…. Fairmont Resort, St. Andrews
It was a double historic first earlier today not only for the Asian Tour but also for Scotland’s own John Paterson.
Today marked the first occasion an Asian Tour event has been held in the Home of Golf nation and on the outskirts of St. Andrews, and also on the same day as the 70th birthday of Sam Torrance fellow Scottish-born Paterson was given the honour of hitting the opening tee shot at 6.50m on the Torrance designed course at the Fairmont Resert at the Home of Golf.
To commemorate the occasion Paterson was presented with one of the hole flags before stepping-up to split the opening fairway on route to a two-over 74.
Scotland’s John Paterson afforded the honour of hitting the opening tee shot in the inaugural Asian Tour event in Scotland. Photo – Asian Tour
“It was good, it was quite nerve wracking, but it was nice to be off early. I felt like there wasn’t a lot of people here, but it was good,” he said.
Paterson had shot a blistering 63 in a tournament qualifier to claim his place in the 156-player field though the conditions were a little tougher early on due to plenty of overnight rain.
“There;s a little bit more pressure today than there was in the qualifier. The weather was also a little bit more demanding [today] as it was windier. That’s pretty much it, but there’s just more pressure, it’s harder to shoot 63 in the actual event than it is in the qualifier unfortunately.
“I didn’t quite have the same level of golf out there today, but hopefully I can improve tomorrow”.
Of course, Paterson is no stranger to playing golf in St. Andrews and was really excited to be among a good contingent of eight Scots teeing-up in this historic Asian Tour event.
“It’s always nice playing close to home, there seems to be a lot of tournaments around here just even as an amateur,” he said.
“The Links Trophy [St Andrews Links Trophy] is here, there’s always some big events as an amateur and as a pro around here, sometimes there’s a chance to play the Dunhill [The Alfred Dunhill Links Championship], l always comes to St Andrews.
“I play most of my golf down at all seven of the courses in St Andrews. You join all seven of those golf courses, the New Club is just where I joined to keep my handicap. I also play a lot of my golf at the Dukes [The Duke’s Course], which is five minutes outside of town. It’s more of an American style parkland course, but I think the courses down in town like the Old Course [Old Course at St Andrews] and the Jubilee [The Jubilee Course at St Andrews], they’re a lot less penile off the tee.
“Around the Old Course everyone knows you can kind of hit it left. You can hit it left all day and you’ll be okay and the roughs not that thick. It definitely is a different challenge here with there being so much rough. You just need to be really good off the tee. If you can do that, you can definitely score really well.
“So, it’s just great to be here, it’s a great opportunity for local guys to try and play in a big event with some big names. It’s good to see some Monday qualifiers, because being from here, it’s not very often you’d get the chance to play an Asian Tour event, especially one that’s this big.
“It’s been good so far; it seems to be very well run. I think I might go out and play Asian Q-School at the end of the year, It seems to be a very well-run Tour and it’s a good opportunity.”
