COURSE RECORD 62 WITHOUT A DRIVER !

From Challenge Tour Press Officer Paul Symes
Kristoffer Broberg’s magical month continued with a round of 63 on the opening day of the Rolex Trophy, but for once the sensational Swede was upstaged by Argentine Daniel Vancsik, who equalled the course record with a stunning 62.  

Despite having to use a three-wood off the tee after he broke his driver last week and a replacement failed to arrive in Geneva in time, Vancsik posted the lowest round of his professional career courtesy of ten birdies in a flawless performance worthy of the stunning scenery at Golf Club de Genève, in the Swiss capital.

In searing heat reminiscent of his native Buenos Aires, Vancsik reached the turn in 32 and raced home in a mere 30 strokes, thanks chiefly to a run of four successive birdies from the 15th hole. Just one of his ten birdie putts, on the 17th hole, was from outside ten feet, which gives a fair indication of Vancsik’s masterful display from tee to green.     

He said: “My driver will be arriving tonight, but after the way I played I don’t think I’ll put it in the bag! My three wood’s pretty long and the course is quite short, so I didn’t really miss my driver today. I played very, very well – I only missed one green, on the sixth hole. But I got up and down for par, and after that the game felt very easy.

“It was a lot of fun out there – I really like this tournament, it’s definitely one of my favourites of the year. I really enjoy coming here, because it’s nice and relaxed, Geneva is a great city and the course is beautiful – it’s so green, it’s like playing in a really nice garden! The people are very friendly and they treat you so well, so I enjoy every minute of the week.”    

Broberg took his cumulative score to 57 under par for the month of August, having won the Finnish Challenge with 15 under par and the Norwegian Challenge on 22 under par, before finishing in a tie for third place on 11 under at last week’s ECCO Tour Championship hosted by Thomas Björn & Mercedes-Benz. 

Broberg’s stroke average for his last 13 rounds of golf is a quite staggering 67.3 and for the entire season is 68.5, which comfortably puts him ahead of South African Louis Oosthuizen, who currently tops the Stroke Average category on The European Tour with 69.92. On a glorious opening morning of the elite 42-man event, Broberg picked up where he left off in Denmark last week, notching seven birdies and an eagle three at the eighth hole to take second place on nine under par.

Denmark’s Andreas Hartø, who currently shares third place with Frenchman Alex Kaleka and American Peter Uihlein on eight under par, was only half-joking when he said that Broberg was an outside contender to claim one of Ryder Cup Captain José María Olazábal’s two wildcard picks next Monday. Certainly, if Broberg carries his current form onto The European Tour next season – or even as early as next week, if he were to claim his third Challenge Tour title in Geneva – a debut victory on the top tier of European golf would be well within his grasp.

Broberg was refusing to think that far ahead, but the 26 year old was nonetheless delighted to keep his red hot streak going.

He said: “I hit my wedges very close today, which is the key to a low score on this course. I holed a long putt on the 11th hole, from eight metres, but other than that I was putting it close with my irons. It’s hard to say why I’m playing so well at the moment – my confidence is very high, so I feel like I have a good chance of winning the tournament every time I tee up. The guys are good out here so it’s not easy to win, but when you hit a lot of fairways you give yourself a good chance. Hopefully I can keep it going for the next three days.”

Former World Amateur Number One Uihlein, now starting to find his feet on the Challenge Tour after a difficult introduction to the pro ranks, carded a blemish-free round of 64 to continue a fine run of recent form which has seen him finish in the top 12 in his last four events. The highlight of the former US Amateur Champion’s round were his 25 feet birdie putts on the 16th and 17th holes, followed by another from closer range on the last to sign for the lowest round of his fledgling professional career.

Kaleka, courtesy of nine birdies and a solitary bogey, and Hartø, with seven birdies and an eagle, joined Uihlein on eight under par.        

