Wednesday, September 13, 2006

EUROPEAN TOUR QUALIFYING TEES OFF

BARRY HUME HAS GOOD START AT THE OXFORDSHIRE

By STEVEN FRANKLIN
Press Officer, The European Tour

A total of 297 golfers from across the globe gathered at three different venues yesterday, all with one identical target in mind: to secure a highly prized place on The 2007 European Tour.

The First Qualifying Stage (Section A) of The European Tour Qualifying School got underway on two courses in England, Chart Hills Golf Club and The Oxfordshire Golf Club, and at a third venue in Sweden, Arlandastad Golf Club.

Scoring was lowest at Chart Hills where three Englishmen finished atop the leaderboard after seven-under-par rounds of 65. Matt Ford, Ally Mellor and Francis McGuirk shared top billing although McGuirk’s primary concern on signing his card was whether his heavily pregnant wife had gone into labour.

While 32 year old McGuirk pondered fatherhood and the dream of a debut season on The European Tour, new dad Tony Edlund of Sweden was starting well on his ninth trip to Qualifying School.

Edlund, who has previously enjoyed two seasons on The European Tour, made light of the sleepless nights prompted by his two-week-old baby boy to claim a share of the lead at Arlandastad with a score of two under par 68. His effort was the best of the morning session and was matched later in the day by fellow Swede, Jakob Berlin.

In fact, the home contingent dominated day one at Arlandastad as Kenneth Sastre returned a 69 to make it a Swedish one-two-three at the top of the leaderboard.

Fog delayed the start of play at The Oxfordshire by one hour and 40 minutes and the first round was not expected to be completed before nightfall. Scotland’s Barry Hume and Spain’s Daniel Quiros were leading the way after rounds of five-under-par 67.

Everyone will complete three rounds before the cut falls on Thursday night. A final round is played on Friday and the total progressing to the Second Qualifying Stage is broken down as follows:
Arlandastad Golf Club, Sweden (25 and ties)
Chart Hills Golf Club, England (31 and ties)
The Oxfordshire Golf Club, England (29 and ties)

Leading First Round Scores:

Arlandastad Golf Club, Sweden (par 70)
68 Tony Edlund (Swe), Jakob Berlin (Swe)
69 Kenneth Sastre (Swe)
70 Christoffer Kenling (Swe), Matthew Bliss (Can), Fredrik Söderström (Swe), Janne Mommo (Fin), Victor M Fernandez (Esp), Fredrik B Andersson (Swe)
71 Lars Edvinson (Swe), Travis Johnson (USA), Alfonso Gutierrez (Esp), Hans Andersson (Swe), Thomas Sundström (Fin), Andrew Martin (Aus)

Chart Hills Golf Club, England (par 72)
65 Matt Ford (Eng), Ally Mellor (Eng), Francis McGuirk (Eng)
66 Mark Belsham (Eng), Sean Whiffin (Eng), Matthew Richardson (Eng), Gary Donnison (Eng), Jamie Harris (Eng), Zane Scotland (Eng), Adam Gee (Am) (Eng)
67 Mike Skelton (Eng)
68 Lloyd Kennedy (Eng), Darren Prosser (Eng), James Ruebotham (Eng), Clodamiro Carranza (Arg), Niklas Bruzelius (Swe), David M Clark (Eng), Paul Mckechnie (Sco)

The Oxfordshire Golf Club, England
(not available at time of going to press)

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home

Copyright © Colin Farquharson

If you can't find what you are looking for.... please check the Archive List or search this site with Google