Scotland’s Ewen Ferguson cheekily upstaged the advice of his stand-in caddy to put himself into contention in the bitterly cold conditions with a two-under par 70 on day one of the Austrian Open near Vienna.
Ferguson, 24, birdied his opening two holes and while he bogeyed seven and eight, the young Scot went against the advice of his caddy to be just two players in the 144 field to eagle the par-5 15 on route to a two-under par 70.
The Glaswegian ended the day along with fellow Scots Grant Forrest and David Drysdale and five others sharing 11th place but only three shots adrift of Spaniard Alejandro Canizares who heads the field on five-under.
Snow had been falling on the Diamond Country Club course at Atzenbrugg at the start of the week and with Ferguson and his fellow competitors rugged-up out as though it was October for the Dunhill Links Championship.
Scottish golfer Ewen Ferguson
Ferguson said: “It was just so cold but nice to start with a birdie and also birdie the third. You can easily drop a shot early on when the weather is bad so it was a good start.
“I started to fall away a little bit with bogeys on seven and eight. They weren’t because of bad shots as I just had a three-putt on seven which is easily done on fast greens and in the windy conditions. It was an unlucky bogey on eight and I then holed a good putt from six feet on nine which kind of stopped the rot.
Ferguson birdied 10 but then dropped a shot on 14 before the eagle on 15, much to the surprise of South African caddy Dean Martin whose regular player Malaysian Gavin Green, and a former Asian Tour No. 1, had the week off.
Ferguson said: “Fifteen was the highlight of the day with my caddy saying to me that I would not get to the par-5 15th green in two, and wanting to prove him wrong.
“So, I got up on the tee and smashed the driver and then 3-wood to 20-feet and holed the putt for an eagle and said: “Wow, there you go!”
Martin, who plays off scratch, initially began caddying for fellow Kiwi Ryan Fox but it was while caddying for Byeong-hun An that he had a biggest win in helping the South Korean capture the 2015 BMW PGA title.
Drysdale, and coming off another strong finish last month in Kenya, produced four birdies and half as many bogeys
He said: “Jeez, it’s cold out there. It’s tough to get moving. It’s tough to swing and get any sort of feel.
“Phew, the difference is we were hitting a wedge 160 yards in Kenya and here we are hitting a 6-iron from 160 yards into the wind.
“It’s such a massive adjustment and trying to keep warm was the main thing as it started snowing us on 17 there
“I didn’t hit it in any trouble, played steady enough and had some good long so overall pretty happy”.
