Whatever you wanted to do at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, it was a lovely day to do it.
You may, for instance, have fancied seeing what all the fuss was about by following the PGA Tour commissioner, Jay Monahan, and the Saudi Public Investment Fund governor, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, as they were plonked in the same group of the Pro-Am affair at Carnoustie.
Then again, most casual observers peering on would probably have had no idea who these two gentlemen were, despite us mouth-frothing golf writers eagerly billing their appearance together as something akin to 007 playing with Auric bloomin’ Goldfinger.
In the on-going quest for peace in our golfing time, though, the cordial clatter and batter about the links has been viewed as another step in the right direction for a men’s professional game that remains so fractured, it just about needs a cast and splint.
While South Africa’s veteran campaigner Darren Fichardt set a scintillating pace at Kingsbarns with an 11-under 61, another South African, the Dunhill Links supremo Johann Rupert, was just as enthused by the genial scene involving two of global golf’s most powerful figures.
“I have known Jay (Monahan) for a very long time, and I have got to know his Excellency (Al-Rumayyan) as well and they both only have the best interests of golf at heart,” suggested Rupert. “We need to keep on having days like today. Golf is supposed to be a maker of friends.
“We have a war going on in Ukraine and a terrible situation in the Middle East and another war going on in Sudan and we argue about golf? Surely all we want to do is see the best players in the world playing together.”
In the grand scheme of life and all that. It’s not a bad old life, meanwhile, when you’re playing three of Scotland’s best links courses in beautiful autumnal weather.
Fichardt certainly enjoyed it. The 49-year-old posted his lowest competitive round since 2001 as he took advantage of the inviting, benign conditions and delivered a lively card which featured nine birdies and two eagles.
“That was sweet,” he said with a beam as a bright as a halogen headlamp after finishing a stroke ahead of Australia’s John Cameron.
“I had a really poor three-putt on my second hole and I was like ‘oh, my goodness, it’s going to be a grind today’. But then I made something like a 100-foot putt for eagle on the next hole and the train just kept on going.”
Scotsman David Law is well aware that he needs to get going…
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