Razor-sharp Brooks the unlikely lad as he proves he’s a cut above
HAVING missed more cuts than an absent-minded barber over the last year or so, it would be safe to say that not many folk were expecting Daniel Brooks to be, well, a cut above the rest in this week’s Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open.
This unlikely lad is finding Gullane to his liking, though. Working on the weekend is par for the course in this game but Brooks hasn’t been doing many of those shifts. His five-under 65, for an 11-under aggregate of 129, will keep him in gainful employment for the next two days as he clocked himself in at the head of the leaderboard with a three stroke advantage.
Prior to competing in all four rounds of the French Open last weekend, Brooks had missed 13 cuts in a row. Last season, after winning the Madeira Islands Open, he endured a run of 15 successive early exits. “It does get you down and it’s hard work but in this game, you’re one good week from turning it around,” said the 28-year-old from Basildon. He is certainly doing that this week. On a largely benign, pleasant day Brooks, who has leaked just one shot in 36-holes, seized the opportunity with a purposeful display that had plenty of highlights.
A delightfully flighted 5-iron into eight-feet from around 225 yards on the second spawned an eagle-3 while another birdie on the 17th was followed by a raking putt of 30-feet on the last as he conjured a rousing run-in.
Just over a year ago, Brooks secured his maiden tour title when he beat Clydebank’s Scott Henry in a play-off for that Madeira crown. There was a sombre side to the success. It was the event where Iain McGregor, the caddie for Alastair Forsyth, collapsed and died during the final round. The tournament, somewhat controversially, was played to a conclusion. “Even though I won, it was not a time to celebrate,” reflected Brooks on that harrowing day. “I’ve played a lot of rubbish golf since then but it’s starting to come back.”
Brooks may have established a solid foothold at the top of the order but there were some big guns manoeuvring into position behind him and preparing for a weekend assault. Graeme McDowell, the former US Open champion, birdied three of his five holes in a 66 to join a posse on eight-under that also includes Justin Rose, the defending champion, as well as Shane Lowry, Johan Carlsson, Matthew Nixon and PGA Tour winner Ryan Palmer.
Despite a bogey on the opening hole, Rose who ominously admitted that he was playing at only “50 per cent”, unleashed the heavy artillery and blasted his way up the standings with a robust run of five birdies in the next seven holes en route to a second consecutive 66. The explosiveness was tempered with a stream of nine straight pars but, amid this uneventful period of scoring, there was no shortage of incident. One poor chap peering on from the sidelines on the 16th was clattered by Rose’s wayward tee-shot.
Marc Warren, the Scot who was grouped with Rose as well as former Scottish Open champion Phil Mickelson, found himself amid the kerfuffle. “There was a young boy sitting beside the man who was hit and he saw the blood and fainted,” said Warren, who had a 67 and finished alongside Mickelson on a three-under tally. “It was all kicking off and Justin and Phil were emptying their golf bags and giving out balls at that time. The last thing the guy who was hit probably wanted to see was another golf ball. But he was sitting up and chatting away. I think he would have been disappointed had he got one of my balls instead of theirs.”
Rose was visibly shaken by this unfortunate, painful meeting of dimpled ba’ and heid. “It was an elderly gentleman and I was pretty concerned,” He said. “He took it like a trooper and the fact he was talking to me was reassuring. He said ‘I’ve been coming tournaments for years and I’ve never been hit’.”
While Rose made his mark on both the leaderboard and the spectator’s bonce, Irishman Lowry continued to make his presence felt as he moved himself into a menacing position with a 66 for an eight-under total. Given the impressive strides the 28-year-old has been making - he was ninth in last month’s US Open at Chambers Bay - there are plenty of punters sticking a few quid on him for next week’s Open. Lowry is only focussing on getting the job done here. “I think a lot of people have got caught up in talking about me winning majors but I have a lot to achieve before I win one,” he said. “If one gets in the way between now and then I’ll take it but my eyes are not on the Open, they are on winning this.”
On an eventful day, there were the usual tales of wildly fluctuating fortunes. Thorbjorn Olesen, the Dane who led the field overnight with a 63, sagged to a crippling 77 and missed the halfway cut. While he was plummeting downwards, Chile’s Felipe Aguilar was propelling himself up the way. A colourful front nine featured just one par - an occurrence that this correspondent regularly experiences during a thrash about - but along with two bogeys he also had five birdies and a hole-in-one on the 164-yard third with an 8-iron. After opening with a 73, Aguilar’s 64 was a fine salvage operation and it moved him into the safety zone above the cut mark.
In this unpredictable game, there is always an opportunity to turn things around. Just ask Daniel Brooks.
Leaderboard. Rd2