THE last five months have been a bit of a rollercoaster forElliot Saltman, the career high of earning a European Tour card atthe same time as one of his brothers being book-ended by two lowsthat will almost certainly besmirch the rest of his career.
A disqualification from the M2M Russian Challenge Cup lastSeptember after he was accused of wrongly marking his ball by twoplaying partners left a dark cloud hanging over his head and now,following a lengthy wait, the 28-year-old has been found guilty byhis peers of cheating.
Despite being confident he could clear his name, a disciplinaryhearing in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday decided "unanimously" that Saltmanhad committed a "serious breach" of the rules and handed him a three-month playing ban from both the European Tour and the ChallengeTour.
Saltman has 28 days to decide whether to lodge an appeal againstthe ban, which is due to start immediately, but the decision takenby chairman Thomas Bjorn and his fellow members of the tournamentplayers' committee is significant in itself.
The Scot, who turned professional in 2007 and was subsequentlyjoined in the paid ranks by his two brothers, Lloyd and Zack,certainly isn't alone in being accused of cheating on the Tour inrecent years but, unlike some other cases, sufficient evidence wasdeemed to be available to take action against him.
He is the first player on the European circuit to be handed a banin nearly 20 years and, no matter whether the punishment might beshorter than some people expect for such an offence, a so-calledcheating tag is almost impossible to shake off in golf.
Johan Tumba, the Swede handed the last ban, ten years in his casefor altering his scorecard at the Qualifying School, has never beenseen again on Tour and the same goes for David Robertson, the Dunbarman who got 20 years, as well as a whopping fine, for marking hisball wrongly during qualifying for an Open Championship.
With only three months to serve on the sidelines, Saltman is in adifferent boat to them in one sense but what kind of welcome can heexpect from fellow players when he returns? Lukewarm at best wouldbe my guess, though persona non grata also springs to mind.
As he waited for his hearing in the wake of the disqualificationfrom the Challenge Tour event in Russia, where English duo StuartDavis and Marcus Higley refused to sign his card after claiming hehad marked his ball incorrectly five times, a whole host ofallegations were thrown at Saltman on the internet from his amateurdays.
It is also believed that he was quizzed by an R&A official overan incident during regional qualifying for the Open Championship atMusselburgh early in his professional career, but no action wastaken then or, for that matter, at any of those amateur events. Theaction taken this week has sparked another frenzy of activity on theinternet, with some observers claiming a three-month ban is a"massive win" for the player while others are taking a more dim viewon the matter and say Saltman has been saddled with a "lifetime banin terms of reputation".
One thing for sure is that, should he accept the short ban rightaway, it might not affect his chances of retaining a spot on theEuropean Tour - he finished 26th at the Qualifying School in Spainlast month and won nearly GBP9,000 for finishing just outside thetop 20 in the recent Africa Open - come the end of the season tooseriously.
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 theMiddle East that get underway today in Abu Dhabi, meaning his nextappearance would probably have been the Avantha Masters in India inthe middle of next month.
As things stand, the European Tour is then set for a month-longbreak before events in Sicily, Spain and Morocco with another blankweek, at the same time The Masters is on, being followed by theMalaysian Open. Two days after his ban is due to end, Saltman wouldbe eligible for the Volvo China Open, though a more realistic returnin terms of him getting into the field would probably be the SpanishOpen or, failing that, an event in Mallorca the following week. AsSaltman, who is managed by his father, Jack, returned from Abu Dhabiyesterday to weigh up an appeal, the player's main sponsor,Edinburgh-based Aegon, issued a brief statement, saying: "Thedisciplinary matter is an issue for the European Tour and notsomething that is appropriate for us to comment on at this stage."
In the week when Jose Maria Olazabal was appointed as the nextRyder Cup captain, it is a matter the European Tour could clearlyhave done without, with George O'Grady, the chief executive,describing it as "unpleasant episode" prior to the hearing onTuesday.
He had nothing to add yesterday to the statement issued by theTour confirming Saltman's ban, but Paul Casey, who is on thetournament players' committee, admitted: "It was a very delicateissue and suffice to say in my time on the committee we have neverhad an issue like that and hopefully we won't again."
The last occasion a Scottish golfer was involved in a major rulesrumpus, of course, was the Jakarta-gate incident involving ColinMontgomerie during the 1995 Indonesian Open and the "censure" handedto him on that occasion has been brought back into the spotlight inthe wake of a more severe punishment being meted out to Saltman.
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