Dougray Scott's Dunhill blog - day two

Published on Thursday 2 October 2008 21:04

MY first round in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship this year could not have started better. There was a big crowd beside the 1st tee in front of the R&A clubhouse windows on the Old Course, and I hit a terrific drive which went 285 yards.

In fact I couldn't have driven any better throughout the round, but unfortunately the rest of my game just wasn't as sharp as it needed to be.

I didn't putt well and some of my irons weren't as crisp as I wanted them to be.

Andrew Coltart, my professional partner, hit the ball very solidly. He was great to play with and we had a lot of fun, but we're going to have to get going and score a lot better if we are going to get back in contention and make the cut.

We're on three-under-par, which is nine behind the leaders at the moment, so we have a lot of ground to make up.

But if the weather changes, anything can happen, so I am going to go to Carnoustie early ahead of my second round tomorrow to get in some extra practice.

I didn't putt particularly well on the greens at St Andrews today. Even though I know the course pretty well, some of the slopes caught me out.

The greens at Carnoustie are flatter so hopefully I will sink a few more putts tomorrow.

I was particularly disappointed with my finish. We were four-under-par as we played the Road Hole. I hit a terrific drive which left me with just 130 yards to the green, but my wedge finished short beside the bunker. I rolled up a reasonable putt to within four feet, but I missed that and we finished with a bogey. Then to make matters worse I three-putted the 18th after another good drive.

However, as always, it was such a thrill to play at the Old Course and it was a really enjoyable day. The conditions were great, although maybe a bit more wind would help my chances of making the cut. But we can still catch up and now I am very much looking forward to Carnoustie.