Elliot Saltman faces lonely Tour existence

THE last five months have been a bit of a rollercoaster for Elliot Saltman, the career high of earning a European Tour card at the same time as one of his brothers being book-ended by two lows that will almost certainly besmirch the rest of his career.

A disqualification from the M2M Russian Challenge Cup last September after he was accused of wrongly marking his ball by two playing partners left a dark cloud hanging over his head and now, following a lengthy wait, the 28-year-old has been found guilty by his peers of cheating.

Despite being confident he could clear his name, a disciplinary hearing in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday decided "unanimously" that Saltman had committed a "serious breach" of the rules and handed him a three-month playing ban from both the European Tour and the Challenge Tour.

Saltman has 28 days to decide whether to lodge an appeal against the ban, which is due to start immediately, but the decision taken by chairman Thomas Bjorn and his fellow members of the tournament players' committee is significant in itself.

The Scot, who turned professional in 2007 and was subsequently joined in the paid ranks by his two brothers, Lloyd and Zack, certainly isn't alone in being accused of cheating on the Tour in recent years but, unlike some other cases, sufficient evidence was deemed to be available to take action against him.

He is the first player on the European circuit to be handed a ban in nearly 20 years and, no matter whether the punishment might be shorter than some people expect for such an offence, a so-called cheating tag is almost impossible to shake off in golf.

Johan Tumba, the Swede handed the last ban, ten years in his case for altering his scorecard at the Qualifying School, has never been seen again on Tour and the same goes for David Robertson, the Dunbar man who got 20 years, as well as a whopping fine, for marking his ball wrongly during qualifying for an Open Championship.

With only three months to serve on the sidelines, Saltman is in a different boat to them in one sense but what kind of welcome can he expect from fellow players when he returns? Lukewarm at best would be my guess, though persona non grata also springs to mind.

As he waited for his hearing in the wake of the disqualification from the Challenge Tour event in Russia, where English duo Stuart Davis and Marcus Higley refused to sign his card after claiming he had marked his ball incorrectly five times, a whole host of allegations were thrown at Saltman on the internet from his amateur days.

It is also believed that he was quizzed by an R&A official over an incident during regional qualifying for the Open Championship at Musselburgh early in his professional career, but no action was taken then or, for that matter, at any of those amateur events.The action taken this week has sparked another frenzy of activity on the internet, with some observers claiming a three-month ban is a "massive win" for the player while others are taking a more dim view on the matter and say Saltman has been saddled with a "lifetime ban in terms of reputation".

One thing for sure is that, should he accept the short ban right away, it might not affect his chances of retaining a spot on the European Tour - he finished 26th at the Qualifying School in Spain last month and won nearly 9,000 for finishing just outside the top 20 in the recent Africa Open - come the end of the season too seriously.

Due to the fact he holds a ranking from the Qualifying School, Saltman wasn't likely to get into any of the four events in the Middle East that get underway today in Abu Dhabi, meaning his next appearance would probably have been the Avantha Masters in India in the middle of next month.

As things stand, the European Tour is then set for a month-long break before events in Sicily, Spain and Morocco with another blank week, at the same time The Masters is on, being followed by the Malaysian Open. Two days after his ban is due to end, Saltman would be eligible for the Volvo China Open, though a more realistic return in terms of him getting into the field would probably be the Spanish Open or, failing that, an event in Mallorca the following week. As Saltman, who is managed by his father, Jack, returned from Abu Dhabi yesterday to weigh up an appeal, the player's main sponsor, Edinburgh-based Aegon, issued a brief statement, saying: "The disciplinary matter is an issue for the European Tour and not something that is appropriate for us to comment on at this stage."

In the week when Jose Maria Olazabal was appointed as the next Ryder Cup captain, it is a matter the European Tour could clearly have done without, with George O'Grady, the chief executive, describing it as "unpleasant episode" prior to the hearing on Tuesday.

He had nothing to add yesterday to the statement issued by the Tour confirming Saltman's ban, but Paul Casey, who is on the tournament players' committee, admitted: "It was a very delicate issue and suffice to say in my time on the committee we have never had an issue like that and hopefully we won't again."

The last occasion a Scottish golfer was involved in a major rules rumpus, of course, was the Jakarta-gate incident involving Colin Montgomerie during the 1995 Indonesian Open and the "censure" handed to him on that occasion has been brought back into the spotlight in the wake of a more severe punishment being meted out to Saltman.