The top two players in the Challenge Tour Rankings, England’s Gary Lockerbie and Sweden’s Magnus Carlsson, head a five strong group of players tied for sixth place on seven under par.

 

Scores after round  1:

 

62 D Vancsik (Arg) ,

 63 K Broberg (Swe) ,

 64 A Kaleka  (Fra) , A Hartø  (Den) , P Uihlein  (USA) ,

 65 W Besseling  (Ned) , M Carlsson  (Swe) , G Lockerbie  (Eng) , C Paisley  (Eng) , J Hansen  (Den) ,

 66 R De Sousa (Sui) , S Kim (Kor) , J Busby (Eng) ,

 67 M Tullo (Chi) , E De La Riva  (Esp) , S Wakefield (Eng) , J Huldahl (Den) , C Aguilar  (Esp) ,

 68 C Ford (Eng) , C Lloyd (Eng) , J Parry (Eng) , G Stal  (Fra) , S Walker (Eng) ,

 69 M Kieffer (Ger) , M Lorenzo-Vera  (Fra) , R Russell (Sco) , S Benson (Eng) , S Henry  (Sco) ,

 70 B Åkesson (Swe) , M Madsen  (Den) ,

 71 D Brooks (Eng) , P Archer (Eng) , E Kofstad (Nor) , A Velasco (Esp) , M Crespi  (Ita) ,

 72 J Walters (RSA) , A Tadini (Ita) , M Korhonen (Fin) , A Gee  (Eng) , P Edberg (Swe) ,

 73 L Jensen (Den) ,

 74 E Pepperell (Eng)
          

 EUROPEAN TOUR COMMUNICATIONS

ROCK CONCERT IS ONE OF LOCKERBIE'S ENTERPRISING IDEAS

NEWS RELEASE FROM CLUBHOUSE

  By ROB EYTON-JONES

Three wash out summers have seen Lockerbie Golf Club lose much of its visitor trade on cancelled party bookings.  Over the same time the economic climate has had a shrinking effect on the club’s adult membership.

But rather than watching itself slide into the red the club has come up with a number of enterprising ideas to raise funds. 

The plan will swing into action this Saturday when the club hosts the first ever ‘Rockerbie’ concert featuring 10 well known local acts. 

“We have thought about doing something like this for a long time,” said Steve Robson, one of three club members behind the family concert.

“The dream would be to build it up to something like the Wickerman or T in the Park.  But we are starting with 10 good local bands from the area for this first year and we are looking for about 500 folk to come along.”

So far the club has sold 380 tickets for the event which will be staged in the club car park. The bands have all agreed to play for free and the range of music will be sufficiently diverse to appeal to every age group.

“Music is a big winner in the town and people like to go out and have a good time,” continued Steve. “There has been a jazz festival locally for six or seven years but this is the first concert of its kind for the town.”

The club is hoping the concert will raise £6,000, all to be ploughed back into the club.  New grounds machinery is an immediate concern but another top priority is its junior membership.

Ironically, as the senior numbers have dropped, the junior side of the club has thrived. There is junior coaching every Thursday night, tournaments every Saturday for those with handicaps, games nights, indoor target golf in the winter and family events. 

Over half the 47 juniors have handicaps; one of them plays with the Scottish under 14 boys, two compete for Dumfriesshire’s juniors, and another has been selected to play for Scotland in the World Deaf Championships taking place in Japan this October.

To further develop its junior section Lockerbie this week became the latest club to sign up to the national junior programme, ClubGolf.

“We are a small club but we spend a lot of time with the juniors,” said its junior convenor, Lawson McLean.   

“ClubGolf will help us further our ambitions by having a really good junior section which is where the future members of the club will come from.

“We are particularly trying to encourage girl golfers because we only have two at the moment, so ClubGolf will help us reach the schools and get more children interested.”

Mr McLean is planning to attend the two day Level 1 training course with the PGA, and hoping to encourage other members to join him.  It is all part of the plan which will help the club turn this particular corner.  

