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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.”
