GOLF: Ireland's Gary Cullen shot a magnificent eight-under-par 63 to be just one shot off the pace after the first round of the European Tour School final qualifying at Emporda Golf Club yesterday.
Cullen playing in the final group of the day and starting from the 10th tee, finished in near darkness to be one behind Australian Brett Rumford.
Cullen is tied for second place with Austrian Markus Brier who holed-in-one at the 14th, London left-hander Chris Gane and Frenchman Renaud Guillard.
"I'm over the moon with the way I'm hitting it. I struggled early on in the year, I was hitting the ball well but not scoring so I took a month off," said Cullen.
"I'm coming good at the right time. I started off and nearly holed it for two at the 10th, I parred the 11th and hit it to three feet at the 12th, made birdie and made one on the par five 13th.
"At the 18th I hit a good drive and a five iron 25 feet behind the flag and holed that for eagle and I could have made more than I did on the second nine."
"The way I was going I could have done almost anything but I'm delighted with the score."
Philip Walton finished with a workmanlike three under par 68 finishing bogey-bogey-eagle to save his day,
Cullen was even more pleased when he learned that Stephen Browne had handed in a six under par 65 to be well in the hunt at the end of day one.
Not so happy was Micheal Hoey, who started at Pals with a quadruple bogey eight, getting tangled up in the trees more than once, and he finished with a confidence sapping five over par 77 to be 12 shots adrift of leader Gary Hume.
Hume, a new recruit to the professional ranks, threatened at one stage to tear the record books apart as he went to seven under par after just 10 holes. It was not to be as Hume could only par home from the 11th to set the pace with a 65, which held up for the rest of the day.
It was also at Pals that Gary Murphy struck the first blow for Ireland when he eagled the 18th to get to five under par 67, good for a five way tie for fourth place.
"Normally I play well but score badly but I scored well today and the eagle three at the last was nice," said Murphy.
Damien McGrane shot a 70 while Danny Sugrue had a rollercoaster round at Pals making five birdies on the front nine - with a triple bogey sandwiched in between - to turn in two under par 34. He made two more birdies at 10th and 11th only to toss three more shots away before finishing with a one under par 71.
"I bogeyed the 12th and then I started hitting into the bunkers and didn't get up and down, making two more bogeys at 14 and 15."
Those competing at Pals yesterday will tee up at Emporda today and vice versa, after which there is a redraw with the leaders going out at the end of the field in tomorrow's third round.
EUROPEAN TOUR SCHOOL QUALIFYING
PALS (Par 72 - Irish in Bold, Brit unless stated) First round: 65 - B Hume 66 - M Smith, E Rush 67 - L Parsons (Aus), E de la Riva (Spa), Gary Murphy, M Eliasson (Swe), P Archer 68 M Scarpa (Ita), J Hugo (Rsa), M Siem (Ger), P Broadhurst 69 - W Huget (Ger), A Raitt, F Bisazza (Ita), T Price (Aus), J Cheetham, S Cage, D McGuigan, F Guermani (Ita), M Pendaries (Fra) 70 - F Roca (Spa), M Santi (Ita), D Geall, M Reale (Ita), R Derksen (Ned), E Little, (x) R Pellicioli (Fra), A Crawford (Aus), Damien McGrane, M Haremza (Ger) 71 - J Guepy (Fra), M Vide-Hastrup (Den), R Reid (Rsa), S Scahill (Nzl), G Hutcheon, A Binaghi (Ita), A Johnson (USA), R McEvoy, M Warren, (x) Danny Sugrue, R Byrd (USA), C Schwartzel (Rsa), D Patrick 72 - J Sutherland (Aus), M Carlsson (Swe), M McGuire, T Munoz (Spa), M Sanders, V Casado (Spa), D Vooght (Bel), S Walker 73 - G Paddison (Nzl), D Dupart (Fra), J Hepworth, (x) M Fraser (Aus), M Davis 74 - S Gardiner (Aus), M Kirk, S Cowle, B Kennedy, A Sherborne, M Urquhart, G Clark, A Cruse (Rsa), S Drummond, D Gaunt (Aus) 75 J Davies, G van der Valk (Ned), M Nilsson (Swe) 76 - S Richardson, T Milford, T Norret (Den), N Price, M Welch, C Monasterio (Arg) 77 - (x) S Young, C Doak, (x) M Wiegele (Aut), Michael Hoey, M Lemesurier 78 - S Little, A Butterfield, J Skold (Swe).
EMPORDA (Par 71, Irish in bold, Brit unless stated): 62 B Rumford (Aus) 63 - R Guillard (Fra), C Gane, M Brier (Aut), Gary Cullen 64 - K Storgaard (Den), A Marshall, S Kammann (USA), F Orest (Swe) 65 - P Magnebrant (Swe), A Tadini (Ita), Stephen Browne, F Delamontagne (Fra), B Pettersson (Swe), M Florioli (Ita) 66 - A Salto (Spa), P Hanson (Swe), D Edlund (Swe), M Archer, I Goroneskoul (Fra) 67 - N Cheetham, M Mouland, G Storm, (x) J Larsen (Nor), A Balicki (Fra), P Golding, F Cuppilard (Fra), E Stedman (Aus), A Bossert (Swi), R Gomez (Arg), D Dixon, A Canete (Arg), S Webster 68 - R Sterne (Rsa), M Bernardini (Ita), R Coles, H Kahlon (Ind), M Jonzon (Swe), J Lara (Spa), R Claydon, S Fernandez (Arg), Philip Walton, J Little, T Schuster (Ger), M Higley, C Williams, I Hutchings (Rsa), G Fox, D Lee, A McLean, Th Moore (Rsa), J Kawalec (Swe) 69 - S Bebb, A Hogh (Den), S Khan, (x) J Clement (Swi), S Bowditch (Aus), G Houston, K Ekjord (Nor), R Sjoberg (Swe), G Donnison, N Lawrence (Rsa), V Phillips 70 - R Johansen (Swe), J Cixous (Fra), P Nyman (Swe), M Knight (Swi), O Bergman (Swe), C Cowper, M Cort 71 - H Walters (Rsa), B Mason, S Delagrange (Fra), C Challen 72 - P Dwyer, D Lucas, G Sherry, N Reilly, S Little, M Atlevi (Swe), J M Arruti (Spa) 73 - I Giner (Spa), E Boult (Nzl) 74 S O'Hara
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