“This year might be very tight which is why we had to go to extraordinary lengths to raise funds,” he added.  “This weekend’s festival is a novel idea for fund raising and it's the younger ones in the club who are doing it, they have a lot of good ideas. 

“I'm sure it will be a success which we can build on for future years.”

 

COSSINS AND FALLON SHARE EUROPRO TOUR LEAD

PGA EUROPRO TOUR NEWS RELEASE

By NICK TEALE

Charlie Cossins and Scott Fallon share a one-stroke lead at the Veka and Network Veka UK Open 2012 after shooting four-under-par 68s in the opening round at De Vere Wychwood Park.

Daniel Perrett and Steven Capper lie just behind the leaders after carding 69s and nine golfers are two shots off the lead on two under.

Cossins (Bath Golf Club) has missed the cut at each of the three 888poker.com PGA EuroPro Tour events he has played so far this season but commenced his opening round at Wychwood Park with four pars before he suffered a setback with a bogey at the fourth. He made amends with a two at the sixth to return to level par and made inroads on the back nine.

A three at the 10th was followed by a two at 11 and another birdie three at the 12th to take his round to three under par. A four at the par-five last enabled him to sign for a four-under-par 68 and claim a share of the lead at the end of day one.

Fallon (Lightning Packaging and Supplies Ltd) made six birdies and two bogeys on his way to 68. He opened with a four at the first to immediately drop below par but bogeyed the fifth. Birdies at seven, eight and 10 were followed by a bogey at 11 but a four at twelve saw him return to three under. He negotiated the next five holes to par and ended his round with a four at the 18th to join Cossins on four under.

Perrett (Purplegolf.com) completed a flawless opening round in 69 strokes. He started at the 10th and made eight pars on his front nine, with a birdie three at 14 taking him below par. Turning home he immediately gained another shot at the first and moved to three under when he made three at the fifth.

Capper (Caldy Golf Club) also started at the 10th but was two over six holes into his first round after bogey fives at 14 and 15. He pulled a shot back with a four at 18 and returned to level par with a birdie at the first. Birdies at three, seven and eight also contributed to a four-under-par back-nine performance and the Wirral golfer signed for 69.

With nine golfers two shots off the lead after first-round 70s and a further 11 on one under, the Veka and Network Veka UK Open 2012 looks set to continue a season of closely-run tournaments on the 888poker.com PGA EuroPro Tour.

The second round commences at 7:30am on Thursday (August 23). Spectator entry is free throughout the week and live scoring is available at www.europrotour.com.
 LEADING FIRST-ROUND SCORES
Par 72
68 Charlie  Cossins (Bath), Scott Fallon (Eng)
69 Daniel Perrett (England), Steve Capper (Caldy)

SCOTS' SCORES

70 Shaun McAllister (Craigielaw) (T5)
73 Ross Cameron (Saltire Energy), Mark Kerr (unatt) (T36)
74 Chris Kelly (Cawder), Malcolm Isaacs (Nairn Dunbar), Zack Saltman (Archerfield Links), Wallace Booth (Comrie), John Gallagher (Turnhouse) (T56)
75 Elliot Saltman (Archerfield Links) (T78).
76 Paul Doherty (Vale Hotel) (T95)
77 Duncan Stewart (Grantown on Spey), Michael Stewart (Troon Welbeck), Myles Cunningham (Longniddry) (T109.

ONLY A FIVER TO WATCH FRIDAY'S PLAY AT GLENEAGLES

NEWS RELEASE

As the who’s who of world golf has arrived at Gleneagles for this week’s Johnnie Walker Championship, former Ryder Cup Captain and Championship Chairman, Colin Montgomerie, along with his successor, José María Olazábal are both encouraging all golf spectators to head to Perthshire on Friday and take advantage of £5 Friday.

