Notoriety can be hard to shift in golf, but Nathan Kimsey is going the right way to ensuring he’s known for his play rather than an isolated high-profile incident.
The 20-year-old from the English Golf Union’s Lincolnshire base at Woodhall Spa leads the Carrick Neil Scottish Strokeplay Championship with a superb 66 at a windy and cool Southerness and continued to put the unfortunate infamy of almost exactly a year ago behind him.
Kimsey was the one to be caught when the R&A finally decided to get tough on slow play in the Amateur Championship, notorious in itself for the blight over the last few years. He was docked two strokes in qualifying at Royal Troon as the first player to be made an example of in the more strident application of the governing body’s slow play protocol.
With delicious irony, though, the Walker Cup candidate happened to be officially the fastest player in Britain at the time, having set the record for a full round of just less than an hour in a stunt for Sport Relief just a few weeks earlier.
All that’s done is make Kimsey’s name synonymous with slow play, although he has no real track record for it other than that one incident.
“I feel a bit like I’m Exhibit A,” he said yesterday after taking advantage of favourable early conditions on the Solway Firth.
“My name has been mentioned quite a bit because of what happened.
“It was starting to quieten down a bit but then when Tianlang Guan was penalised for slow play at the Masters, so there’s my name getting mentioned everywhere in the media again.”
The only way to break the stigma is keep his head down, his play pleasantly quick and his scoring good, and that’s what he’s been doing starting by winning the prestigious Terra Cotta Invitational in Florida in April, and with yesterday’s blazing opening round.
He picked up all his shots to the par of 69 on the acclaimed Mackenzie Ross links in the final stretch, birdieing the 14th, 17th and 18th.
Kimsey has been back to Scotland since Troon with the English team at the Home Internationals but he has seen the pace of play issue go through all levels of the game since he was the first example.
“Every amateur event we go to we get timing sheets and that’s been the same for a while, but it’s starting to filter down to smaller events as well,” he said.
“They are definitely saying ‘we are watching you’.”
Kimsey is a definite contender for the GB&I Walker Cup team to play the USA at the National Golf Links of America but few of the Scots hopefuls were able to do themselves much good over the first 18 holes at Southerness.
Leading hope Graeme Robertson, runner-up in the Irish Strokeplay last month, had a three-over 72 and Jack McDonald a 71, and the leading Scot was Chris Robb, the former Scottish Boys Championship finalist from Meldrum House in the North East, on level par.
Nearest to Kimsey was fellow Englishman Garrick Porteous and Ireland’s Richard O’Donovan, both on one-under 68s.
St Andrews’ Ben Kinsley, a Scottish Boys semi-finalist earlier this year, eagled the last for a one-over par 70, the same score as the highly-rated South African 18-year-old Haydn Porteous.
The current No 2 player in the World Amateur Rankings, Brady Watt of Australia, opened with a 73, the same as Blairgowrie’s Scottish Boys champion Bradley Neil, who also eagled the final hole. Ewan Scott is one shot further back after a 74.