6/26/2014

Eagle Grants Stephen Hydro Chance

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Stephen Grant eagled his eighth hole carding a three on the par seventeenth hole on the Challenge Tour to finish Thursday on 67 strokes at the Scottish Hydro Challege and two shots off the leaders at the MacDonald Spey Valley Club

With three birdies in all, it was just the one dropped shot on  the par sixteenth for Grant.

Leader Mark Tullo soared into a share of the lead midway through the opening day, despite arriving at the ‘Home of Golf’ over 30 hours later than expected due to the airport strikes in France.

The Chilean carded a six under par opening round of 65 at the sun-kissed Macdonald Spey Valley Golf Club to join Englishman Jason Barnes at the top of the leaderboard, with the afternoon groups yet to finish.

The 36 year old, who claimed a tied third place finish in his last event at the Najeti Hotels et Golfs Open, teed off at the 11th and carded successive birdies at the 12th and 13th holes before another at the ninth took him to the turn in three under.

Three more birdies on the way home took him one shot clear alongside Barnes, and Tullo was delighted with his round, especially given he almost missed the tournament due to his travel woes.

“It’s amazing here in this weather,” said the two-time Challenge Tour winner, whose second victory came in Egypt with a certain Rory McIlroy in the field as an invite. “I actually barely recognized the golf course without the wind.

“For me, Scotland with sunny weather is one of the best places in the world. Playing golf here with this weather is just priceless. It’s still fun with wind and rain but in this weather, this golf course is amazing.

“It took me over 30 hours to get here from Malaga. I got here at 10pm last night. I was supposed to be here on Tuesday at 2pm, so it was a nightmare getting here. Luckily I had played here a couple of times before butt my hurts and my back hurts from sitting around for so long.

“I even thought about grabbing a train from London because I was worried I might not make the tournament but luckily enough I got here in the end.

“I know this place very well but it helped having good weather and I'm really happy with the round.

“I made some good shots and made some good putts. I didn’t even have a chance of a bogey out there.It was very steady, I hit every green. It was an easy scoring day for me, no mistakes, and hit 17 greens and made good birdies. 

“I've been playing good but my putting has been so so, but I've been working on it with my coach and it’s helped me to putt well. Hopefully the weather will help for the rest of the week. I'm feeling comfortable and calm.”

Barnes was also relishing the sunny weather in the holiday town of Aviemore and he was confident of keeping his good form going for the rest of the week.

“It’s a great place to be, beautiful. It’s much different to what I'm used to in London. I can’t hear anything, no traffic, no noise, it’s brilliant.

“I pulled out last year to get a week off because I wasn’t playing very well but I really regretted it. It’s a really nice place, it’s like a home from home.

“Everything is really coming together nicely for me. The confidence is starting to grow. There are a few holes out there that are tough driving holes and a few weeks ago I might have wimped out and hit less club just to hit the fairway but today it was just going for it with the driver.

“I'm confident, definitely. Bring on tomorrow, hopefully we can get more weather like this and we can see how low I go.”




Shane Lowry Banking on BMW

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Shane Lowry is currently ranked19th in the Race to Dubai with earnings of €527,770 and needs a good week in Koln to secure a place in The Open Championship at Hoylake in three weeks.

The top five European Tour members and ties in the Race to Dubai standings next Sunday who are not already exempt will qualify for the British Open.

Since most of the golfers currently ahead of Lowry on the European Money List are already through, Lowry has to hold his place in the top 20 to be mathematically certain of making his third appearance in the Open.

Lowry gave his season a timely momentum boost by finishing second in the recent BMW PGA championship. Since then he has finished tied-25th in the Nordea Masters, and missed the weekend play in the US Open in Pinehurst and the following week at Fota Island at the Irish Open. 

There was good news on the commercial side also for Lowry after Bank of Ireland announced a sponsorship deal with the Irish which will run until the end of 2016.

Under the agreement, he will represent Bank of Ireland both as a brand ambassador in Ireland and as he competes across the world in the years ahead. He will sport its branding on the left chest of his golf apparel in addition to hosting a number of corporate events for the bank each year.
Rory McIlroy, Graeme McDowell, Padraig Harrington and Darren Clarke are all taking the week off, but there's a nine-man Irish contingent in action at Cologne.

Michael Hoey is joined by Lowry, Gareth Maybin, Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley, Peter Lawrie, Damien McGrane, Simon Thornton, Kevin Phelan and David Higgins in the field.