Until the golf writers get their heads together and invent the teleporter, the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship will always remain something of a guddle. You can’t be in two places at once let alone three, after all. So you waddle along to St Andrews but then something happens at Kingsbarns and you ponder shuffling off there until news filters through of dazzling developments at Carnoustie. But, by that time, you’re halfway between St Andrews and Kingsbarns with absolutely no chance of getting to Carnoustie and you end up birling about in a fankle like the Keystone Cops on the dodgems.
It’s a case of here, there and everywhere in this celebration of links golf. For David Drysdale, it’s a case of simply being happy to be able to go here, there and everywhere. This time last week, the 40-year-old Scot was still hirpling about on crutches after shredding a calf muscle getting out of a bunker during the Italian Open. Yesterday, his miraculous recovery was completed with a purposeful four-under 68 over the Old Course as he hoisted himself into the upper reaches of the early leaderboard.
On a spectacularly stunning day in the Auld Grey Toon, Drysdale made hay while that fiery orb in the sky shone. Despite a three-putt bogey from 20-feet on the first, a haul of five birdies saw him finish four shots behind the leading trio of Kristoffer Broberg and Walker Cup-winning duo, Jimmy Mullen and Paul Dunne.
Languishing in that perilous position of 121st on the European Tour’s money list, Drysdale is 10 places and around £15,000 short of the card-retaining safety zone of the leading 111. His injury arrived at the worst possible time, given that he can ill afford to miss any tournaments as he battles to safeguard his place on the main circuit. Step forward Stuart Barton, the former Scottish Rugby Union physiotherapist whose various work outs, waggles, pokes, patch ups and paddles in the sea have helped accelerate the healing process. “I’ve spent a lot of time in the sea every day at Pease Bay (near his Cocksburnspath home), just walking about like a right idiot with a jacket, woolly hat and a pair of shorts on,” explained Drysdale. “The resistance and cold has done it the world of good. I’ve had acupuncture as well. It’s been incredible how Stuart has treated me. He saw me the day after I got the injury and he strapped it up really tight and all the bruising came out and the swelling started to go down. There was a three centimetre tear and a 15 centimetre swelling. The timing of the injury was awful. It’s been a fight to get fit for this week and now it’s a fight to keep my tour card.”
Drysdale’s fellow Scot, Stephen Gallacher, also enjoyed a profitable day in the sunshine with a five-under 67 at St Andrews to spearhead the home assault. Despite leaking a shot on the first, when his approach spun off the green and dribbled into the burn, Gallacher repaired the damage with a bag of six birdies including a cracker on the tricky fourth where he knocked an 8-iron into a back-left flag and holed the putt from around eight feet. “That was an Open Championship pin,” said Gallacher, who was partnered in the Pro-Am affair by former AC Milan and Chelsea striker Andriy Shevchenko. The duo seemed to get on quite the thing out on the shimmering links. “It was going well until Andriy mentioned that he scored against Celtic in the Champions League,” added a smiling Gallacher, whose footballing loyalties lie with the Parkhead outfit.
Over the water at Carnoustie, meanwhile, Marc Warren began his campaign with a four-under 68 which included an eagle on the 14th but had some of the sheen wiped off it with a bogey on the final hole.
At the head of the standings, Dunne and Mullen showed that there is nothing to this professional lark as they marked their debuts in a full blown tour event with sparkling eight-under rounds at Kingsbarns. Dunne, who earned the half point that gave Great Britain & Ireland’s amateurs victory in the Walker Cup three weeks ago, even managed a hole-in-one as his 5-iron on the 15th found the cup. “That was a nice little bonus,” said Dunne, who will return to the Old Course today for the first time since he led July’s Open as an amateur.
Mullen, who had a perfect four-out-of-four record in the Walker Cup, reeled off eight birdies and an eagle in an eventful round as he barged his way up the order. “I didn’t quite expect to shoot eight-under first time out but it was just a nice jolly out there,” he said with a grin that could have spanned the Tay.
Broberg, meanwhile, has employed the services of Scottish caddie John Dempster, who steered Oliver Wilson to Dunhill glory last year, and that alliance paid off yesterday with a sizzling 64 at the Old Course.
It’s all change today as the field rotates courses. Now, how’s that teleporter coming on?
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