FUELLED by the confidence of youth as he carded 65, six under par, during regional qualifying at Musselburgh, Deeside's James Byrne believes a spell of outstanding form will spur him on to contend for a place at Turnberry when he confronts the final hurdle for the Open in Ayrshire next month.
The 20-year-old amateur who attends Arizona State University, where Phil Mickelson and Paul Casey are among the alumni, was thrilled to post a round in East Lothian which included six birdies and an eagle 3 at the seventh.
"It was all about go
od golf," he enthused. "I was very steady and played with a lot of confidence. In fact, the way I'm playing I just can't wait for final qualifying because I feel I will have a great chance. I reached the last 16 of the Amateur last week at Formby and won the Tennant Cup at the weekend, so this was just a continuation of that good form. I was very positive from the moment I birdied the first."
In what turned out to be a friendly feud, Byrne's room-mate at college, Scott Pinckney, 20, from Phoenix, later set a new course record of 63, eight under, in blustery conditions at Musselburgh thanks to a barrage of nine birdies, marred only by a bogey at the sixth.
"It was my best round ever," grinned the young American, whose white shirt and matching slacks hardly amounted to a flag of surrender.
"It all came together for me. I wanted to play in Scotland this summer and experience links golf in order to make me a better player. But I wouldn't be here if I wasn't a friend of James."
Andrew Gunson, 21, whose father, Brian, was director of golf at Turnberry before emigrating to the USA in 2001, returned to home turf from California to shoot 68, the same mark as pros Chris Kelly and Elliot Saltman. "Because the Open is at Turnberry this year, the family decided to come back for a holiday," reported the student at the University of California, Santa Barbara. "I entered qualifying in January and, hopefully, we'll be here a little longer."
On what was a grand day for the emerging amateurs,Troon's Michael Stewart, the Scottish Boys champion in 2008, hopes local support will assist his quest to play in a major. With just 11 spots into local final qualifying on offer at Musselburgh for the field of 100 hopefuls to chase, Stewart chose to be adventurous in the quest to keep his Open dream alive.
"I played a practice round here for the first time on Tuesday and decided if I was going to make it through then I just had to be aggressive," observed the 19-year-old amateur. "If you play sensible golf then you might not make it, because it's only one round. I hit lots of drivers and just went for it because I didn't want to leave anything out there."
In his comic golf novel The Amateurs, Scottish author John Niven describes the modern Open qualifying scene at Musselburgh as resembling a boy band convention. In reality, there was more of a mixture of mature campaigners and youthful aspirants in East Lothian, though no shortage of streaked highlights and iridescent polo shirts in the summer sunshine.
A Scottish internationalist attending college in Tennessee, the exuberant Stewart plays out of Troon Wellbeck and is well acquainted with the links at Glasgow Gailes, Western Gailes and Kilmarnock Barassie which will decide who among the 150 final qualifiers earns one of the remaining dozen places available to join the world's leading golfers on the Ailsa.
"I know all the final qualifying courses really well and believe I will get fantastic support wherever I play next," he said. "This is the first time I've tried to qualify for the Open and it would be a dream to tee up at Turnberry. I played there in the Amateur championship last summer and, though I didn't make it through, I love the Ailsa. With all the changes which have been made to the links, it's going to be a really tough Open."
Mark Loftus, the Tartan Tour player who enjoys support from Paul Lawrie, the champion golfer at Carnoustie in 1999, was another dreaming the dream after signing for 67. The Cowglen golfer recalled how Lawrie himself was a qualifier for Carnoustie at Downfield ten years ago. "That just goes to show anything is possible in golf, and when it's your day, it's your day."
For Gordon Sherry, whose glory days in the Open came in 1995 at St Andrews when he finished ahead of Tiger Woods, it was scorned opportunities on the greens which cost him dear. "I just didn't get it in the hole," he rued after scoring 73.
Among the Scots who endured disappointment at some of the other 15 regional qualifiers held around the UK and Ireland yesterday was Gordon Strachan's son Craig, who returned 80 at Coventry.
