PGAs of Europe international team event

CRAIG LEE SHOOTS RECORD 64 TO PUSH
SCOTLAND SIX SHOTS CLEAR IN SPAIN

From Colin Farquharson, Our Man in Murcia

SCOTLAND, with a team tally of 18 under par 270, increased their overnight lead from two to six shots at the halfway stage of the PGAs of Europe international team golf championship, supported by Glenmuir, over the Roda golf course in the Murcia region of Spain today
The Scots, who used to dominate this event in the 1990s, owe their commanding position to another record round – this time an eight-under-par 64 – by 29-year-old Craig Lee from Stirling.
In the first round, his top of the leaderboard score of 66 was recognised as a professional record over a new course that has never held a pro event before!
Norway’s Niklas Diethelm took the record over for a short spell today with a splendid 65. ThenLee reclaimed it with a flawless round which included six birdies and an eagle.
“I don’t know what I’m doing right since I came to Spain but I wish I could bottle it and make a fortune selling it,” cracked the Scot who turned pro after winning the Scottish boys’ open stroke-play championship 12 years ago.
Since then he has added the Scottish assistants pro title to his CV and this season he finished third in the Tartan Tour Order of Merit.
“I’m not hitting the ball any better than I have done all season – but this is the best I have ever putted. Anything from 20ft and under and I’m knocking them in. Long may it continue.
“I faced a 6ft putt on my last hole (the ninth) for a birdie but I missed it. That was one of the few exceptions. I wish I had been able to hole it because I’ve never scored nine under par for a round in my life. But let’s not be greedy. This is a team event and it was a great score for Scotland.”
Indeed it was because captain Craig’s team-mates James McKinnon and Sam Cairns were unable to add sub-par second round scores, as both had on Wednesday.
McKinnon had a 72 which gave Scotland a team score of 136, under the best two from three individual scores to count. That was two shots worse than their opening effort.
Cairns packed a remarkable six birdies into a one-over-par 73 which included a four-putt quadruple bogey eighth at the seventh hole, which was the 16th he played.
To be fair, by that time Cairns was having a go for everything in a bid to get under McKinnon’s 72 and thus have a counting score.
Wales and Ireland are sharing second place on 276 with Robert Giles including two eagles and a double-bogey into his 67 for Ireland while
Mark Litton was Wales’ best scorer with a 69.
Norway have moved into fourth place while England have dropped back to a share of fifth place on seven-under 281 with the Czech Republic and Finland.
WESSELINGH WEAKENS
Duncan Muscroft was England’s best scorer with a 71 but it should have been Paul Wesselingh, the Glenmuir British club champion.
“I played well for most of the round and got it to four under par after 15 holes. Then I suddenly felt very, very tired and ran up a double bogey 6 at the 17th and then a bogey 6 at the last for a 71,” said Paul.
“So disappointing but I with the tiredness coming on, I just lost concentration and everything became such an effort.”
But Wesselingh, give him his due, had a short break after his round – and then went out on the practice range.

COLLATED SECOND ROUND SCOREBOARD

PGAs OF EUROPE INTERNATIONAL TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP
Roda Golf Course & Resort, Murcia, Spain.
TWO-ROUND TOTALS
Par 288 (4 x 72). Teams count best two individual scores per round

270 SCOTLAND 134 136 (C Lee 64, J McKinnon 72, S Cairns 73).
276 WALES 136 140 (M Litton 69, S Edwards 71, A Evans 75); IRELAND 139 137 (R Giles 67, L Walker 70, J Dwyer 71).
277 NORWAY 142 135 (N Diethelm 65, J Elgborn 70, J Uppard 73).
281 CZECH REPUBLIC 142 139 (J Nemecek 67, J Juhaniak 72, P Strougal 75); ENGLAND 139 142 (D Muscroft 71, P Wesselingh 71, P Simpson 72); FINLAND 143 138 (R Soravuo 69, S Aho 69, M Martikainen 79).
282 SOUTH AFRICA 143 139 (I Palmer 69, I Ficalbi 70, M Truter 77).
283 SWEDEN 141 142 (S Sterner 70, R Thornqvist 72, J Stenberg 73).
284 ITALY 143 141 (S Betti 70, M Bianco 71, J Baglioni 74).
287 AUSTRIA 143 144 (M Krainz 68, S Beretzki 76, A Wernig 77); GERMANY 142 145 (S Brown 69, L Spencer 76, M Stevenson 80).
288 SWITZERLAND 146 142 (V J Ross 70, R Swords 72, J-J Dusson 74); POLAND 145 143 (M Proctor 71, M Bednarczyk 72, D Ekberg 74).
293 FRANCE 147 146 (D Montesi 73, Y Yver 73, J C Clugnac 75); BULGARIA 150 143 (N Turley 70, P Simard 73, S Nikolay 83).
297 BELGIUM 149 148 (G D’Hollander 74, F Dhondt 74, M Willems 75); HOLLAND 150 147 (A Hastie 71, G Loning 76, B Valk 79).
299 UNITED ARAB EMIRATES 147 152 (S Payne 75, J Shippey 77, A Mackenzie 78); SLOVENIA 148 151 (D Kraljic 73, U Gregoric 78, A Osmancevic 86); CROATIA 152 147 (M Raic 71, D Ljubanopvic 76, N Smoljenovic 80).
300 PORTUGAL 150 150 (N Cavalheiro 75, A Sequeira 75, D Moura 78).
302 LUXEMBOURG 150 152 (J Pickford 75, J Pailler 77, L Cain NR).
303 SPAIN 149 154 (D Romero 75, R do Miguel 79, M Alonso 82).
311 RUSSIA 153 158 (A Nesterov 78, S Staskov 80, L Akremenko 80).