Ramsay believes Warren can be a major contender
Scot insists that support from home crowd can be a major factor over closing stages
hen Marc Warren birdied his seventh hole yesterday to draw level with overnight leader Dustin Johnson it marked a modern high for Scots in the Open Championship.
Paul Lawrie having shared in the first round lead for a hefty chunk of his opening round before being overhauled by Johnson, Warren’s early surge had the golf historians digging through the records and they reckoned it was the first time two Scots had led in the same Open for comfortably more than half a century – since Eric Brown and Laurie Ayton shared the first round lead here in St Andrews in 1957, to be precise.
Taking into account Warren’s comments the previous day about the lack of attention being paid to Scottish players, suggesting that in those terms “it feels as if we’re against the breeze a little bit,” it seems that the ill wind that had brought the rain did some good for the home contenders given the television coverage that came his way with pretty much every shot shown yesterday as the delayed start meant he began the day holding the on-course lead and was there or thereabouts throughout.
Whether it was scoreboard pressure or the power of the press which brought that about only the official broadcasters can know, but Richie Ramsay was another who was rather more visible to armchair viewers than he might otherwise have been and, after sinking a birdie putt at the last which all but secured his involvement throughout the weekend, he suggested that the remaining domestic challengers could draw inspiration from the way Warren was doing in tipping him to contend.
“I think there’s a big one in there for a Scottish player soon,” Ramsay reckoned after posting a second successive one-under-par 71.
“Evidence would point to Marc being the one to do it. I think he’s due one. I think he believes he can do it and he’s a great putter.”
Ramsay believes that any Scot who is in the hunt can both benefit from feeling the affection that will pour out of the grandstands and owe it to those offering their support to give their all to produce something special.
“If you can get one going or even be in contention coming down the stretch, it would give a lot of people something to cheer about, because it was great,” he said of yesterday’s experience once the torrents had subsided.
“Like the first hole today, I made a nice birdie from about six feet and there’s a lot of Scottish people there and walking on the tees and stuff it kind of feels like a home match for us.
“I think the guys out there who are walking round and come out considering the weather forecast, they deserve someone from Scotland to be up there to share it a bit.”
Suffering from what he described as “an ice cold putter”, Ramsay felt he missed an opportunity to force his way further up the field, but drew satisfaction from the way he held his nerve after checking the scoreboard at the 16th hole and realising that he probably had to improve his score by a shot to one-under-par to be confident of making the cut.
“It was teetering... but I made a sort of clutch five-footer at the last and a nice five-footer at 17,” he said.
“I remember a similar putt (on the 18th) in the Dunhill about five years ago and I missed it, so it was like a little bit of redemption by holing that putt.”
With the 18th almost playing as a par three with two thirds of the players playing it by the time Stephen Gallacher got there having birdied it he, too, finished with a three but as his extended Ryder Cup hangover continued he was clearly frustrated that his Open involvement had been curtailed by a second successive one-over-par 73. “I played great the last two weeks really and got nothing out of it, so it’s just a wee bit disappointing, that’s all,” he said, reflecting on having also missed the cut at last week’s Scottish Open.
In the end only half the six-man Scottish contingent was to make it through as Russell Knox and Sandy Lyle, having begun the day in promising positions, fell victim to the worsening conditions.
Knox had begun the day on level par and maintained that through 10 holes, but bogeys at the 12th and 16th ended his involvement, while Lyle did well to improve on his overnight position to be two-under-par through eight holes, but he dropped a shot at the ninth and the back nine took its toll as he registered five bogeys before birdieing the last.