It was quite a way to mark the 100th staging of the M&H Logistics Scottish PGA Championship. In fact, Gareth Wright ended up so far ahead of the rest after round one he could have been playing in the 101st.
On a blustery and occasionally bright day at Gleneagles, the big-hitting Wright harnessed the testing conditions to good effect and carved out a fine nine-under 62 over the King’s Course as he opened up a five shot lead over Chris Doak, Ross Cameron, Sam Binning and Jonathan Lomas.
The 34-year-old’s bogey-free card was still two shots shy of the course record of 60, set by Paul Curry in the Scottish Open back in 1992, but it was a mightily impressive effort.
Wright, the Edinburgh-based Welshman who became the first non-Scot to win the national championship when he triumphed here two years ago, was quickly into his stride with a trio of birdies on his first five holes and the golfing gods were looking down favourably on him at the sixth when he found the bunker off the tee and then feared his approach had bounded on into the bushes. It hadn’t, though. “It was just short of them but from there I pitched in from 45 yards,” he said. “Those are the kind of lucky breaks that just keep the momentum going.”
It certainly did. After further birdies at eight and 10, Wright drove the 14th green and trundled in the 10-footer for an eagle before putting the tin lid on affairs with a tidy birdie on the last. “I had been thinking of breaking 60 at one stage,” added Wright. “I shaved the edge on 16 and lipped out on 17.” Those aforementioned golfing gods weren’t going to be too kind. They never are.
Wright remains a sturdy competitor who still harbours ambitions of playing at a higher level. He missed the cut by a single stroke in the European Tour’s British Masters last week and he usually makes a decent fist of things when he makes occasional forays on to the main circuit. “I played with Richie Ramsay in the first two rounds last week and my game is not too far out of place at that level,” he noted. “Playing on the European Tour is not off the table yet.”
Injury has scuppered Doak’s European Tour career over the last few months, although he did pass the first test on the long road back by scraping through stage one of the qualifying school. His most recent outing on the Tartan Tour, in the Highland Golf Links Pro-Am, saw him end up in an Inverness hospital with, of all things, a severe bout of constipation. Perhaps it’s all this talk of pushing through a hard Brexit? One thing the 38-year-old is keen to get moving is the pace of play after his three-ball took over five hours to trudge round.
“No matter what tour you are on the pace of play is shocking,” said Doak, who beat Wright in a play-off for the 2010 Scottish PGA title. “Nobody waves through and nobody is ready to play.”
Doak had been one-over through eight but covered his last 10 holes in five-under. Cameron, meanwhile, had been two-over after three but produced a profitable thrust and birdied five holes in six holes from the sixth to clamber into a tie for second. Greig Hutcheon, the domestic circuit’s order of merit leader, was left cursing four straight bogeys from the 13th in a 70 while defending champion Chris Kelly had to settle for a 74.
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