Just a few weekly medals with his mates at Hazlehead was the best preparation to relax Aberdeen’s David Law for his return to competition after lockdown, and what a return it was at the Betfred British Masters.
The 29-year-old romped to the top of the first day leaderboard with a seven-under-par 64, without a bogey, and only a slight misjudgement of line on the final putt of 20 feet on the last green prevented him having a two-shot lead on the field.
Relaxing with his young family during lockdown – “guilt-free both ways, not missing home and not thinking about missing events” – had him in a decent mood but there was serious business on the golf game as well, a couple of swing alterations that gained him a 10 yard gain through the air.
And rather than bash balls into a net in his garden – although he did that as well – Law signed up for a handful of weekly medal events at Hazlehead, paying with his brother and his friends, shooting a course record 60 in one of them.
“I just played some the Saturday and Wednesday medals to get a card back in my hand,” he said. “It’s good to play a little with my mates and have a laugh while playing golf. Rather than doing a lot of practice as I would normally do, I’ve been playing a lot more.
“Our match secretary just sort of said “crack on” and I just kind of come out of the competition at the end of it. It means I still get a game, and I think when you play a lot of golf trying to score and have to be mindful of that, it helps.
“Today’s just one round, it’s a great score, and I need to keep going and build on it, but at the same time I’m still pretty relaxed about things. I know it’s not all going to go my way for the rest of the week, but just keep pushing on and be accepting of mistakes.”
Law hadn’t felt he’d done himself justice in the little play prior to the lockdown and admits “it probably came at a good time for me.”
“I was able to work with my coach Alan McCloskey on a couple of things we never really had the time to do before,” he added.
A run of five birdies in a row from the sixth got the round wound up, but it was the par save at 11 which really was the momentum moment.
“Pretty lucky really, I probably had too much opportunity with the second shot, tried to hit the perfect shot and overturned it.
“Luckily we found it and I had a decent lie, managed to get up and down and that was a real momentum saver.” He followed with two more birdies, and if anything might have felt slightly aggrieved not to add to the haul down the final stretch.
The process at Close House, he thinks, has been impressive.
“It’s been a bit funny and a bit strange, but not tough to stick to the rules,” he said. “All in all the tour’s done a fantastic job just to put on the tournament.
“Everyone’s come in this week expecting to have to be patient. There might be mistakes made, but I haven’t seen any, it’s been run so well so far this week.”
Eddie Pepperell is well-placed after a four-under 67, and he feels energised thanks to a new healthy diet.
“I played 18 on Monday, 14 yesterday and 18 today,” he pointed out. “I couldn’t have done that a year ago, or I wouldn’t have considered doing that –I’d have been in Newcastle with a glass of red wine.
“It’s boring. I’ve hardly drunk, and when I have, I’ve known about it. Anything with sugar seems to whack me now, which is interesting; I used to eat a Terry’s Chocolate Orange almost every night. I couldn’t imagine doing that now.”
Tournament host Lee Westwood admitted mis-clubbing a few times in his one-under 70, “which is probably not acceptable being a member and the touring pro here” but made a lot of putts to grind out his score.
“It’s great to be back though, you don’t realise how much you miss it until it’s been taken away, and the key workers have done an incredible job,” he said.
“The last thing we want to do as a tour is go into these communities where we’re playing over the next six weeks and start anything off again, so that’s why we have to be so careful, with them in mind above anyone else.
“They’re the ones that will have to look after people after we head home.”
Scotland’s Richie Ramsay, after a solid 69 with two late birdies, concurred with that view.
“I’ve been on tour for 13 years now and this is one of the most impressive things they’ve done,” he said of the health safety plan.
“Not just to get it back to where we are playing, but also the protocols they’ve put in place. It’s great that everything’s as strict as possible. We’re putting ourselves out there, and it need to done properly.”
