SOLID START BY CRAIG LEE IN CHALLENGE TOUR GRAND FINAL

                    CRAIG LEE ponders over a putt. Image by courtesy of Phil Inglis©

CHALLENGE TOUR REPORT

From Neil Ahern, European Tour Assistant Press Officer
nahern@europeantour.com
Craig Lee’s steady two-under-par opening round of 69 means he remains in perfect shape to claim a card for the 2012 European Tour International Schedule after the first day of the Apulia San Domenico Grand Final.
The 34-year-old from Stirling is in 12th place in the Challenge Tour Rankings on €70,052 and his solid start at San Domenico in Puglia, Italy, means he is not only in a great position to consolidate his place in the top 20, but he can also push into the top ten, which would earn him a better category on The European Tour next year.
The Scot was one of the many players to be caught out by the extremely difficult par four opening hole, dropping a shot there before picking up birdies at the sixth and eighth holes to reach the turn in 33.
He started the back nine as he began the first, with a bogey at the 10th hole before birdies at the 14th and 17th helped him to a share of 18th place.
“I didn’t miss too many greens but I didn’t hit too many great chip shots and I’m happy with two under – it’s a great start,” said Lee.
“It’s too early to start working out what’s going to happen, who’s going to do what, but as long as I’m there or thereabouts then I’ve always got a chance. But I don’t want to go into Saturday thinking that I need to shoot eight under so if I just keep plugging away it’ll make life a lot easier.
“Obviously everybody’s got something to gain, there are very few people with much to lose either so it’s just a case of trying to dig away and see what happens at the end of the week.
“It’s almost impossible to work out at the moment, I’m only around €700 behind tenth spot but that means nothing at this stage, you could have someone come up from behind and jump further up so I’ve just got to try and get into the top five this week and it’ll take care of itself.
“On day one you don’t want to play yourself out of the tournament or be eight shots behind so two under is a nice steady start and I’m happy with it.”
Julien Guerrier, meanwhile, produced a sparkling display on the opening day to take a share of the lead and stake a late claim for one of the 20 golden tickets on offer.
A round of 66 helped the flying Frenchman set the clubhouse target on five under par, where he was joined by Spaniard Jorge Campillo, who is hoping to cement his place in the top 15 of the Rankings, home hero Andrea Pavan and Portugal’s Ricardo Santos, both of whom have designs on topping the Rankings.
Chris Doak shot a level par round of 71 to finish the opening day tied for 34th place.
FIRST-ROUND SCOREBOARD
Par 71
66 J Guerrier (Fra) , R Santos (Por) , J Campillo (Esp) , A Pavan (Ita) 
67 S Thornton (Irl) , S Little (Eng) , A Johnston (Eng) , J Elson (Eng, A Marshall (Eng) , B Hebert (Fra) , S Tiley (Eng), T Fleetwood (Eng)
68 V Riu (Fra) , M Erlandsson (Swe), C Russo (Fra), C Gane (Eng) , C Lloyd (Eng)
69 S Walker (Eng) , P Edberg (Swe), A Tampion (Aus) , B Ritthammer (Ger) , J Quesne (Fra) , D Denison (Eng), M Baldwin (Eng) , F Praegant (Aut) , J Lima (Por) , A Snobeck (Fra) , A Tadini (Ita), C Lee (Sco)
70 E Dubois (Fra) , E Kofstad (Nor), L Kennedy (Eng) , B Grace (RSA)
71 P Gustafsson (Swe) , C Doak (Sco), F Delamontagne (Fra), M Bothma (RSA)
72 K Borsheim (Nor) , F Colombo (Ita) , T Ferreira (RSA) , L Jensen (Den) 
73 P Archer (Eng) , M Southgate (Eng) , J Moul (Eng) , N Meitinger (Ger)