Grieving Mark Kerr finds solace in fine start at Gleneagles

In reeling off two polished rounds of 68 and 66 over the King’s Course for a eight-under-par total of 134, the 29-year-old leads by three shots from Caldwell’s Christoper Currie at the halfway stage in the Tartan Tour’s flagship event.

Kerr, third in this tournament a year ago, has a further two shots in hand over the quartet next on the leaderboard, leaving him well placed in his bid for a victory that would prove a timely tonic.

His father, Watson, a well-known Edinburgh publican who owned the Canny Man’s in Morningside, died last month and the pain being felt by Kerr is clearly still raw.

It’s only when he’s out on a golf course, in fact, that he can forget about his devastating loss and so far this week, at a venue he enjoys, Kerr has certainly been playing with a perspective that is helping bring out the best in his game.

One of three co-leaders after the first round, his card for the second circuit at the Perthshire resort contained seven birdies, including three in a row from the 12th.

“It has been pretty emotional over the last few weeks since losing my dad. The more golf I can play the better because it gives me something else to think about for four or five hours,” said Kerr.

“It would be nice to do well this week. I would dearly love to win, but I can only go out and do my best.

“Everything that has happened recently has put golf into perspective.”

Twelve months ago, Kerr, who is through to the second stage of the European Tour Qualifying School, shot a 64 in the third round of this event at the same venue. That earned him the lead going into the final circuit, but he finished in a tie for third, two shots behind winner Chris Doak, after a closing 73.

Kerr, who has Robert Carson, a Marriott Dalmahoy clubmate, caddying for him this week, has since completed his PGA training, giving him more time to put in valuable practice. “I’m really happy with my game,” he reported. “Every aspect is working well at the moment.”

Currie, also 29 but from Clydebank, is a “late developer”, having had no desire to pursue a career in golf until he lost his job as a gardener with West Dunbartonshire Council around six years ago. A scratch player at Dalmuir as an amateur, Stewart Savage, the professional there, alerted Currie when he heard that Craig Everett, a former Scottish Amateur champion, had an assistants’ post up for grabs at Caldwell.

“I didn’t even entertain it at first, but then I decided to give it a go,” said Currie, who’d taken on all sorts of jobs in the past simply to pay the bills.

“Training as a PGA professional isn’t about playing golf, but I’ve been qualified for a year so it is now – that’s what I see myself doing going forward.”

Currie said he had benefitted enormously from being out in the first group of the day as he shot a second-round 67, the highlight of which was an eagle-2 at the 14th, where he hit his drive to a couple of feet.

He also thanked his two playing partners, Graham Fox and Paul Wardell, for pointing him in the right direction at the former home of the Scottish Open.

“I came up for a practice round a week past Saturday, but it was so misty that you could only see for about 150 yards and I was picking all the wrong lines,” he said.

On a day when a number of the other early starters made the most of enjoying the best conditions on exceptionally wet greens, Ayrshire duo Fox and James McKinnon, who had shared the overnight lead with Kerr, stayed in contention after matching rounds of 71 to sit alongside Fifer Alan Lockhart and former PGA Cup player Robert Arnott, both of whom had 68s, in joint-third.

West Linton’s Gareth Wright, last year’s runner-up, is tied for eighth on 141, seven off the lead, while Hayston’s Stephen Gray is still on course to clinch both the order of merit and money-list titles after he moved into a share of 12th on 143.