Ace wins Saltman his weight in ham

ELLIOT Saltman hammed it up in style in the Madrid Masters second round as he captured a hole-in-one – his third of the year.

Saltman’s ace came at El Encin’s 204-yard third hole and it earned the 29-year-old Archerfield Links player his weight in Iberico ham.

Weighing in at 17 stone, Saltman can look forward to dining out on his prize, worth more than €8,000, for some weeks.

“This is going to last me until next Christmas, never mind this one,” said Saltman, a rookie on the European Tour this year. “I’ve been trying to lose some weight but I’m glad now I’ve not lost that much.”

Unfortunately for Saltman, his hole-in-one with a 7-iron failed to get him past the cut and the Scot looks as though he’ll be heading back to the Qualifying School in December.

Saltman’s hole-in-one follows his rare achievement in June when he claimed two aces in the same week at Celtic Manor in the Wales Open. In May, he came within an inch of another hole-in-one, which would have won him a car, at the Majorca Open.

England’s Lee Slattery leads in Madrid, finishing with back-to-back birdies for a 66 and a halfway total of 11-under, one ahead of Francesco Molinari and Eduardo De La Riva. Marc Warren is leading Scot on four-under after a second-day 68.