Lowry and McDowell find their groove ahead of The Open
COMPARING t he halfway leader at the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open with one of the men lined right up behind him is akin to one of those fabulous FA Cup ties pitting a giant of the game against a minnow.
On the one hand you have defending champion Justin Rose, with the ever-improving Shane Lowry and Graeme McDowell lurking menacingly among the chasing pack.
And then there is the man they are all chasing Daniel Brooks, who has a three- shot lead and the chance this weekend to more than double his lifetime tour earnings total of £300,000.
Pádraig Harrington is on four under with Michael Hoey one shot further back, while Paul McGinley missed the cut.
It’s particularly good news for Lowry, who is edging ever closer to an inevitable major victory following an impressive display at Chambers Bay recently.
On the face of it, though, you would not give 28-year-old Brooks a prayer of finishing above that lot.
Both himself and Rose have both recovered from the endless misery of a long run of missed halfway cuts and when a man has shown that level of fortitude you can never rule him out. Rose, of course, began his career in 1998 with 21 missed cuts. Even now, on tough days he still draws on that memory to help him through.
And now there is Brooks, who never made a cent between the Dubai Desert Classic in January and the BMW International at the end of June. That is 13 consecutive tournaments where he spent every Friday night checking airline schedules.
‘I wasn’t just missing them either, and there’s no question it gets you down,’ he said. ‘You’ve just got to keep trying to remember that in this game one good week can change everything.’
And now, glory be, it might just have arrived, as he followed up his opening 64 at Gullane with a 65 yesterday for an 11-under-par total to establish a useful lead.
At stake is not only the first prize of £541,000 but three spots for The Open next week for players not already exempt from qualifying who finish in the top 10.
‘I can’t think about that — it would just be a bonus,’ said Brooks with a smile. ‘I won’t have any trouble sleeping, don’t worry.’
Brooks does have one victory to his credit, at the Madeira Islands Open last year, although even that victory was horribly overshadowed when Alastair Forsyth’s caddie Ian McGregor collapsed and died on the steeply uphill ninth hole.
It is a sign of where Rose is at these days that even though he feels he has played at only 50 per cent of capacity over the first 36 holes he is where he needs to be to complete a successful defence.
An example of the odd struggle came at the 16th where he hooked so badly off the tee it struck an elderly spectator on the head. The gentleman was resting on the ground when Rose arrived but the shot did draw blood and a 14-year- old boy fainted at the sight.
‘Thankfully, he came around pretty quickly,’ said Rose. ‘ It’s never nice sight when you see blood from one of your shots. I can’t see down the left side of that hole and I was hoping the ball was going to hold up.
‘The man said he’d been coming to tournaments for years and had never been hit. Then Phil (Mickelson) came over and said: “It wasn’t me this time”.’
Rose continued: ‘Over the weekend I just want to get clearer and clearer with my pre- shot routine and freer with the putter, so I can go into next week with the right mindset.’
Do not rule out Lowry pipping both of them. This course is perfect for the big man from Clara who is never happier than when playing on a li nks. Or even McDowell, whose renaissance continued with a second successive 66.