The windsurfers on Porthcawl beach had the perfect conditions rather than the golfers, but Connor Syme was still faultless in the Welsh breezes to lead the qualifiers for the matchplay stages of the Amateur Championship.
The 21-year-old from Drumoig’s remarkable bogey-free 68 at Pyle and Kenfig gave him a two shot advantage over fellow Scot Alasdair MacDougall on a tough day which saw the scores balloon by ten strokes or more from first round play on Monday.
The weather seemed to be fine for the contingent from north of the border with five Scots finishing in the top 10 qualifiers and 11 in all making today’s matchplay stages.
The heavy morning rains and winds gusting up to 25 mph served to separate the field on the second day of qualifying, with three scores in the 90s returned at Porthcawl. In the circumstances the three-under 68 from the current Australian Amateur champion was a superb score.
“The only goal at the start of the week is to try and make the top 64 and the further up the leaderboard you go is a bonus,” he said. “I felt really comfortable in what I was doing today.”
Syme’s short game was good enough that he didn’t have a particularly testing putt all day.
“Bogey-free is great, a real bonus,” he continued. “I got to the 12th and I saw my name going up the top of that leaderboard so I thought it would be cool to push on and do well, and then I birdied 14 and 15.”
Syme was beaten by Bradley Neil in the semi-finals when his friend won the Amateur at Royal Portrush two years ago, so he knows what lies ahead.
“I’ve had good success going into the match play before, I was the semi-finalist in 2014 and I won the Australian Amateur in January, so I feel pretty comfortable in the head to head environment,” he pointed out.
“I’ll just draw from those experiences and take each round as it comes.”
Elderslie’s MacDougall had never before qualified for the matchplay stages in three previous attempts but made it with comfort with matching 69s. Of the other Scots only Jamie Savage managed par or better, the quarter-finalist from 2014 being one of the few in the field to improve on his first round score, with a 71 to add to his Monday 73.
Grant Forrest, beaten finalist at Carnoustie last year, was out in the worst of the early rains at Porthcawl and returned a six-over 77, but his first round 67 got him through easily. Walker Cup colleague Ewen Ferguson added a 73 to his opening 71 to go through on the same mark.
The only real disappointment for the Scottish international squad was youngster Sandy Scott’s failure to make the matchplay, a 73 at Pyle and Kenfig not quite good enough to repair the damage of the Nairn teenager’s opening 76.
American Jake Fendt can attest to the change in conditions over the two days more than most. The young college student shot a 70 in the first round but had two triple bogeys and a quadruple bogey in his 90 on Royal Porthcawl yesterday.
136 – C Syme (Drumoig) 68 68
138 – A MacDougall (Elderslie) 69 69
140 – A Rozner (France) 64 76, H Hall (West Cornwall) 71 69
141 – A Wilson (Wynyard) 66 75
142 – R Macintyre (Glencruitten) 69 73, A Beckley (South Africa) 73 69, C Davis (Australia) 66 76, R Gandy (Rowany) 70 72, C Ross (Kirkhill) 68 74, D Micheluzzi (Australia) 69 73, B Hume (Haggs Castle) 66 76
143 – D Brown (Masham) 71 72, W Enefer (The Wrekin) 74 69, V van Veen (Netherlands) 68 75, J Bower (Meltham) 70 73, S Gregory (Corhampton) 72 71, P Melching (Netherlands) 72 71,
Other qualifiers included
144 – G Forrest (Craigielaw) 67 77, E Ferguson (Bearsden) 71 73, J Savage (Cawder) 73 71, L Allan (Alva) 71 73
147 – C Howie (Peebles 73 74)
Non-qualifiers
149 – S Scott (Nairn) 76 73
152 – C Fyfe (Cawder) 71 81
153 – R Lumsden (Royal Wimbledon) 77 76, L Johnston (Dumfries & Cty) 73 80
155 – S Gibson (Southerness) 73 82
