Martin Dempster: Scots on European Tour set for happy new year

David Drysdale tees off at the fifth hole in the Alfred Dunhil Championships in South Africa .

On each of the opening four weeks of the campaign, the Saltire has been prominent on the leaderboard, including four of the top five all being Scots at one stage early in the third round of the Alfred Dunhill Championship in South Africa at the weekend.

That the event at Leopard Creek fell in the end to American David Lipsky instead of either David Drysdale or Scott Jamieson was slightly disappointing, but, at the same time, that pair deserve credit for getting themselves in the mix in the final event of the calendar year.

For runner-up Drysdale, his bid for an elusive first win on the circuit goes on, this having been attempt No 471 in his 18th season. The 43-year-old had lots of people rooting for him over the weekend and, though it wasn’t to be on this occasion, he’s ready to keep knocking at the door. “If I can keep doing what I am doing, hopefully I can win a bloody tournament at some point,” he told this correspondent en route to Johannesburg on  Sunday night.

Drysdale had already chalked up a top-five finish in the opening event of the new campaign, the Honma Hong Kong Open. In contrast, he made just two cuts in his opening 11 events last season, when he needed a strong finish to hang on to his card. “It’s nice to show a bit of form and long may it continue,” he added. “As I’ve said to you many times, I don’t want to get to that 500th appearance without a win. It’s not easy to put yourself in that position, but I’ve had two or three good chances this year.

“Sunday was one of the few days that I have actually putted well on the back nine in the final round. If I had putted like that on the back nine in Holland (where he finished joint-sixth in the KLM Open in September), I would probably have knocked that one off.”

The Cockburnspath man sits third in the 2019 Race to Dubai, which has been revamped this season in a bid to give Qualifying School graduates a fairer chance of hanging on to their card. Tournaments have been divided into categories based on prize funds, the aim of which has been to reduce a disparity between bigger and smaller events from  12-1 to 5-1.

“It is a fantastic start,” admitted Drysdale of tucking himself in behind Lipsky and Aaron Rai, the winner in Hong Kong. “I don’t totally understand the new points system, to be honest, but I believe it will eradicate someone picking up one big cheque and keeping their card. It makes the tournaments a bit closer in terms of the points reward and, if so, I suppose it makes it a bit fairer for the guys who play full-time on the European Tour.”

Having led heading into the final round, there’s no denying that Jamieson will be feeling slightly sore about having to settle for joint third on Sunday. However, he, too, can head into the new year feeling confident that more opportunities will be forthcoming. The 33-year-old produced great golf for three days on a demanding course and fought back well after a rough few holes in the final round.

Once the dust settles, he’ll take plenty of positives from this display – his driving in particular earned warm praise from Sky Sports’ on-course commentator Dale Hayes – and don’t be surprised if  Jamieson doesn’t have to wait too long to set up another chance to add to his breakthrough success in the 2013 Nelson Mandela Championship in Durban.

Add in Marc Warren showing signs that his game is close to clicking again, Bob MacIntyre recording his second top-15 finish in a  row and David Law catapulting himself into the top 30 by playing his final 31 holes in six under par and it was certainly an encouraging end to 2018 for the Scottish  contingent.

Stephen Gallacher and Richie Ramsay – Paul Lawrie, too, hopefully, as he continues to step up his recovery from a foot operation – will bolster that group when the circuit resumes after the festive break in Abu Dhabi in the middle of next month, and here’s hoping that the past few weeks have indeed been a taste of things to come from golf’s tartan army in 2019.