Dunhill Links brings out the best in Scots

Published on Tuesday 3 October 2006 00:35

NO EVENT on the European Tour's international schedule over the past five years has proved a happier hunting ground for Scottish golfers than the Dunhill Links Championship. When Colin Montgomerie tees up in defence of the title on Thursday, he will hardly need reminding that more than half of the tournaments held so far at St Andrews, Carnoustie and Kingsbarns have been won by Scots.

Since Paul Lawrie showed the way at the first staging of the lucrative pro-am in 2001, Stephen Gallacher in 2004 and Monty last year have also proven their worth as masters of the links. For a variety of reasons, playing beside the sea in the sharp, sometimes bitter winds of autumn, tends to bring out the best in Scotland's hardy professionals on home turf.

Certainly, compared to the sleeveless challenges of early summer when the Barclays Scottish Open is held at Loch Lomond and the Johnnie Walker is contested over the PGA Centenary at Gleneagles, Scots invariably revel over the great links of Fife and Angus under layers of cashmere and waterproofs.

There have been 22 stagings of the Scottish Open at Haggs Castle, Gleneagles, Carnoustie and Loch Lomond since 1986 but only one native, Montgomerie in 1999, lifted the title. The batting average in the Johnnie Walker (formerly the Scottish PGA) makes for no more encouraging reading. In the eight tournaments held in Perthshire since 1999, no Scot has won in front of his ain folk.

But with three Scottish champions at the Dunhill since 2001 - the other victors, England's Lee Westwood in 2003 and Ireland's Padraig Harrington in 2002, could hardly be described as strangers to seaside golf - there's something about the celebration of the links game well suited to native sons.

Needing to guide the ball on a lower flight path, playing more bump and run shots around the greens and requiring a keen intelligence to cope with the subtleties of the Old Course and Carnoustie in particular, Scottish professionals have found the Dunhill to their liking ever since the event evolved from a team competition into the most prestigious pro-am in world golf. Asked if he could put his finger on the combination of factors which have delivered more success for Scots at the Dunhill than any other event in recent years, Montgomerie replied: "It's amazing, really. Paul Lawrie to win the way he did in 2001, scrambling out of the Valley of Sin. Then Stephen Gallacher won from Graeme McDowell in a play-off two years ago and myself last year. So the crowd must play a role, and obviously those players are experienced around the Old Course, as I am. So it's great to be part of that group of Scots."

Having first played as a professional at the Old Course in 1988, Montgomerie can look back on more than 20 appearances over the ancient links in Open championships, the Dunhill Cup and the Dunhill Links. Knowledge is a valuable ally on such a subtle test and Monty believes an understanding of St Andrews, where two of the four rounds in the Dunhill are held, must benefit the home players.

"I've been coming to St Andrews at this time of year since 1988 and I haven't missed a Dunhill Links, I don't believe, or a Dunhill Cup, in that time," he recalled. "That's 18 years of playing the Old Course in professional tournament conditions."

The highlight of the Scot's success at St Andrews in 2005, coming just a matter of months after finishing runner-up to Tiger Woods in the Open, was an outstanding 65 in Friday's second round at a blustery Old Course when the stroke average soared to 73.5. It was a brilliant display of ball-striking which gave the lie to the theory the big Scot can't play in strong wind.

Seventh behind Monty last autumn after collecting the most rewarding cheque of his career from Dunhill in 2004, Gallacher, a former Scottish Amateur champion and Walker Cup player, is an unabashed admirer of golf's purest test. "All of the amateur stuff I played was always in high winds," recalled the Bathgate man.

"It's good to be on links courses, as well. The Scottish guys love to play on the links. We don't play enough of it and a lot of people don't like it. They don't like playing on links. They don't like to having playing bump and runs. We all grew up with that. So it should play into our hands."

The touring professional at Loch Lomond, Gallacher is fortunate to be able to practise at Dundonald, the club's Ayrshire links, where he can fine-tune those three-quarter swing 'soft' shots which are so effective when the wind blows. Always a crisp striker of the ball, the Scot proved with that wonderful wedge shot to three feet in the play-off against McDowell two years ago that he knows how to get the job done when the opportunity arises.

As for Lawrie, who has won both the Open and the Dunhill over the past seven years, the return to St Andrews and Carnoustie will provide a pick-me-up after a low key summer in which he's not played much and enjoyed little luck when he has competed, playing with a set of borrowed clubs in Madrid three weeks ago after British Airways lost his bag.

The Aberdonian played Muirfield, St Andrews and Royal Aberdeen last week and aims to be as well prepared for the challenge of seaside golf as any of his compatriots. He has ambitions to keep the Dunhill title in Scotland for the third consecutive season.

And, in the team competition, the pro lucky enough to have US Amateur champion Richie Ramsay contributing from forward tees, is entitled to fancy his chances.