Syme’s latest Scot to get a Links boost

ON an otherwise dark day for Scottish sport, Sunday did offer some crack of light for the future at St Andrews while our football heroes flopped in Slovenia.

The Dunhill Links was only Connor Syme’s second appearance as a professional yet the 22-year-old looked like a seasoned campaigner with a tie for 15th place, shared with compatriot David Drysdale among others.

Following hard on the heels of the 12th place he racked up on his debut at the Portugal Masters a fortnight before the 22-year-old Kirkcaldy kid can be delighted with his flying start.

Same too can be said of fellow Fifer Liam Johnston earning a top-50 finish on his professional debut at the home of golf.

At a time when Scotland’s sporting stars, most of all the national football team, have not given us much to cheer it was a tonic to see signs of serious promise for the future.

Earning a combined total of almost £71,000 from two events won’t be enough to automatically win Syme his European Tour card for next year, although if an invitation to play in the Spanish Open comes he could yet play his way in for next year.

For now, however, Tour School in November is his more likely destination where he and Johnston will face their first taste of the nerve-shredder atmosphere of golf’s most desperate turkey shoot.

Let’s hope both can build on their promising starts because we need more rising stars to give us hope for the future. Good luck to them.

Talk of Tour School only emphasises the value of the Dunhill Links to Scottish golf.

For were it not for this megabucks vanity project of event sponsor Johann Rupert and his celebrity mates there would be a heck of a lot more Scottish professionals heading to qualifying school with their careers in the balance.

Just ask Marc Warren, whose fourth-place finish on Sunday was just the latest example of this event being kinder to him than most.

It proved his saviour in 2011 when he was scraping a living on the Challenge Tour and only made it into the field courtesy of a sponsor’s invite.

He finished fifth that week earning him enough cash on the Race to Dubai rankings to win back his playing rights on the main tour.

Last year another fifth place at St Andrews came in the nick of time to help him hang on to his card again but he’s far from the only one to benefit from the timing of this visit to home turf.

Richie Ramsay, George Murray, Chris Doak, Drysdale – they are just a few of the pros who can look back fondly at the Dunhill and it’s whopping $5million prize fund for providing the springboard for their careers when they needed it most.

Coming so late in the calendar – post USPGA, it’s one of the biggest late-season earners before the obscene wealth of the limited-field Final Series kicks in – I’d argue it’s one of the most vital weeks on the entire European Tour roster.

With the links style of the three courses involved – the Old Course, Carnoustie and Kingsbarns – it undoubtedly offers a rare home advantage to the Scottish contingent striving for a big finish to save an indifferent season.

So despite its multivenue impracticalities and the shamelessly flash feel of turning the home of golf into a celebrity Pro-Am playground for the week we can’t help but welcome what a lifeline the Dunhill has been for many a Scottish tour pro.

Talk of Tour School only emphasises the value of Dunhill Links to Scottish golf