Ferguson gaining belief as he mixes with big names

Ewen Ferguson will keep “rolling along” waiting for that real breakthrough but the young Scot continues to put himself into good positions and has done so again at the Scottish Championship.

The Bearsden boy was one of three of the 16 Scots starters at Fairmont St Andrews to shoot fiveunder 67s and lie five off the lead set by Spain’s Adrian Otaegui.

The other two are Scott Jamie son and Marc Warren – like Ferguson they’re west coast boys but, unlike the youngster, they’ve held their cards year- on- year and have had Tour victories.

Ferguson has not yet got his card but has shown up well in places as diverse as Valderrama in Spain and Galgorm in Northern Ireland and now Fairmont.

“After having one good week you have a bit of confidence, you realise ‘ I can do it’,” said the former Walker Cup player, who played in the team that beat the USA – featuring Bryson DeChambeau – in 2015.

“At Valderrama I got to play with Lee Westwood and played quite well,” he said.

“Playing with some of these guys who have won on Tour gives you a bit of belief. You think, ‘ you know what, I can hit these shots, I can do it’.”

Yesterday’s round saw Ferguson go bogey-free.

Jamieson had one on his last hole – the ninth – and also bogeyed one of the par fives, but they were the only squares on his scorecard. “Fiveunder’s a good finish,” he reasoned. “When it’s so cold like it was early on the ball doesn’t travel particularly far.”

He is enjoying the course, but the time of year makes it less of a links challenge. “It’s soft tee to green, so not a proper links test, but the back nine is a really tough challenge,” he said.

Warren, who played so well in challenging conditions at the Renaissance a fortnight ago, recovered that form although he too bogeyed the par five 12th.

David Drysdale’s threeunder 69 looked fairly mundane, but in fact he had just one par on the back nine, getting into a birdie-bogey sequence in the final seven holes.

Comeback of the day came from Connor Syme – as close as there is to a local with his base at Drumoig just 20 minutes away – who started on the tougher back nine and was three-over after four in the early chill.

He finally got the momentum going in the right direction with a birdie at 18 ( his ninth) and then rattled off four more on the front nine to finish with a two-under 70. Calum Hill and Craig Howie also had 70s.

Robert MacIntyre toiled to a six-over 78 in the cold, but a niggle in his hip-back area required more intensive treatment than tour physios can give under Covid-19 protocols and he was forced to withdraw from the tournament.

Ewen Ferguson lines up a putt on the ninth hole.