ARNOTT AND JAMES HEAD SCOTTISH
CHALLENGE AT EURO SENIOR TOUR
FINAL Q SCHOOL
Robert Arnott (Bishopbriggs) and David James from Dumfries were the leading Scots at the end of the first day of the European Senior Tour's Final Qualifying School at the Pestana Golf Resort's Pinta course at Lagoa on the Algarve today.
They will start the second of four rounds in joint 13th place after matching the par of 71.
The leading 14 players after 72 holes will earned limited access to European Senior Tour events in 2014. The top six will be able to enter all the competitions on the over-50s' schedule.
Arnott played very well to come through the Q School Stage 1 last week while James, who won last year's Senior Tour School but lost his card at the end of the season, was excempt until this week.
Downfield's Kenny Hutton and Albert Mackenzie, head pro at Saunton Golf Club are joint 34th in a field of 75 players. They both returned 74s.
Terry Burgoyne (Glencruitten) is sharing 43rd place on 75 and Stephen McAllister (Renaissance Club) has a lot of catch-up work to do after shooting a seven-over 78 for joint 65th place.
Leading the field on three-under 68 Frenchman Jean Pierre Sallat and American amateur Stephen
Mondshine.
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American Mondshine sparkles
in Portugal sun
Stephen
Mondshine owns an
event-ticketing company in his native Texas but
the American’s dreams of gaining a golden ticket
to a new life in senior professional golf received a
huge boost as he carded
a three under par 68 to
share the lead after the opening day of the
European Senior Tour’s Qualifying School Final
Stage.
The
49 year old was joined at the top of the
leaderboard at Pestana Golf
Resort’s Pinta
Course by Frenchman Jean Pierre Sallat, who
also forged a very successful career before
setting his sights
on over-50s professional golf.
Sallat
is a former pro footballer who played at the
highest level in France,
for Bordeaux and Le
Havre, and his return to Q-School for the seventh
time got off to the perfect start.
In
contrast, it was Mondshine’s debut at
Qualifying School Final Stage and
his first venture
to Europe as he aims to follow in the footsteps of
his fellow Texan Tim Thelen.
“I
played really well,” said Monshine, who turns
50 in July. “I had just
one hiccup when I double-
bogeyed the ninth hole, but I hit the ball
really
well and putted well.
“I
thought I would birdie four out of the last five
holes but I missed a
birdie putt at the last. I just
got the rhythm and started hitting it
close and the
greens were in good shape so I made
the putts
coming in.
“This
is the first time I have ever been in
Europe. Years ago I played some
mini-tour golf
in Texas and I've been practising and playing
with good players recently and just got better
so I just decided I would give it a shot.
“I
played with Tim (Thelen) a few times in Texas
and he’s a really good
player. I’ve been a pretty
good golfer all my life and I tend to play
well in
tournaments, so I thought I’d see how it
all
stacked up"
Sallet,
meanwhile, carded six birdies on the way to
his three under 68 over the
pristine Pinta Course in
the Algarve region as he hopes to emulate his
success of 2004, when he finished tied
fourth at
Final Stage to earn a maiden season on the Senior
Tour.
There
were four players tied for third place on two
under par, including
former European Tour winner
Andrew Murray, who had the advantage of
having
his son and Challenge Tour player Tom on the
bag.
“I'm
really pleased with how I'm playing and a bit
disappointed to shoot
69,” said the Englishman,
who won the Panasonic European Open in 1989.
“I feel like I've left two or three out there
to be
honest.
“Tom
is fantastic on the bag. We didn’t get one
read wrong or one club
wrong. He’s great to have
around. The only problem is that he sometimes
thinks it’s a wedge in and I think it’s an eight
iron!”
Alongside
Murray were Australia’s Glenn Joyner,
Englishman Gary Marks and Paul
Mayo of Wales.
There will be a cut after the third of four rounds
before
the top six receive full membership for
the
2014 season, while those placed seventh to 14th
earn conditional cards.
ALL THE FIRST-ROUND SCORES
Par 71. Yardage
68 J Sallat (Fra) , S Mondshine (am) (USA)
69 G Marks (Eng), G Joyner (Aus), P Mayo (Wal) , A Murray (Eng)
70 M Wharton (Eng) , K Smith (Can) , S Cipa (Eng) , P Martinez (Par) , M Belsham (Eng) , B Conser (USA)
71 R Tlhabanyane (RSA) , G Bell (Eng) , D James (Sco) , R Arnott (Sco) , M Bianco (Ita) , G Banister (Aus) , J Gould (Eng)
72 R Sabarros (Fra) , G Norquist (USA) , M Stokes (Eng) , R Roper (Eng) , J Ryström (Swe) , J Smith (USA) , J McHenry (Irl)
73 K Tarling (Can) , T Elliott (Aus) , J Hall (Eng) , J Murphy (Eng) , J Lindberg (Swe) , G Ryall (Eng) , P Burke (USA)
74 K
Hutton (Sco) , J Lovell (Eng) , J Laforce (Can) , T Dodds (Nam) , A
Mackenzie (Sco) , D Morito (Esp) , T Lawrence (Eng) , A Fernandez (Chi) ,
W Grant (Eng)
75 J Saxton (USA) , E Kocs (USA) , S Bennett (Eng) , D Wettlaufer (Can) , T Burgoyne (Sco) , B Lincoln (RSA) , R Masters (Eng)
76 C
Milne (USA) , G Rusnak (USA) , Y Nilsson (Swe) , R Thompson (USA) , P
Carman (Eng) , J Buendia (Esp) , G Ralph (Eng) , J Harrison (Eng) , P
Gresswell (Eng) , K Tenmark (Swe) , S McNally (Eng) , A George (Eng) , J
O'Brien (am) (Irl)
77 T Giles (Eng) , J Nougues (Arg)
78 D Ray (Eng) , S McAllister (Sco) , B James (USA)
79 B White (Eng) , M Deboub (Alg)
80 C Grenier (Aut)
82 A Israelsson (Swe) , L Warder (am) (Aus) ,
85 G Litschka (Aut)
87 M Buchter (Sui)
Field of 74 players
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Labels: SENIOR PROS