Saltman wins his bodyweight in ham for hole-in-one at Madrid Masters

MADRID -- Scottish golfer Elliot Saltman made a hole-in-one during his second round at the Bankia Madrid Masters and earned a tasty prize -- his bodyweight in ham.

Saltman made the shot from the par-3 third hole at El Encin Golf Hotel. Heavily cured and salted ham is a Spanish delicacy.

“I’ve been trying to lose weight, but now I’m thinking I should have just kept it,” Saltman said.

Despite the feat, the No. 686-ranked player, is well off the leaders’ pace. After two rounds, he was 3 over and 14 shots behind leader Lee Slattery of England.

Saltman has a knack of carding holes-in-one -- he hit two in different rounds at the 17th hole in the Wales Open in June.

Ham was the prized offered for a hole-in-one at the third -- prizes on other holes included a car and a watch.

Tournament spokeswoman Maria Madrigal told The Associated Press that Saltman would take home about 238 pounds of ham, with organizers going by the weight listed on his official European Tour profile.

Saltman’s only problem is getting the “excess baggage” back to Scotland.

“I don’t think they’ll let me take that on the plane,” he said.

In January, Saltman got a three-month ban from the European Tour for marking his ball incorrectly at a Moscow tournament in September 2010.

He was the first professional to be banned from the European Tour since 1992, when Johan Tumba of Sweden was suspended for 10 years for altering his scorecard at qualifying school.