8am Round-Up: Stephen Gallacher secures Volvo China Open spot

Stephen Gallacher is just one of five players to receive a sponsor's invitation for the event in Beijing. Picture: Jane Barlow

The pair join former Scottish Open champion Jeev Milkha Singh, past Dunhill Links winner David Howell and 2009 US PGA champion Y E Yang in getting into the event at Topwin Golf & Country Club in Beijing as sponsor’s picks.

Gallacher is among just three Scots currently in the field, the others being Richie Ramsay and Marc Warren, though that will almost certainly rise to four due to David Drysdale being first reserve at the moment.

The event will be the second leg in Chinese double-header, the first being the Shenzhen International, which starts at Genzon Golf Club on Thursday.

Gallacher, Ramsay and Gallacher are all in that field, as are Scott Jamieson and Duncan Stewart. Sitting as fifth reserve, Scott Henry looks as though he could just miss out.

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Paul Lawrie takes a two-shot lead into today’s second round of the Bom Sucesso Classic, a Portugal Pro Golf Tour event.

It follows the 1999 Open champion starting with a six-under-par 66 at Bom Sucesso Golf Club, where the field also includes his oldest son, Craig.

“Struggled a bit off the tee at times but the rest was in fine working order,” wrote Lawrie on Twitter of a bogey-free round that included an eagle and four birdies.

His closest challenger in the 54-hole event is Englishman Jamie Abbot, with Craig lying joint-third alongside Wallace Booth.

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Tom Watson is eager to renew his love affair with Royal Porthcawl this summer when he competes in his 16th Senior Open Championship over a links course he describes as “the complete package”.

Even at the age of 67, and 10 years on from the last of his three Senior Open titles, Watson still appreciates his annual experience over the type of course which earned him global recognition as a legend of the game and one of the greatest links exponents in history.

Royal Porthcawl will host the Senior Open Presented by Rolex for a second time from July 27-30, three years after Bernhard Langer’s memorable, sun-drenched success.

Watson can’t wait to return to South Wales to compete alongside more than 30 of his fellow major champions.

“I think it’s an elegant links course which has everything to offer the links golfer. The complete package,” he said.

“Of all its special qualities, I love the fact that there is such variety to playing golf there. Unlike some narrow strips of links land, which necessitate nine holes out and nine back, Royal Porthcawl has infinite variety of direction.

“It has a mixture of hard and easy holes; it requires long and short shots; dog-legs going left and right; tight driving holes and generous driving holes. The shots I was required to make in 2014 were all you could want to put on a menu if you play a links course. That is what I loved as soon as I saw it.”

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England international Jack Singh Brar held off a determined charge by Jake Burnage to win the Hampshire Salver by a stroke.

The trophy is awarded to the player with the best total from the 72 holes played during the Selborne Salver at Blackmoor Golf Club and the Hampshire Hog at North Hants.

Singh Brar, from Remedy Oak, Dorset, was five under for the two events, winning the Selborne Salver in a play-off and taking second place in the Hog, where he holed a vital and testing seven-foot putt on the last.

It kept him just in front of Burnage, an England A squad member from Saunton, Devon, who swept up the leaderboard in the Hog with a score of seven-under par and a five-shot win. He had been 18th and three-over par after the Selborne Salver.

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Fife have won the Cuthbertson Cup, an inter-county girls’ event, for the first time since 2005.

They claimed victory in the event’s 60th staging with a 4-0 win over Stirling and Clackmannan in the final.