Argentina’s Estanislao Goya survived a late scare and an amazing birdie burst by Scot Callum Macaulay to win a European Tour title at just the sixth attempt today. Damien McGrane shared third place with Holland’s Wil Besseling while Michael Hoey finished sixth.
Goya, a 20-year-old graduate from last season’s Challenge Tour, won the Madeira Islands Open in Porto Santo by one with a closing 73 and six-under par total of 278.
Macaulay, himself playing only his fifth event on the circuit and ranked 1,009th in the world, incredibly birdied the last six holes and eight of the last nine for an inward 28 that was just one outside the Tour record.
While equalling the course record with a 64 the 25-year-old, last year’s Scottish champion and part of the three-man side which won the world amateur team title in Australia in October, thought he had left his blistering run too late to seriously trouble Goya.
However, the South American then double-bogeyed the 492-yard par four 16th and suddenly found himself needing to par the final two holes to grab the first prize of just under €115,000 plus the two-year Tour exemption which comes with it.
Goya held his nerve and managed it, leaving Macaulay — incredibly 11 strokes back with nine to play — to take the runners-up cheque at the end of a week in which he backed himself at 200-1.
Michael McGeady, one off the lead on Friday night, finished well down the pecking order in 23rd place.
Collated Scores
278Estanislao Goya (Arg) 68 68 69 73
279Callum Macaulay 74 74 67 64
280Wil Besseling (Ned) 69 72 70 69, Damien McGrane66 72 70 72
281Anthony Wall 72 69 73 67
282 Michael Hoey69 66 75 72
283Joakim Haeggman (Swe) 66 70 75 72, Thomas Aiken (Rsa) 72 69 71 71
284David Drysdale 72 72 71 69, Jan Are Larsen (Nor) 71 71 76 66
285Jose Manuel Lara (Spa) 71 76 69 69
286Jose-Filipe Lima (Por) 72 74 69 71, Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (Fra) 69 75 71 71, Jarmo Sandelin (Swe) 72 74 69 71
288Inder Van Weerelt (Ned) 75 72 71 70, Marcel Siem (Ger) 75 70 73 70, Carlos Rodiles (Spa) 73 65 71 79
289Carl Suneson (Spa) 68 72 78 71, Marc Cayeux (Zim) 73 72 71 73
290Santiago Luna (Spa) 69 78 73 70, Scott Drummond 71 71 76 72, Rafael Cabrera Bello (Spa) 76 72 69 73
291Richard Bland 78 64 75 74, Ulrich Van Den Berg (Rsa) 74 69 78 70, Michael McGeady69 67 77 78, Ake Nilsson (Rsa) 73 74 71 73, David Horsey 73 73 72 73, Paul Broadhurst 70 72 78 71, Gary Boyd 72 76 70 73, James Kamte (Rsa) 76 71 73 71
292Alexandre Rocha (Bra) 74 70 75 73, Andrew Butterfield 68 73 75 76, Alvaro Velasco (Spa) 69 74 74 75, Stuart Davis 70 71 76 75, Niclas Fasth (Swe) 71 70 76 75, Robert Coles 74 74 72 72, Klas Eriksson (Swe) 74 74 73 71
293Liam Bond 75 69 77 72, Branden Grace (Rsa) 72 72 77 72, Birgir Hafthorsson (Ice) 73 70 78 72, Clodomiro Carranza (Arg) 74 69 76 74, Bradley Dredge 72 74 76 71
294Garry Houston 71 73 80 70, John E Morgan 74 74 73 73, Roope Kakko (Fin) 74 72 75 73, Jesus Maria Arruti (Spa) 70 75 75 74, Per-Ulrik Johansson (Swe) 72 73 75 74, Javier Colomo (Spa) 71 74 80 69
295Jeppe Huldahl (Den) 76 72 72 75, Antonio Sobrinho (Por) 75 73 74 73, Ricardo Santos (Por) 74 73 74 74
296Martin Wiegele (Aut) 76 69 75 76, Jean Van de Velde (Fra) 71 72 73 80, Ignacio Garrido (Spa) 75 68 72 81
297Iain Pyman 76 70 75 76, Adilson Da Silva (Bra) 72 76 75 74, Matthew Mills 73 70 79 75
298Gary Clark 71 73 79 75, Nuno Campino (Por) 79 69 77 73, Julien Clement (Swi) 77 71 74 76, Richard McEvoy 70 75 71 82, Rafael Echenique (Arg) 77 69 79 73, Anthony Snobeck (Fra) 75 69 74 80
299Nathan T Smith (USA) 75 72 78 74, Christian Nilsson (Swe) 71 75 77 76, Francois Delamontagne (Fra) 76 71 79 73, Phillip Price 75 73 77 74, Michele Reale (Ita) 71 73 78 77
300Richie Ramsay 73 74 78 75
301Petter Bocian (Swe) 78 69 80 74, Carlos Del Moral (Spa) 74 72 74 81
302Costantino Rocca (Ita) 72 76 79 75, David Griffiths 72 74 81 75
304Paul Waring 69 74 80 81
