From the cauldron of Hazeltine to the cradle of the game here at St Andrews. Compared to last week’s boisterous batterings at the Ryder Cup, the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship will be about as thunderous as a night at the Pitscottie Floral Art Society.
Things will be a bit more genteel over the Old Course, Kingsbarns and Carnoustie, that tantalising, testing trinity of wonderful courses which play host to this cash-laden, celebrity-infused golf-athon.
There won’t be much heckling from the other side of the ropes at this tranquil affair. Unless, of course, the good folk of Fife and Angus get scunnered watching Dan Quayle skittering one into the whins and start demanding a refund on their free admission.
The tumult of the transatlantic tussle is over. It’s hardly a case of getting back to the auld claes and porridge, mind you. With a whopping prize fund of almost £4 million on offer in this highly lucrative Pro-Am, the Dunhill Links is very good work if you can get it. For Thomas Pieters it’s now onwards and upwards.
The 24-year-old Belgian may have been a relative unknown to the Americans ahead of last week’s contest in the Minneapolis suburbs but he certainly made a name for himself with a series of shimmering showings as he forged a highly profitable partnership with Rory McIlroy in the pairs and then reeled off a singles win to become Europe’s most successful rookie.
Pieters more than proved his worth in the rambunctious cut-and-thrust and justified the esteem in which many in the European scene hold him. From potential world No 1 to future major champion, Pieters has heard all the plaudits and the predictions that have been flying about in wild abundance. It could be a hefty burden to bear but the three-time Tour champion continues to deal with the general hoopla with a shrugging nonchalance and straight-faced confidence. The Ryder Cup, with all its blazing intensity and pressure, has been an eye-opening and somewhat re-assuring experience for him as he seeks to take his burgeoning career to new heights.
“Even Rory said the Ryder Cup is nothing like a major,” said Pieters. “The Ryder Cup is the most nervous he’s been so coming down the stretch in a major is going to seem like nothing.
“I learned that I can play in that kind of environment. I don't think anywhere in the majors or the PGA Tour is like that. It's going to be easier for me in the majors.
“I got a lot of compliments from last week in the sense of being able to pull the shots off that I needed to. When you pull of a shot of 220-yards over water with 40,000 people looking at you it is is a huge confidence boost.”
Two years ago, Pieters arrived in the home of golf as a rookie on the main European circuit. He’d finished second in the Spanish Open earlier in the campaign and a share of 18th in the Dunhill Links helped to safeguard his tour card. “It’s a weird feeling,” added Pieters, whose career since then has enjoyed the kind of explosive lift-off you used to get along the road at RAF Leuchars. “I was struggling for my card and now, two years on, I’m here having played in the Ryder Cup. It’s went a bit fast.”
It’s been slow going, meanwhile, for Stephen Gallacher as he continues his recovery from surgery on a niggling hand injury which has led to a stuttering, stop-start season. The 41-year-old played in the Ryder Cup two years ago at Gleneagles but had to watch on the television as events unfolded this time. “I’m trying to get my game in shape to give the Ryder Cup another run in 2018,” said the 2004 Dunhill Links champion. “Once you’ve played in one you want to play in it again. I’ll be trying my hardest.”
Another past champion, Paul Lawrie, has withdrawn due to the lingering effects of a virus he picked up at Hazeltine while on Ryder Cup vice-captain duty but his young compatriots, Grant Forrest and Ewen Ferguson, will be making their professional debuts in the championship this week.
Forrest, a winner at the Old Course in the St Andrews Links Trophy in 2014 and the runner-up in the Amateur Championship at Carnoustie last year, and his Walker Cup colleague Ferguson both have plenty of experience of the venues this week but playing for money is a big change from the relatively care-free world of the unpaid ranks.
“I’m not trying to think about the money,” said Ferguson. “I just want to learn as much as I can. It’s a long road to try to get to the top.”
Pieters, meanwhile, continues to hurtle along in the fast lane.
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