Why wine was needed by one Scot at nerve-wracking Challenge Tour Grand Final

Euan Walker and Daniel Young open with three-under 69s in season finale in Mallorca

Lesley Young was off to get a glass of wine and, judging by her big blow of the cheeks behind the 18th green at Club de Golf Alcanada in Port d’Alcudia, Rona Walker looked as though she needed one, too. It’s a stressful business watching loved ones competing in the Rolex Challenge Tour Grand Final supported by The R&A, with career-changing DP World Tour cards on the line in the second-tier circuit’s season finale.

On a day when players observed a minute’s silence out on the course to mark the loss of more than 150 lives in floods on the Spanish mainland earlier in the week and, in some cases, also wore black ribbons, Scottish duo Daniel Young and Euan Walker opened with matching three-under-par 69s. Both were pleased enough with the number they had signed for, though the former was probably the happier of the two about how their respective rounds had panned out.

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Whereas Walker, who is getting to know this particular venue as well as home club Kilmarnock (Barassie) after making it here for the third year running, undid some of his earlier good work by dropping two shots in the final four holes, Young was four under for the last eight holes in his first competitive outing on the Robert Trent Jones jnr-designed course.

Daniel Young in action during the first round of the Rolex Challenge Tour Grand Final supported by The R&A at Club de Golf Alcanada in Port d’AlcudiaDaniel Young in action during the first round of the Rolex Challenge Tour Grand Final supported by The R&A at Club de Golf Alcanada in Port d’Alcudia
Daniel Young in action during the first round of the Rolex Challenge Tour Grand Final supported by The R&A at Club de Golf Alcanada in Port d’Alcudia | Octavio Passos/Getty Images

As Spaniard Angel Ayora set a hot pace with a course-record ten-under-par 62, the efforts left the duo in a tie for 14th, meaning Walker is up two spots to 22nd in the projected rankings and will secure his step up to the main tour if he’s no worse than that come Sunday evening while Young is up one spot to 26th.

“You know what, I am in an okay position,” said Walker as he reflected on the first day of four in the £420,000 event, having come into it in an almost identical situation two years running only to agonisingly miss out on a coveted card. “Unfortunately, there was a good score to be had out there today and I was on track for it before I let a couple of shots slip away at the end.”

Playing alongside big-hitting young South African Wilco Nienaber, the 29-year-old Ayrshireman opened with a brace of birdies, stiffing his approach at the par-4 second, before adding a third gain at the short fourth. After a first dropped shot of the day at the sixth, he produced a brilliant flop shot to save par at the long seventh before moving to five under with birdies at the ninth, 11th and 13th.

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A bogey at the driveable par-4 15th was then a sore blow after suffering a cruel break. “Wilco and I were both in a similar position in the wood chips a little bit left and my ball had a nice lie,” he said. “But Wilco hit his first shot and one of the pieces of the bark rested between my ball and where I was going to make contact with it and I couldn’t move it as I would probably have moved the ball. I basically had to chunk it forward.”

The 17th, where he made a hole-in-one in the third round two years ago, bit back this time as another bogey went on the card before doing well to avoid further spillage by two-putting from long range at the closing hole down the slickest green on the course.

“It should have been better, but it’s actually quite a good score,” said the former African Amateur champion. “It was a bit of a mix of everything. I hit a lot of really good shots and 50 per cent of the holes were really good and had a chance of a birdie and the 50 per cent it looked as though I was going to make a bogey.”

After mixing two birdies with three bogeys in the opening holes, Young then birdied the 11th, 13th, 14th and 15th before getting up and down from a greenside bunker to save par at the penultimate hole then feeling equally pleased to close with a par even though he was a closer to the hole than Walker in the group immediately behind.

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Euan Walker in action at Club de Golf Alcanada in Port d’Alcudia in MallorcaEuan Walker in action at Club de Golf Alcanada in Port d’Alcudia in Mallorca
Euan Walker in action at Club de Golf Alcanada in Port d’Alcudia in Mallorca | Octavio Passos/Getty Images

“I’m pleased with that, for sure,” said the 33-year-old Perth man. “I was over par a couple of times, so it was pleasing to break 70. There’s definitely chances out there, but, at the same time, there’s some tricky holes that you have to navigate as well.”

He described hitting a 3-wood on to the middle of the green at the par-5 11th then a 4-iron to 18 feet two holes later as “two good long shots” to set up easy gains and was also pleased with his 2 at the 14th, where, caught between clubs, he “gripped down a 7-iron and floated it in to about nine feet to a tucked pin”.

At the end of the opening circuit, both Norwegian Kristoffer Reitan, who had set the clubhouse target with a 65 before 20-year-old Ayora covered his last 11 holes in eight under, and Dane Nicolai Kristensen, with a 66, had jumped into card-winning positions in the projected standings but there is still a lot of golf to be played and, with bad weather being predicted, the second round will be a two-tee start affair with the last groups out at 9.50am local time.

“I’ll just be taking it day-by-day,” said Young with a smile. “There’s so much going on in an event like this and I think the weather is coming in tomorrow, so things are going to get interesting. If I take care of what I can control and do what I believe I can do, then hopefully it is good enough at the end of the week.”

More wine could be needed between now and Sunday for the mums and, though maybe not showing it as much outwardly, dads Ian Young and Eric Walker are in for an equally nerve-wracking few days.

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