‘Down Under’ golfer Jack Buchanan celebrated the 25th anniversary hosting by grabbing a share of the lead on day one of the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.
Buchanan, and competing on the Old Course at St. Andrews. and Scot Michael Stewart, teeing-up at Kingsbarns Links, signed for seven-under par 65s in the bright but increasingly windy conditions.
Buchanan was born April 1st, 2002 in Scotland but with his family moving to Adelaide in Australia when he was aged 11. He became a member of the famed Glenelg club ahead of turning professional in 2023.
The Australian DP World Tour player has admittedly struggled with results this season but had no problems on Thursday, kick-starting his round with four birdies in his opening six holes to make the turn in 32.
Three further birdies at the tenth, 13th and 16th holes saw the current World No. 788th ranked golfer join Stewart at the top of the leaderboard, signing for a matching bogey-free 65.
“Pretty solid start to the week,” he said after his round.
“Obviously this is probably one of the easier courses out of the three, but yeah, good start.
“My approach play was really good. I think I basically hit 18 greens. Took a littwle bit of stress off myself and yeah made a few birdies.”
Buchanan brilliantly capped his early pro career winning twice within three events during the 2024 Australian/New Zealand Tour though he comes into this week disappointingly missing the cut in 12 of his 17 rookie DP World Tour season events, including back-to-back missed cuts at the Omega European Masters and FedEx Open de France, but says he feels the learning experience has helped things click.
“It’s been a bit of a struggle this year,” he said “Kind of missed a few cuts by one. I definitely feel like I’m becoming a better player before it starts to click a little bit.
“Last week I felt like my iron play was good and struggled off the tee but was in play off the tee today. So, I was able to take advantage of that.”
The Aussie and Scot sit one shot ahead of South African pair Casey Jarvis and MJ Dauffe, with a group of seven players behind them on five-under-par.
Last week’s FedEx Open de France champ Matt Fitzpatrick is the best placed of the eight major champions in the $US 5m event and heads into Friday’s second round at Kingsbarns on four under, alongside a group of 11 other players that includes Ryder Cup team-mate Sepp Straka.
