The first round of the Scottish Open may be the tipping point at last for Marc Warren or, to be more exact, what happened after he started the championship on the beach and with an ignominious triple-bogey seven.
The two-time tour winner and highly-regarded talent might have had his frustrations boil over there, but instead he put together seven birdies in a row which transformed his fortunes.
A 67 places him in the large group on five-under with fellow Scots Scott Jamieson and Peter Whiteford but, while that duo have been rattling off scores all season, Warren’s was far more unexpected, especially after that start, and could have even been record-breaking.
“I had a six-foot birdie putt before the run started, and a 10-footer to end the run, so it could have been the tour record, but I’ll take seven again tomorrow, please,” he said.
“I didn’t even realise it was seven in a row until I saw the board at the 18th, I thought there was a par in there somewhere.”
He added, “I think I’ve been playing well but the scores have been poor, but it was nice today to have an answer to something going wrong, which hasn’t been the case this season.”
Jamieson has had an answer to the occasional bad round this season with some outstanding consistency and remains tight in the battle for the rookie of the year prize that Warren won in 2007.
He finished strongly with three birdies in his last four holes to keep in check with rival Thorbjorn Oleson, of Denmark, who shot a 66.
“I think history shows that the rookie of the year wins at least once, so that’s my target,” he said.
“It’s a good round today, especially after I had a bad run in France last week, but when you swing the club at 100mph around your head things are occasionally going to go wrong.”‘The next stage is winning’Jamieson has been consistent but the man who leads all Scots on the Road To Dubai is Whiteford, and once again the Fifer put together a fine round second only this season to the one that got him a top-five finish in Italy last month.
He said, “I think I left a few out there today, especially not taking control of 16, 17 and 18 which are all good chances, but I have to be happy with five under to start the week.
“I made one mistake on the easiest hole (the 11th) and to bogey with a nine iron off the tee peg is never good, but otherwise it was pretty good.”
His improvement in putting is the key to this run of nine cuts made in the last 10 tournaments, with four top-10s in that run.
“The next stage is winning, and I’ve won at every stage I’ve come up through, Challenge Tour, college and the juniors.
“This is a bit of an Everest in comparison but it’s what you have to aim for.”
Greg Hutcheon continued his fine showing in pro events with a four-under 68 while Martin Laird was a little dissatisfied with his two-under 70.
“I’m a bit frustrated but I’ll take two under for the first time on links in a while,” said the US-based player.
“I struggled reading the greens a bit because they’re slower than I’m used to.”