Richie Ramsay was sitting pretty near the top of the leader board thanks to the Chair of the Tournament Players Committee.
Ramsay seized the clubhouse lead with a five under par 67 before McIlroy and fellow Irishman Shane Lowry ended the opening day of the season-final DP Tour World Championship sharing the lead with 66s on the Earth Course in Dubai.
McIlroy ended a six-week competitive break just four days after being confirmed as European No. 1 for a second occasion in three years.
Richie Ramsay sitting pretty thanks to Tournament Committee chairman Thomas Bjorn. (Photo – Eoin Clarke/www.golffile.ie)
The four-time Major winner birdied four of his opening five holes to be now 80-under par in 21 rounds on the Greg Norman designed course.
He said: “It was a great way to start. You never expect to start like that, but I’ve been hitting the ball well for the last couple of weeks that I’ve been practicing and it was just a matter of trying to take that good range play on to the course, and I was able to do that today, which I’m really happy about.”
In contrast, Ramsay is 10-under par for 13 rounds on the Greg Norman designed course and with his starting 67 matching a similar round on day one of the event two years ago when he ended in a distant share of 26th place.
But now after a season when the Aberdonian missed the opening few months of the year through injury, Ramsay’s looking to go one better than a pair of seconds, firstly in Spain and then early last month when he was tied runner-up with McIlroy in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.
And if Ramsay is to deny the likes of McIlroy the 31-year old Scot will do so thanks to advice of Dane Thomas Bjorn, the seven-year long Chairman of the Tournament Players Committee.
He said: “I’m still looking for the win but if I was a pro of three years I would have got flustered and affected my season.
“But then I played a nine-hole practice round with Thomas Bjorn at Muirfield last year ahead of The Open and he stressed to me that you can’t let bad weeks affect your good weeks
“He said you can’t be left scarred by the bad weeks and that’s been really great advice.
And Ramsay clearly drew on Bjorn’s comforting words given he had ended last week’s Turkish Airlines Open in the cargo hold with a final round 76 to share 71st place in the 78-player field.
He said: “If this had been my second season out here on the Tour the year I’ve had would have really got to me but having taken on board what Thomas said I now look to start afresh such as last week in shooting a Sunday 76 and finishing well down in 71st place.
“Thomas pointed out the year Graeme McDowell was having last year as he won in Bulgaria but then missed the cut in his next three European events and won the French Open.”
Marc Warren was the next best of the three Scots posting a 71 and one fewer than Stephen Gallacher.
And American Brooks Koepka was herded back into ‘cattle class’ and landing himself in last place with a horror 78 and four days after flying first class in capturing the Turkish Airlines Open.
