Scott Jamieson brilliantly looks set to extend his season in heading next week to South Africa after birdieing three of his closing four holes on day one of the Turkish Airlines Open at Belek.
Jamieson posted his lowest first round score in some seven months with a five-under par 67 on ‘tricky’ greens at the Montgomerie Maxx course to share sixth place and trail just two shots behind England’s Tom Lewis and Austrian Marcus Schwab who share the lead thanks to seven-under par 65s.
Scott Jamieson pretty pleased with his effort of a 67 on day one Turkish Airlines Open
Justin Rose, and looking for a triple Turkish winning treat, is tied with Jamieson and four others two off the lead.
The withdrawal of 15 players ahead of Jamieson on the Race to Dubai enabled the Scot, currently at 74th on the Race to Dubai money list, to jet-off to Turkey. Though at this stage, and due to the withdrawal of those not electing to compete in next week’s Nedbank Challenge, Jamieson finds himself officially first reserve for the event at Sun City in South Africa
However, after Jamieson’s Turkish opener the 35-year old is projected to jump to 62nd on the Race to Dubai and if so, he’ll be heading to the Rainbow Nation and where in 2012 he captured the Nelson Mandela Challenge.
Jamieson commenced his round from the 10th and birdied three holes in succession from his eighth to 10th holes. He dropped a shot on his 14th but then muscled his way into the top-10 thanks to birdies on his 15th, 17th and final holes.
And after missing the cut in his last two events, the Scot was pleased with his effort.
He said: “It was really tough out there and very unlike me. I have been tired from playing the last month so to shoot a 67 was good.
“Everything was just all neat-and-tidy today and I managed more than my share of fairways than I normally do while the rest was pretty solid.
“The pick of my birdies was the 30-footer on my 17th hole but then the greens are tricky and with the greens a little ‘weak’ and it doesn’t look there is much of a root system.
“They rolled pretty good on the front nine but then in playing our back nine (front nine on the card) and with the sun getting a little lower, you start to see all the little bumps and hollows in them.”
Richie Ramsay also stormed home to birdie his closing four holes in a round of 68 to be just a shot adrift of Jamieson and tied 12th.
Ramsay, and still sporting medical tape on his left wrist and thumb, singled out a putting session on the carpet in the upstairs portion of The Renaissance clubhouse, and venue this past season and also in 2020 for the Aberdeen Standard Investment Scottish Open, as the key to his good putting round
He said: “I hung in there on some holes and putted well at the end as it was one of those rounds where four-under was the best score it could have been, which is nice because sometimes I shoot one-under in that type of round.
“I was working on my putting with Ian Rae on the carpet upstairs in The Renaissance Club when it was raining.
“We had a hole down on the carpet and he said that consistency wise, the stroke was the best he’d seen it so I took a lot of positives from that.”
And ‘Rookie of the Year’ elect, Bob MacIntyre teed-up alongside Masters champ, Patrick Reed but walked off 18 holes later and list most in the field feeling a little short-changed on the greens and with the duo posting 71s.
MacIntyre said: “It wasn’t a good day on the greens. You’re tapping down a lot of spike marks all over the place so it becomes difficult to trust them.
“You just have to trust the line but I couldn’t get the pace.
“For it to be my bad round, one-under is not bad. It could’ve been a disaster at the turn. The thing that’s annoyed me the most is that every hole is a chance. There are so many chances out there. Hopefully I can get out on some fresher greens a bit earlier tomorrow.”
