IT was always going to be a big ask to upstage John Daly. Even more so when the outlandish American and his caddie, Anna - the current and fifth Mrs Daly - were both sporting multi-coloured trousers so garish that even Jackson Pollock would have deemed it a bit much. On his Open debut, however, Connor Syme found a way to do so.

The 22 year-old amateur from Fife booked his spot at Royal Birkdale via qualifying at Gailes Links, his reward to be drawn to play alongside Daly – and the Australian Adam Bland – over his opening two rounds.

Syme was not even a fortnight old when the Wild Thing was thudding huge drives all around the Old Course at St Andrews on his way to lifting the Claret Jug in 1995, and playing alongside the former champion undoubtedly added to the Scot’s maiden Open experience.

Daly’s best playing days may be behind him now but he still draws a cult following around the links, many of whom came to watch the American but stayed to appreciate Syme’s steady drives and clutch scrambling around the greens.

His score of 73 come the totting up was one better than Daly and a further shot fewer than Bland.

It was an eventful opening round for Syme who had strode purposefully to the first tee - dressed rather more conservatively than his playing partner in an assortment of demure blues and blacks, topped off with a bobble hat - and waited to hear his name called.

“On the tee from Scotland….Connor Sim,” announced starter David Lancaster, ruining in an instant a moment Syme must have dreamt of for years. Such a pronunciation faux-pas would surely not have happened on Ivor Robson’s watch.

“He actually asked me beforehand how to pronounce it and then must have just totally forgotten,” revealed the Scot afterwards. “But that happens a lot to me. I’ve had Sim before, maybe worse! That’s quite common.”

Mercifully, the blunder did not put him off. With the former Rangers assistant manager David Weir watching on, the one-time Ibrox youth trainee sent his opening drive bounding down the middle. Three shots later and he was recording the first of seven pars he would compile on a steady front nine.

“I felt nervous walking around and then you get to the tee and you think, ‘this is what you practise for’,” he added. “It was class, the entrance I got to go on there. And then I hit a good shot and made a good par and that settled me down quite a lot.

“John was such a nice guy. And he’s very funny. Adam was nice, too, so that definitely helped. The whole spirit of the group was very relaxed. We were just chatting about golf. John was having a bit of a laugh when he was getting his Diet Coke brought over. Just things like that.”

A birdie putt from around 15 feet that dropped on the fifth hole took the former Australian amateur champion to a temporary share of sixth place, joining illustrious names such as Jordan Spieth and Ian Poulter near the top of the leaderboard.

“I didn’t see it at that time but I knew I was going to be up there as I was one under at that point,” he admitted. “So it was cool to be up there.”

The back nine was rather more tumultuous, with only two pars made out of nine. A run-in with a bush saw him post a six on the 11th and there was a further double bogey on the 16th and other shots dropped on 13 and 15. Those setbacks, however, were offset by a trio of back-nine birdies, the last of which was rammed in from around 25 feet on the closing hole.

Had it been an Open championship on Scottish soil then Syme would surely have had greater vocal support as he made his way around the course but the roar that greeted his final putt still left the 22 year-old feeling warm and fuzzy.

“I felt good going on to the green on 18,” he added. “I was thinking that I maybe needed to make one to lift the spirits for tomorrow. So that was cool to see that one go in in front of the massive grandstands.

“There was a lady with a Scottish flag shouting my name which was cool and I got a big clap at the end which felt really good. I had a disappointing little run of golf through the middle but, apart from that, it was an amazing experience playing in the Open.”

The next trick is to try to make it through to the weekend to continue his quest to become the first Scot since Lloyd Saltman in 2005 to win the Silver Medal presented to the leading amateur. He is off early in his second round – a 6:46am start – and in probably inclement weather but hopes it proves as enjoyable as his maiden bow.

“I didn’t really have a target when I went out there today,” he added. “My goal is to try to make the cut and I’ve had a good finish there with birdie-birdie to give me a chance. I just really enjoyed myself. It was brilliant to be out there. I’m up early and we’ll see what happens. Hopefully a few of my friends from Dumfries will make it down as it’s not too far down the road for them. Something under par tomorrow might help me make it through. I’m looking forward to the challenge.”