gibbons
European Tour Deputy Chief Press Officer

Callum Macaulay’s pre-tournament vow to attack at all costs saw the Scot make a fine start to his bid to finish in the top three of the Roma Golf Open as he seeks to guarantee a place in the European Challenge Tour’s season-ending Grand Final.
An opening round of five under par 66 at the penultimate event of the season took the 27 year old former Scottish amateur champion from Tulliallan into a share of third place after round one, alongside Portugal’s José Filipe Lima, England’s Sam Little and Frenchman Victor Riu.
Macaulay’s countryman Raymond Russell shares seventh place after a four under 67, while Frenchman, Anthony Grenier, leads the way on eight under with Spain’s Borja Etchart a further shot back.
Having vowed to ‘attack, attack, attack’ the par 71 Olgiata Golf Club, Macaulay made the perfect start by holing his second shot to his first hole of the day – the par four tenth – for a brilliant eagle 2.
Macaulay is currently 61st in the Challenge Tour Rankings and needs to earn at least €10,000 this week to burst into the all-important top 45 who will then move forward to the Grand Final in search of one of the 20 available European Tour cards on offer through the final Rankings.
“Well I said I was going to attack and I couldn’t do anything but burst out laughing when I holed my second shot on the first hole of the day,” smiled Macaulay. “I had 104 yards to the hole and just hit a nice 56 degree wedge that bounced about six inches out and went straight in.
“It was a great start but then I flirted with a couple of silly bogeys after that but the back nine was as well as I have played all year and I could have been a couple of shots better off but I missed a couple of four footers for birdie.
“I’m delighted though – if you had offered me five under at the start of the round I would have taken it. I have nothing to lose this week and I feel very relaxed and really enjoyed it. I actually had a lesson over the phone from my coach Ian Rae the other day and managed to solve the problem I was having with the swing straight away.”
Of the five other Scots in the field, only Elliot Saltman is struggling to survive the halfway cut after an opening 76. Chris Doak (-1), Jamie McLeary (-1), Craig Lee (level) and Gavin Dear (level) remain very much in the hunt after round one.

FIRST ROUND SCORES
Olgiata GC, Rome
Par 71. Yardage 7,097
63 A Grenier (Fra)
64 A Otaegui (Esp)
66 V Riu (Fra); C Macaulay (Sco); J Lima (Por); S Little (Eng)
67 B Ritthammer (Ger); A Marshall (Eng); R Russell (Sco); S Thornton (Irl); P Oriol (Esp)
68 A Bossert (Sui); F Colombo (Ita); A Bernadet (Fra); C Gane (Eng); A Sullivan (Eng); S Walker (Eng); M Erlandsson (Swe); L Kennedy (Eng)
69 G Molteni (Ita); A Snobeck (Fra); P Archer (Eng); A Tadini (Ita); B Evans (Eng); G Houston (Wal); C Brazillier (Fra); P Edberg (Swe); A Ahokas (Fin); A Pavan (Ita); D Denison (Eng); L Westerberg (Swe)
70 F Delamontagne (Fra); A Johnston (Eng); C Doak (Sco); J Moul (Eng); J McLeary (Sco); A Tampion (Aus); N Lombardi (Ita); J Legarrea (Esp); M Ford (Eng); E Kofstad (Nor); M Delpodio (Ita); M Bernardini (Ita); J Garcia (Esp); J Lagergren (Swe); F Valera (Esp); M Carlsson (Swe); P Del Grosso (Arg); D Brooks (Eng);
71 J Doherty (Sco); T Fleetwood (Eng); C Moriarty (Irl); R Steiner (Aut); M Southgate (Eng); C Lee (Sco); E Dubois (Fra); J Quesne (Fra); D Vancsik (Arg); H Bacher (Aut); T Sluiter (Ned); S Hutsby (Eng); A Domingo (Esp);
72 A Hartø (Den); P Relecom (Bel); K Borsheim (Nor); S Lewton (Eng); F Praegant (Aut); M Bothma (RSA); L Jensen (Den); J Guerrier (Fra); C Ford (Eng); J Estevez (Arg); C Lloyd (Eng); N Meitinger (Ger); G Dear (Sco); B Barham (Eng); P Dwyer (Eng); B Etchart (Esp);
73 J Garcia Pinto (Esp); J Clément (Sui); A Signor (Ita); M Lundberg (Swe); A Hansen (Den); K Eriksson (Swe); M Lorenzo-Vera (Fra); J Campillo (Esp); C Russo (Fra)
74 E Canonica (Ita); E Johansen (Nor); F Elli (Ita); L D'Andreamatteo (Ita); P Gustafsson (Swe); M Kieffer (Ger); J Senior (Eng); N Bertasio (Ita); S Tiley (Eng); L Motta (Ita); W Besseling (Ned); D Lokke (Den)
75 M Miloro (Ita); A Perrino (Ita); J Robinson (Eng)
76 E Saltman (Sco); C Aronsen (Nor); N Henriques (Por); R De Sousa (Sui)
77 A Maestroni (Ita); T Ferreira (RSA); M Baldwin (Eng)
78 A Bruschi (Ita); F Calmels (Fra)
79 B Grace (RSA)
80 N Kearney (Irl)
** S Garcia (Esp)