Tom McKibbin and Conor Purcell made strong starts to the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship across three links golf courses on the east coast of Scotland.
The Irish duo are both on seven under par after opening rounds of 65 – Purcell at Kingsbarns and McKibbin at St Andrews – in a packed leaderboard of low scoring, with 39 players shooting 66 or better.
Purcell and McKibbin are two shots behind the leaders, American Ryan Brehm, Dutchman Darius van Driel and Englishman Matthew Jordan, who threatened the course record at the Old Course at St Andrews.
Playing with McKibbin, Jordan had back-to-back eagles in a blistering run of six under through four holes from the third, holing out from 73 yards for eagle at the par-4 sixth, and reached 10 under before bogeying the Road Hole. He hit the flag with his approach at the 18th before signing for a nine-under 63.
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Dustin Johnson, one of 17 LIV players in the field, shot a 64 at Carnoustie. He was eight under through 12 holes, also threatening Tommy Fleetwood’s Carnoustie course record of 63, before finishing with six pars.
Purcell is looking to bounce back from three missed cuts in a row and make a positive move towards retaining his DP World Tour membership. Currently 157th in the Race to Dubai standings, the top 110 players is the cut-off point for DP World Tour category 10 status. The Portmarnock golfer eagled the third hole at Kingsbarns and had five other birdies, with no drop shots, en route to his 65.
McKibbin had eight birdies at St Andrews, his only bogey coming at the difficult 17th. His round continues a good run of form in the autumn that has seen him finish tied 20th at the Irish Open and tied 11th at the BMW PGA Championship.
Pádraig Harrington shot an opening round of 70 at Carnoustie that left him well down the field when birdies and eagles were the order of the day.
Four of Europe’s winning Ryder Cup team – Fleetwood, Bob MacIntyre, Tyrrell Hatton and Matt Fitzpatrick – were in action at Carnoustie and all made solid starts on the most difficult of the three courses. MacIntyre and Hatton shot 66s, Fleetwood and Fitzpatrick shot 67s.
MacIntyre took much of the crowd as a home favourite, playing in a group with actor Bill Murray, while Andy Murray, Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta Jones were among those playing in the celebrity pro-am. McKibbin is in a team with retired jockey Tony McCoy.
Brehm is a surprise leader having missed nine cuts in a row since February and said he had not played Kingsbarns before shooting his 63.
“There’s really nothing not to be pleased about. Just an amazing place. This is my first time over here, and I was pretty much in awe on every fairway, and I hit a lot of fairways, which is kind of rare for me. It was a lot of fun,” Brehm said.
“I live in northern Michigan, it reminds me a lot of there, similar grass and conditions, and the weather, a little rainy, comes in squalls. I’ve felt comfortable ever since I stepped off the plane.”
Conditions are expected to deteriorate over the next two days due to Storm Amy, with winds of 41km/h and gusts of up to 78km/h. Purcell plays at St Andrews on Friday, while McKibbin is at Carnoustie.
On the PGA Tour, Séamus Power shot an opening round of 72 at the Sanderson Farms Championship, seven shots off the early clubhouse lead of Eric Cole and Sam Ryder.
