#scottishopen

SCOTTISH OPEN

A strong field gathers at Dundonald, a healthy US contingent among them seeking to emulate Rickie Fowler and Phil Mickelson, both recent Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open winners. Class does tend to tell in this event with Rose, Donald and Kaymer also recently victorious. The top players from across the Atlantic have a decent record here and there are two 20/1 shots who appeal as potential winners. Patrick Reed may not be everyone’s cup of tea but he has had eight Top-25 finishes in his last nine outings and having shot rounds of 69 or better in 10 of his last 16 rounds, he is worth a shot with Unibet and 888. Matt Kuchar has not played since Erin Hills but his last four tournament finishes have produced form figures of 16/4/12/9. He was only a stroke behind Fowler in the 2015 Scottish Open so has had success in this tournament and is a general 20/1 with most firms to go one better this year. As an each way selection, any player whose form figures read 7/9/6/3/5/3 in his last half dozen WGC and European Tour events should surely be shorter than the general 33/1 on offer, yet Ross Fisher can be backed at that price. A player with an undoubted links pedigree, he is rarely far away from the top of the leaderboard when competing away from the US Tour and can be expected to go well this week. Finally, at a price to tempt any each way punter, we are going with a man who never seems to play badly on home soil. Marc Warren may not have had a season to recall fondly but his record at his home Open compares with the very best and his links record in recent years, in terms of Top-15 finishes, is second-to-none. Boylesports and Paddy Power are the firms offering a  price of 250/1. And paying out for 7 places - and on a horses-for-courses basis - he must be worth a small interest.   It is tricky enough to find the winner of any tournament never mind predict who may lead after just one round but many firms have a 1st round leader market to tempt us and while this is not a market I would usually touch with the proverbial barge pole, one name does spring to mind. David Lingmerth doesn’t often feature near the top of Sunday leaderboards but he has been putting together some excellent rounds of late, particularly on day one. The US Open aside, his worst first round score in his last four tournaments has been 67 and with Stan James offering 66/1 against him being the clubhouse leader on Thursday night I would be tempted. The Scottish Open is increasingly important as a prelude for The Open itself, with six of the last seven Claret Jug winners having warmed up there. What better way to prepare for competitive links golf than, well, playing competitive links golf? Henrik Stenson is a huge believer in its value having finished 2nd and 1st in The Open off the back of an outing in Scotland. (And he was an Open also-ran when he chose to skip The Scottish.)  Indeed, the top four at Royal Troon in 2016 all played at Castle Stuart the previous week.

The Green Reader  

DUNDONALD - THE KNOWLEDGE Dundonald Links is close to Troon and Prestwick, actually abutting Western Gailes Golf Club and Kilmarnock Barassie. It’s one of Scotland’s very best, the (brilliant) work of Kyle Philips, his sequel to Kingsbarns and indeed the equal to Kingsbarns, but less celebrated.

It’s a course of some contradictions: open to the public yet owned by, arguably, Scotland’s most private, pricey club, Loch Lomond. Also, the course feels like it’s been here for the longest time, created by God and salty Scotsmen with their bare hands; in fact it’s just 12 years old and was built by an American!

Fairways are fat enough for most golfers and the rough isn’t grown high. Its main defences, beyond the Scottish wind, are threefold: a meandering stream, excellent bunkering and its great greens. The stream wanders across the entire property, coming into play on many holes and especially on the 18th, a par-5 where it is used to scorecard wrecking effect. The bunkers are deep, often quite flat-faced, skilfully revetted affairs. They are mostly daunting things, found in all the right places. The greens boast countless tricky pin positions and various ways into them, along the ground or through the air depending on placement from the tee. Some greens are small, some significantly sized, some with multiple tiers, all with entertaining contours.

One standout hole is the 11th a short par-3, nothing to it, from one high tee over a dip to a raised green, Postage Stamp like perhaps. The strike here must be perfect. These are firm seaside putting surfaces and to fail to hold on means skipping through and falling down behind the green to a hidden deep pot bunker which originally annoys and then quickly impresses! The recovery is very very tough. Look out for this hole on TV.

With a quality field in comfortable weather, scoring will be low indeed.

tour the course here

A QUESTION OF RULES

As you might recall from last week, the time allowed to search for a lost ball will be just three minutes. In addition to that change - effective 2019 - there will no longer be a penalty for accidentally moving your ball whilst searching for it. The R&A believe that having a penalty for this almost discourages players from looking for their ball for fear of a penalty shot, combined with the fact that their ball may be lodged disastrously in the rough, requiring several attempts to discover the long lost fairway. Now, this doesn’t mean that you can hack about in the bushes, wildly thrashing with your club like a madman in your desperation to find your ball within the time limit and benefit from accidentally moving it advantageously with one of your wild ’search strikes’. If you do move your ball, you will need to replace it where it was, but no penalty incurred.

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Francesco Molinari: eagle

Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open at Castle Stuart Golf Links (round 1, 12/07/2013, hole #12)