Scottish Championship Friday leaderboard Leaderboard
Sky Sports in the UK has announced that their TV audience watching the Scottish Open at the Renaissance with that wild weather Saturday which Tommy Fleetwood lost to Aaron Rai in the playoff, then the BMWPGA Championship last week at Wentworth won handily in the end by Tyrrell Hatton and his infamous hoodie, was up by a whopping 81% from 2019 !
Great news for the European Tour with the no spectator rule still in place, showing people are turning on their TV's instead and I also think enjoying a spill over from the AIG Women's Open in all that brutal weather at Royal Troon won of course in fairy tale fashion by Sophia Popov.
With COVID travel restrictions in place, the Sky Sports broadcast teams have been getting great international exposure as well with the likes of Ken Brown, Richard Kaufman, Ewen Murray, Nick Dougherty, Andrew Coltart, Wayne Riley, Tim Baxter and Richard Boxall amongst others all being introduced to North American audiences while the Golf Channel/NBC staff, or what's left of them stay at home.
This week we are being treated to the Scottish Championship sponsored by AXA at the fairly new Fairmont St Andrews now owned by a group of Hong Kong investors with the French hospitality legends Accor operating the 5 star hotel just 20 minutes down the road from the Old Course at St Andrews. It is the height of luxury at around $500 a night (275 pounds).
The Torrance course (designed in part by Sam Torrance) played along the links at St Andrews Bay is getting rave reviews for it's greens, Lee Westwood called them some of the "best he's ever putted on".
Adrian Otaegui from Spain set the pace on Thursday with -10 62 for a 4 stroke lead which stood up all day until Matt Wallace and Bryce Easton who posted late 65's reduced it to 3.
Today with round 2 well under way and the field decked out in warm weather gear, including winter touques, Wallace has taken the lead at -12 with Rai continuing his great form at -11. Of note a re-jeuvinated Paddy Harrington, the new Ryder Cup captain is in the clubhouse 66 69 -9.
Click on my live scoring link above for all the latest.
Bryan Angus
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