A decade has now elapsed since his career-defining Open Championship win, but Paul Lawrie offered another reminder yesterday that he remains highly competitive in his own right.

A decade has now elapsed since his career-defining Open Championship win, but Paul Lawrie offered another reminder yesterday that he remains highly competitive in his own right.

Playing with Camilo Villegas, the stylish 27-year-old Colombian who is one of the highest-ranked players in this field and Martin Kaymer, winner of last week's French Open, the 40-year-old Aberdonian shot the low score in their three-ball with a three-under-par 68 that might have been even better.

A couple of what, by the standards of the rest of his play were almost inexplicable approach shots at the 10th and 12th, both from the fairway and within comfortable range, cost him an even lower score and he was more than entitled to the satisfaction he expressed.

"I played really well going out, hit an awful lot of good shots and putted lovely on the front nine for the first time in a long, long time. I holed everything I looked at," he said.

Admittedly, after he registered four birdies in that front nine to reach the turn in 32, the momentum-killing lie he found at the 10th was slightly awkward with the ball above his feet, but he rightly described the shot as a "very poor one". That was nothing to the heavy contact made when he had no more than a flick from the middle of the fairway at the 12th.

However he did not let it rattle him and immediately recovered one of those lost shots with a fine pitch and putt at the long 13th before parring his way in.

Since two of his five tour wins have come on home soil, that Open victory at Carnoustie in 1999 and the Dunhill Masters a couple of years later, he will fancy his chances if he maintains this sort of form and why not?

Certainly it would be a brave man who would back against Lawrie finishing as top Scot, since Villegas and Kaymer were far from the only promising youngsters he got the better of yesterday.

That said, it was by no means a bad day for the home support. There was a decent showing from the homegrown contingent with half of the Scots in the field breaking par, led by Martin Laird, who is tied second.

David Drysdale's spectacular run of five successive birdies on the front nine - his back nine - set up a five-under-par 67, while Alastair Forsyth topped the leaderboard early in the day before drifting back to one-under, level with Scott Drummond, Gary Orr and Tartan Tour entrant Jason McCreadie.

That offered the latest encouragement to those who believe that, despite no Scots being currently in the top 100 in the world rankings, golf in this country is not in the desperate straits that some would have us believe.

Indeed, at this event, Ian Rae, the Scottish Golf Union's head coach who also works with Tour professionals including Forsyth, suggested an upward cycle is on the way.

"It's a small country, but I think we've got a lot of great players," Rae claimed. "For example Davie Drysdale's been kicking about for a while and is starting to produce the goods and when I spoke to him he said he's hitting the ball the same but is just believing in himself that he can actually do it.

"There is a great group coming up and I can see it for quite a bit of time.

I think we've got a lot of good players on tour who are working hard and trying to get to the top.

"Okay, we keep getting this issue raised of there not being enough in the top 100, but that will come and I think the existing guys that are on the tour will get there. I think we'll see a big rise in Scottish golf in the professional ranks and by the 2014 Ryder Cup we'll have quite a few Scots in that."

Among those in question are the players who have brought Scotland's amateurs both World and European titles in recent months, Rae believes.

"We talk about it taking time and there being a big difference. I'm not convinced that there's a massive difference. I think the guys who are coming up through amateur golf are about ready," he reckoned. "There are more guys coming out from amateur golf much better prepared and getting onto tour quite quickly."

Callum Macaulay, one member of the three-man team which won the World Championship in Australia last year, may not have been among the best of the Scots at Loch Lomond yesterday, but does look very much at home in this company having registered a runners-up spot at the Madeira Open earlier this season.

However Wallace Booth, his fellow amateur world champion and one of just two non-professionals in the field, rather undermined the notion that the gap between the professional and amateur game can be readily bridged. Highly praised for his contribution to last week's European Team Championships win, he struggled horribly in taking 45 strokes to negotiate the back nine, in finishing at the bottom of the first day field with a 12-over-par 83.