It's a grey, windy, rainy day on Scotland's east coast, just the way the great golfing god likes it for the historic links at St Andrews, Carnoustie and the new kid on the block Kingsbarns, which looks like it's been around as long as the other two.
After the week of enormous stress and tension that is the Ryder Cup, and the well documented loss to the USA, this is the perfect week to cure the Hazeltine hangover for the likes of Thomas Pieters, newly engaged Rafa Cabrera Bello, Danny Willett and Martin Kaymer.
The Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, played over these three magnificent courses is the European Tour equivalent of the old Pebble Beach Pro-Am, the pros paired with celebrities, family or champions of the corporate world in a relaxed albeit lucrative format. If you have never made the trip, you must save up your pennies or your golfing career will never be complete.
This is it, the home of the game, the graveyard of old and young Tom Morris, the Road Hole where we scattered my brothers ashes. You simply have to be there on a day like today, the fresh smell of the salt sea air, the sound of the magnificent albatross soaring over the North Sea, the roar of the occasional jet at nearby Leuchars, the comradeship over a pint or two at any of the many hotels, it is a magical part of the world.
Alex Noren tied the course record at Carnoustie with -8 64 on opening day for a one-shot lead over Englishman Ross Fisher -7 65. Matt Ford and Joakim Lagergren were T3, 66 when play began this morning.
Round two is well underway with Fisher currently in the lead at -11.
Whoever emerges victorious will be a worthy champion, but as importantly everyone who was lucky enough to play will go away a winner, for the amateurs, memories of a lifetime, for the pros a nice paycheck, and for the losing European team members, a great cure for their Ryder Cup hangover.
Bryan Angus
Round two is well underway with Fisher currently in the lead at -11.
Whoever emerges victorious will be a worthy champion, but as importantly everyone who was lucky enough to play will go away a winner, for the amateurs, memories of a lifetime, for the pros a nice paycheck, and for the losing European team members, a great cure for their Ryder Cup hangover.
Bryan Angus
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