As the venue for the Johnnie Walker Championship and the Host Venue for the 2014 Ryder Cup, The Gleneagles Hotel is one of the strongest supporters of golf in Scotland.  That support is being increased again this year with the continuation of ‘£5 Friday’ during the week of the Johnnie Walker Championship.  Gleneagles will donate all the revenue from on-the-day ticket sales to clubgolf – Scotland’s junior golf development programme.

Colin Montgomerie said: “It’s great to see that for the second year in a row, the Johnnie Walker Championship is giving fans the chance to watch a full day of golf here at Gleneagles for just five pounds. It’s not only a fantastic opportunity for Scottish golf spectators but it also aids the growth of the junior game in this country, the ‘Home of Golf’. I would encourage all golf fans to come down and watch the action for unfold.”

 

ABOYNE GOLFER WINS MONTY'S MONTHLY MEDAL FINAL

SGU MEDIA RELEASE

 

Victorious 2010 Ryder Cup captain Colin Montgomerie was the perfect host as club golfers from across Scotland savoured an unforgettable day at The Carrick on Loch Lomond for the final of Monty’s Monthly Medal on Monday (20 August).

The event, staged by the SGU for the second time to again raise thousands of pounds for the Elizabeth Montgomerie Foundation supporting the building of two new Maggie’s Centres in Aberdeen and Lanarkshire, proved a resounding success, with Aboyne golfer Paul Ironside returning north with the first prizes after carding an impressive 40 stableford points.

But it was a day when all 54 club golfers, representing 30 clubs at the final, were winners, each finalist enjoying the rare opportunity to play the 123-yard par-3 16th hole with Scotland’s eight-time European Tour Order of Merit winner. Montgomerie also brought along a special guest – The Ryder Cup – with each player photographed on the tee with Monty and the iconic trophy before teeing off.

For many of those involved, it was a ‘dream come true’, with a superb 14 finalists rising to the challenge to ‘Beat Monty’ in the ‘Nearest the Pin Challenge’. The Ryder Cup hero, competing in the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles this week, was hugely impressed with the standard of golf, especially from Ironside.

Playing off a 14-handicap, the Banchory resident triumphed by four points, with his clubmate Paul Duncan also collecting a prize in fourth place on 34 points (by virtue better inward half). 

The 32-year-old, who works at Bank of Scotland in Aberdeen, said: “It’s definitely my biggest win. The only other event I’ve won was the 'B' section club championship at Lothianburn a few years ago when I lived in Linlithgow.

“I had a very good day, thoroughly enjoyable. We had a heavy downpour early on, but apart from that the weather was fine.

“It’s a great competition and the finals day was fantastic for everyone. Colin was really good company and getting the photo opportunity with The Ryder Cup just topped it all off.”

 Just as the Aboyne club enjoyed double success at the prize giving, so too did Renfrew – runner-up on 36 points was Anne Hempsey with Martin Findlay third on 35.

Montgomerie, who took time out from his busy schedule to also stay for the post-event dinner and chat with all the players, was delighted with the SGU’s contribution to the competition and is keen to continue and grow an event which has generated excellent PR for the charity.

“It’s super that so many people could come together and enjoy themselves for a most worthy cause,” he said. “Thank you to everyone for participating. I hope you enjoyed yourself as much as I did.

“There are over 500 golf clubs in Scotland and I think we can make this competition bigger and bigger.”

Turning to the 16th, he laughed: “I hit some good shots on the 16th... you hit a lot of better ones. Congratulations to you all!

“Finally, thanks also to Lynsey Knowles, my step daughter, and her cousin, Lauren Bryden, on behalf of the Elizabeth Montgomerie Foundation, who run the charity so well full-time for me.”

While the day was memorable for all, it had extra meaning for an Iraq war veteran, Gary Shilliday. The Royal Marine, a 41-year-old from Torrance Park, was inspired to take up the game by Montgomerie. He has only been playing for two-and-a-half years, but has remarkably reached a handicap of +1.

