A quartet of young Scottish challengers led the home charge into the Amateur Championship proper as benign conditions continued at Carnoustie and Panmure yesterday.
Grant Forrest, Craig Howie, Ewen Ferguson and Craig Ross all finished within the top ten in qualifying, former Scottish Boys champion Howie claiming a share of the leading mark on seven-under; far lower than had been expected on what’s regarded as the toughest of the Open venues.
Howie, the former Scottish Boys champion, shot an excellent 67 on the championship course, good enough to have him named top seed on a card count back, while Ferguson impressed enough to have Great Britain and Ireland captain Nigel Edwards follow him for 13 holes.
But simply getting through the second day of qualifying and into the meat of the championship is always the aim rather than shooting the lights out, which appeared instead to be the aim on the neighbouring property.
For a large part of the day qualifying was played to a steady and sometimes intrusive soundtrack of gunfire from the Barry Buddon range, familiar enough to locals but not to the international field.
“A disgrace that this should happen for a championship of this stature,” said one irate local. The R&A had requested to the MoD as they customarily do when championships visit Carnoustie – that any activity be toned down for this week, but the Army had pre-scheduled training exercises.
“It was impossible to change the schedules for what is a very busy and important period of training activity for both regular Army and for reservists,” said an Army spokeswoman.
“They were fairly well at it,” said Howie with a wry smile. “I thought they were shooting at each other and there was a war going on for a while out there.”
Kent’s Alfie Plant, who followed his record first round 63 at Panmure with a 78 on Carnoustie to barely make the cut in the end, joked that he “had to duck a few times” but it didn’t seem that many in the field were too inconvenienced.
Howie’s highlight was the eagle two at the 11th, a drive 30 yards short of the green and a good pitch “that got lucky and dropped”. Three more birdies followed for the 20-year-old, now on Stirling University’s golf programme and finding the form that won him the national Boys’ title at Murcar in 2012.
“I did lose a bit of confidence and form after that win but I change coaches to Stuart Savage this winter and I’ve been doing a lot of analysis with stats from Golf Data Labs which has helped me identify areas of my game to work on,” he explained.
Ferguson won the British Boys’ title two years ago and is going for a double only recently achieved by Sergio Garcia (1997-1998) and Jose Maria Olazabal (1983-1984). He also won the Scottish Boys’ last year and is hotly tipped to follow in the footsteps of his friend Bradley Neil.
Preparation won’t be an issue, as the Scotland squad played Carnoustie three times in a month and a half building up the championship, playing a challenge match against a local club select.
“That was great fun, and the members were great showing us the lines to take and where and where not to go,” said the 18-year-old from Bearsden after his 71 at Carnoustie.
“I feel I’m playing well and have settled into men’s golf this year. We got put on the clock a couple of times but I managed to keep my focus and just get round enough to qualify.
“A couple of years of playing in these events gives you the experience to know what to do in qualifying. It’s all about getting inside the mark.”
Ross, who won on the EuroPro Tour at Mar Hall last year, came through after a 69 at Panmure, while Forrest, the former Scottish and St Andrews Links champion, was able to coast at the Barry links after his 67 at Carnoustie on the first day.
Other Scots qualifiers for the matchplay included another ex-Scottish matchplay champion Zander Culverwell, former Scottish Boys strokeplay champion Greig Marchbank and Glencruitten’s Robert MacIntyre.
Jack McDonald, a semi-finalist at Royal Troon in 2012, flirted with the cut mark for much of the day but a couple of late birdies got him well inside the cut.
Marcus Kinhult, the leading player in the World Rankings in the field, comfortably qualified but among those missing the matchplay were the highly-rated Australians Ryan Ruffels and Antonio Murdaca, and last year’s semi-finalist Connor Syme from Drumoig.