Aberdeen's Clarke Lutton sets pace at Els 

Club, Dubai with a five-under-par 67

Aberdeen-born pro golfer Clarke Lutton, a PGA-trained graduate of Birmingham University and now 27, leads the field after the first round of this weeks MENA Tour event, the Golf Citizen Classic at the Els Club, Dubai.

Lutton, pictured, who is based in Dubai, shot a five-under-par 67 which included one eagle, six birdies, one double bogey and one bogey.
On a very warm day, it was the Scot's lowest round on the Middle East North Africa Tour and he leads by one stroke from Cyril Suk (Czech Republic), winner of the Dubai Open last year..

Germany’s Aaron Leitmannstetter occupied solo third a further shot adrift as an 11-man group, which included Scotland’s Paul Doherty, the current Order of Merit leader

“The front nine were quite eventful: I did everything possible I could do, running up a double bogey, bogey, birdie and eagle. That eagle on the par-5, fifth kind of got me going and things fell into place thereafter,” said Clarke, who smashed his 3-wood from 241 yards to within 10 feet and holed the putt for an eagle.

“This is my home course and local knowledge did come in handy as the round grew older. I may not have done anything special out there, but it was quite a steady round, my best on the MENA Tour,” said Clarke.
FIRST-ROUND LEADERS
Par 72
67 C Lutton (Sco)
68 C Suk (Cze)
69 A Leitmannstetter (Ger).
Selected scores
70 P Doherty (Sco), M Tunnicliff (Eng)
71 Z Scotland (Eng).

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