Links leaders leave stars playing catch-up

LOUIS Oosthuizen, last year’s Open champion at St Andrews, may be stalking them, but the two leaders at the halfway stage of the £3.2 million Dunhill Links Championship have also tasted success previously on seaside courses in Scotland.

Tommy Fleetwood, a 20-year-old from Southport, won the Scottish Stroke-Play Championship at Murcar Links two years ago, while Northern Ireland’s Michael Hoey claimed the Amateur Championship at Prestwick in 2001, the year he also happened to line up alongside Luke Donald and Graeme McDowell in a winning Walker Cup team.

Confirming their liking for links golf, Fleetwood stormed through the star-studded field with a flawless nine-under-par 63 at Kingsbarns, where Hoey signed for a second successive 66 as the pair moved on to 12-under-par at the halfway stage, one in front of Oosthuizen in the battle for a £515,000 top prize.

Fleetwood, who was pipped for the Scottish Champion of Champions title at Leven on his last visit to Fife 17 months ago as an amateur, has struck a rich vein of form at just the right time in his rookie season in the professional ranks. Runner-up in the Rolex Trophy, he then won the Kazakhstan Open, one of the Challenge Tour majors, to catapult himself to the top of the rankings on the second-tier circuit.

He was tenth in last week’s Austrian Open on the European Tour and is now making his presence felt again on the main circuit after a nine-birdie effort at Kingsbarns, where he was a member of the Great Britain & Ireland Boys’ side (along with Tom Lewis and Michael Stewart) that beat a Continental Europe team that included Matteo Manassero in the 2008 Jacques Leglise Trophy.

With his place on next season’s European Tour already in the bag, Fleetwood said he’s freewheeling at the moment. “Over the last three weeks I’ve had no pressure on me, really,” he said. “The win in Kazakhstan has given me confidence and now it’s case of trying to do it on the bigger stage. This is a tournament everyone wants to play in and it’s cool to be here on an invitation. I’ve watched it on television for years and it’s good to be up there – my name is in pretty good company.”

Hoey, a two-time European Tour winner, most recently in Madeira earlier this year, is working with Jamie Gough, the brother of former Scotland football captain Richard. “Jamie has helped me a lot,” said the 32-year-old, who also shared the lead in this event after two rounds in 2009 but dropped back to 19th behind winner Simon Dyson at the finish. “I have also putted well so far this week.”

On another idyllic day on the east coast – there’s been no need, so far at least, for those mitts and woolly hats that have become synonymous with Dunhill week – Oosthuizen stayed on course for another St Andrews victory as he made the most of the benign conditions to chisel a 67 out of Carnoustie.

Today, when Fleetwood and Hoey are in action over in Angus, the South African returns to the Old Course for his first competitive round since he claimed the Claret Jug by seven shots. “It’s a great position to be in heading into the weekend,” said Oosthuizen, whose poor recent form cost him a place in the forthcoming Presidents Cup in Australia.

“It’s been a rough season,” added the 28-year-old. “I’ve been playing badly, but this week feels different. I just needed a few putts to go in. Hopefully this week can be the turning point for me.”

Five players are sitting just two shots off the lead, including the menacing McDowell and Marc Warren, who was also one of Hoey’s team-mates on that triumphant Walker Cup team at Sea Island, Georgia, a decade ago. Playing at St Andrews, the World Cup-winning Scot signed for a second successive 67, bagging five birdies on his back nine after starting at the tenth.

“It could have been lower, but I’ll take five-under, especially after opening with a 67 at Carnoustie,” said Warren, who, after failing to make the most of the stack of invitations so far this season, is hoping he can secure a big enough cheque this weekend to regain the exemption he lost at the end of last year.

“It’s not a good situation to be in, relying on invitations, so I would love to be able to take care of it myself this week and go to Madrid next week on a high,” he added. “I don’t have a card but the best possible thing to come out of this week would be an exemption and I’ve not done my chances any harm so far.”

Warren came into this event lying 151st on the money-list. “I think you usually need €220,000-€230,000 [to finish in the top 115], but I have to think a bit higher than that,” he said. “I feel as though I’m playing better than I ever have. I also feel as though I’ve been more consistent than ever over the last couple of months.”

Anstruther’s George Murray doesn’t have to worry too much about hefty expenses this week, but, like Warren, he needs a cracking pay day tomorrow to avoid a trip to the Qualifying School at the end of the year. A Challenge Tour graduate this season, he’s languishing in 181st on the rankings, but there’s a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel after a six-under 66 on the Old Course hoisted him into a tie for 11th on eight-under.

“I played pretty badly, believe it or not. I putted amazingly, it was unbelievable at points. I holed a lot of putts and must have had no more than 26. Maybe less than that,” reported Murray. On his Tour card, he added: “The way I see it I have lost it and I need to win it back. It is so bad that I can’t even look at the order of merit.”

For some of the leading lights in the field, it was a day when some backsides were bitten by Carnoustie’s fearsome finish.

Martin Kaymer, the defending champion, is handily placed again on nine-under but dropped two shots in the last three holes in his 67; world No 2 Lee Westwood finished bogey-bogey for a 69 and seven-under; while Luke Donald, the world’s top-ranked player, is eight off the pace after he let four shots slip in his closing four holes and had to settle for a 71.