Shilliday’s story continues... he was World Champion Kick Boxer in 1995 and also won the British title on nine occasions. “I think that has a lot to do with my good hand-eye co-ordination for golf,” he said.

“Monty is my golf hero. He’s the first golfer I saw who could hit the ball pin high every single time.

“I had a super time. Playing with Monty was the absolute highlight. I think I was nervous from about the ninth hole, thinking about the 16th. But he was brilliant, an absolute gentleman.

“I think the fact he was Ryder Cup captain, The Ryder Cup was there, he is my hero at golf and we had a chat down the hole made it so enjoyable.”

In the nearest the pin competition at the second hole, Iain Shirely, again of Renfrew, was triumphant, while Graeme Millar (Blair Atholl) won the longest drive at the 11th.

Congratulations to the following players who ‘Beat Monty’ at the 16th hole: David Bell (King James VI), Doug Bruce (Banchory), Iain Shirley (Renfrew), Neil Archibald (Piperdam Osprey) Chris Peffers (Kirkhill), Edwin Keith (Aboyne), Neil Paterson (Inverurie), Martin Fellowes (Kirkhill), John Ross Jnr (Renfrew), Barry Keenan (Playsport) , Paul Duncan (Aboyne), Garry Muir (Paisley), Andrew Cochran (Royal and Ancient) and Douglas Zuill (Royal and Ancient).

 

>> Click here for results and more information on Monty's Monthly Medal

 FROM THE BBCSPORT.COM WEBSITE

 Aberdeen's Paul Lawrie is delighted to have ensured a return to the Ryder Cup arena, 13 years after his first outing in the biennial contest with the USA.

"It feels unbelievable. I feel good about it," said Lawrie, who qualifies fourth on the European points table.
"At 43 years of age, to play in the Ryder Cup again is pretty special.
"I've put a lot of work in over the last couple of years: on my game, on my fitness, on the mental side, on the putting. My focus has been better."
And the Aberdonian, preparing for this week's Johnnie Walker Championship, added: "I have been working pretty hard so it feels as though it has been two years getting back into it.
"My focus is on the here and now, though, and that continues with playing well here at Gleneagles."

PAUL LAWRIE'S CV

Ryder Cup record
• 1999, Brookline, US - two wins, one defeat, one tie
European Tour and major championship victories
• 1996 Catalonia Open
• 1999 Qatar Masters
• 1999 Open Championship (play-off)
• 2001 Dunhill Links Championship
• 2002 Celtic Manor Resort Wales Open
• 2011 Open de Andalucia
• 2012 Qatar Masters

Nine of the 10 automatic qualifiers for Europe are now known: Rory McIlroy, Justin Rose, Graeme McDowell, Lawrie, Francesco Molinari, Luke Donald, Lee Westwood, Peter Hanson and Sergio Garcia.

Martin Kaymer currently occupies the last qualification spot, with Rafael Cabrera-Bello, Nicolas Colsaerts and David Lynn all in with a chance of overtaking the German if they perform well at Gleneagles.
European captain Jose Maria Olazabal then has two wildcards to hand out for this year's event at Medinah Country Club, Illinois.
Lawrie played in the losing European team when the Ryder Cup was held at Brookline, Massachusetts, in 1999, the year of his Open triumph.
He combined with fellow Scot Colin Montgomerie in the fourballs and foursomes, winning one match, halving one and losing one.
Lawrie made sure he finished with a positive record, with a 4&3 success against Jeff Maggert in one of just three European wins in the singles.
A strong start to this season saw Lawrie win the Qatar Masters , while a second place at Wentworth's PGA Championship and reaching the semi-finals at the World Match Play Championship maintained his lofty standing in the rankings.
He failed to make the cut at July's Scottish Open but aims to fare better on home soil this week.
"This is my twelfth Johnnie Walker Championship and it's a tournament I really enjoy," Lawrie said.
"I really hope the Scottish golf fans are out in force and enjoy the golf on show."