BIG GUNS READY FOR THE CHARGE
Fitzpatrick, Rahm and Schauffele all within striking distance of halfway leader Tringale
THERE was a point in Jon Rahm’s round yesterday when the air turned blue, the sort of slip of the tongue which gets picked up by the cameras and prompts an apology from commentators.
Furious after a shot had been blown off course amid some testing conditions at the Renaissance Club, Rahm let rip with the sort of self-critique which is probably best left out of print.
Let’s just say he wasn’t best pleased with himself, but the Spaniard is one of several big-name players who remain very much within striking distance of leader Cameron Tringale at the halfway stage of the Genesis Scottish Open.
Chief among them is Matt Fitzpatrick, the US Open champion who profited from the calm conditions yesterday morning to shoot 66.
Fresh from his victory at Brookline last month, Fitzpatrick admitted earlier this week that a round of 78 in a pro-am event in Ireland had brought him crashing back down to earth.
Safe to say, he’s now got his eye in once again. This purple patch could well continue and he leads the charge from the British contingent heading into the weekend.
‘I’m just trying to figure out what day of the week it is, to be honest,’ smiled the man from Sheffield when asked how hectic things have been for him over the past few weeks.
‘It’s all been going 100 miles an hour. I kind of wanted to get back to my routine and practising again and coming into these two weeks in the best possible shape I can be. It’s just having more confidence in my own game. You know, proving to myself that I can win a major.
‘Any time I’m near those positions, whether it’s DP World Tour or PGA Tour or majors, just having that belief that I’ve done it before and can do it again.’
Fitzpatrick sits four shots adrift of Tringale, the overnight leader who clung on to his three-shot advantage despite a wayward two-over par round of 72 in the afternoon.
The American is on seven under. But the big guns are waiting to pounce, with the likes of Fitzpatrick and Xander Schauffele well placed to make a move at three-under.
One shot further back is Spain’s Rafa Cabrera-Bello, a former winner of this event at Dundonald back in 2017, and he’s joined by the United States’ Rickie Fowler, the champion in 2015, as well as Englishman Tyrrell Hatton. Rahm is on level par, but only a fool would write him off given his ability to go extremely low when he finds his A-game. The same applies to Jordan Spieth, who is on the same score.
Big-hitting Rahm was among the later starters yesterday and, in keeping with his expletive-laden outburst, admitted he found the conditions ‘brutal’.
It didn’t look overly brutal as the players bathed in more sunshine but, as Rahm will testify, looks can be deceiving. The breeze was far stiffer than it had been on the opening day.
Curiously, though, he insisted that he would welcome more wind over the weekend as he looks to make a move up the leaderboard.
‘It’s as brutal conditions as I have played in this year,’ he said. ‘It’s about as hard as I have seen on a sunny day. At this point, I hope there’s more wind — the more wind the better.
‘You just need to be decisive in whatever you choose and basically pull the trigger. As soon as you have hesitation in your mind, things don’t go very well.
‘I am well equipped. I like playing in the wind, it plays to my advantage. I do a good job putting in the wind.’
Asked about his outburst, Rahm said: ‘It was the wrong club and a bad swing... it was a whole lot of bad and I was more frustrated with myself than the wind.
‘Things were going so good. I had stabilised my round and, if I had made better swings at 12 and 15, I might have given myself a chance to finish under par.’
Leading the Scottish contingent is Connor Syme, the Dundeebased Fifer who is nicely placed on one-under, putting him just outside the top 10.
Despite the big names gathering behind Tringale, there were also some high-profile players heading for home after missing the cut.
They included home favourite Robert MacIntyre and reigning Open champion Collin Morikawa, as well as Masters champion and World No 1 Scottie Scheffler.
Hideki Matsuyama and Viktor Hovland also won’t be around for the weekend, with Ian Poulter and defending champions Min Woo Lee missing out, too.
But Scheffler insists he doesn’t plan to make any sweeping changes to his game ahead of next week’s Open Championship at St Andrews. After rounds of 73 and 72 for a total of five-over, he said: ‘I still think my chances are pretty good for next week.
‘I don’t plan on making any crazy changes with my game or my equipment for The Open. I played fine today. I just got a couple of bad breaks on the front nine.
‘But yesterday was the day where I just played absolutely horrendous. I think I got on the wrong side of the draw so many times this year. It’s happened in basically all of the biggest events apart from The Masters.
‘I finally got a good draw here. Especially yesterday it was good — but I screwed it up. That was the day where I was like: “What are you doing out here dude?”. Being on the right or wrong side of the draw is just part of links golf.
‘It just got so windy out there today. It was crazy. But I actually played pretty solid.
‘I still feel like I’m in a pretty good spot going into next week.
‘I learned a lot from the last couple of days. If I can clean up a couple of things with the putter, I’ll be ready to go for St Andrews.’