Ireland's Paul Dunne showed a welcome return to form at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship on Thursday with an opening five under par round of 67.
Aiming to put a dismal season to date behind him this week in Scotland, Dunne is just three shots off the joint leaders - England’s Tyrrell Hatton, Belgium’s Nicolas Colsaerts, China’s Haotong Li, and Spain’s Adria Arnaus.
Dunne last made the cut on the European Tour at the British Masters in May. He finished in a tie for 52nd that week, one under par overall. It was just his third time to make the cut this season. In his 16 outings on the European Tour this season his prize money adds up to €35,454, but he’ll be hoping this week will be the start of a change in his fortunes.
Hatton put a poor Ryder Cup outing behind him to card an eight-under 64. Belgium’s Nicolas Colsaerts, Spaniard Adri Arnaus and China’s Li Haotong were also eight-under at the top of a bunched-up leaderboard. Three others, including Northern Ireland’s Michael Hoey, were one stroke back.
The 42 year-old’s bogey free round included an eagle on the Par 4 sixth hole. Hoey’s last win on the European Tour was in 2013 at the Russian Open.
The tournament is being held across three courses in rotation over the opening three days - the Old Course at St Andrews, Carnoustie and Kingsbarns - with the final round to be played at St Andrews.
Hatton, who won just one of his four matches and earned 1.5 points for Europe at Whistling Straits, started slowly but shot five birdies and an eagle on the back nine to vault into the lead before Li matched him with three straight birdies at the end of his round.
“Obviously we needed a big back nine and I am very happy the putter worked well,” Hatton said. “Hopefully that continues.”
Hatton’s European team mate Tommy Fleetwood was two shots back, having stitched together a solid bogey-free round of 66.
However, there was disappointment for Shane Lowry, who shot a one-under 71, while Padraig Harrington finished with a dismal three-over 75.
Collated first round scores and totals (British unless stated, Irish in bold, Par 72)
64 Tyrrell Hatton, Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel), Haotong Li (Chn), Adria Arnaus (Spa)
65 Romain Langasque (Fra), Ewen Ferguson, Michael Hoey (Irl)
66 Tommy Fleetwood, Jazz Janewattananond (Tha), Jeff Winther (Den)
67 Yi-Keun Chang (Kor), Berry Henson (USA), Danny Willett, Alexander Levy (Fra), Daniel Gavins, Adrian Otaegui (Spa), Laurie Canter, Troy Merritt (USA), Paul Dunne (Irl), Richie Ramsay, Joakim Lagergren (Swe), Nino Bertasio (Ita)
68 Rafael Cabrera (Spa), Sebastian Soederberg (Swe), Eddie Pepperell, Tom Lewis, Joost Luiten (Ned), John Catlin (USA), Guido Migliozzi (Ita), David Law, Maverick Antcliff (Aus), Wil Besseling (Ned), Alvaro Quiros (Spa), Matthieu Pavon (Fra), Oliver Fisher, Jack Senior
69 Billy Horschel (USA), Scott Hend (Aus), Johannes Veerman (USA), Martin Kaymer (Ger), Brandon Stone (Rsa), Richard Bland, Pablo Larrazabal (Spa), Steven Brown, Justin Harding (Rsa), Marcus Armitage, Robert MacIntyre, Sam Horsfield, John Murphy (Irl), Oliver Wilson, Gavin Green (Mal), Julian Suri (USA), Haydn Porteous (Rsa), Thomas Aiken (Rsa)
70 Josh Geary (Nzl), Deyen Lawson (Aus), Dimitrios Papadatos (Aus), Daniel van Tonder (Rsa), Masahiro Kawamura (Jpn), Branden Grace (Rsa), Nicolai Hoejgaard (Den), Dean Burmester (Rsa), Jorge Campillo (Spa), Lucas Bjerregaard (Den), Renato Paratore (Ita), MJ Daffue (Rsa), Shubhankar Sharma (Ind), Angus Flanagan, Ben Jones, Alexander Noren (Swe), Louis de Jager (Rsa), Matthew Southgate, Jordan Smith, Zander Lombard (Rsa), Chris Paisley, Lorenzo Gagli (Ita), Julien Guerrier (Fra), Joel Stalter (Fra)
71 Shane Lowry (Irl), Min-Woo Lee (Aus), Brett Rankin (Aus), George Coetzee (Rsa), Darren Fichardt (Rsa), Ajeetesh Sandhu (Ind), Sami Valimaki (Fin), Victor Perez (Fra), Stephen Gallacher, Paul Waring, Kristoffer Broberg (Swe), Ross McGowan, Wilco Nienaber (Rsa), Marcel Siem (Ger), Connor Syme, Matty Lamb, Matthias Schmid (Ger), Alejandro Canizares (Spa), Michael Lorenzo-Vera (Fra), Justin Walters (Rsa), David Drysdale, Soeren Kjeldsen (Den), Robert Rock, James Morrison, Jamie Donaldson, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra)
72 Travis Smyth (Aus), Jaco Ahlers (Rsa), Thriston Lawrence (Rsa), Rhys Enoch, Thorbjoern Olesen (Den), Richard McEvoy, Jonathan Caldwell (Irl), Antoine Rozner (Fra), Joachim B. Hansen (Den), Callum Shinkwin, Thomas Pieters (Bel), Mac Meissner (USA), Ben Schmidt, Thomas Detry (Bel), Edoardo Molinari (Ita), Sean Crocker (USA), Ashley Chesters, Maximilian Kieffer (Ger), Victor Dubuisson (Fra), Luke Donald, Matthew Jordan, Ricardo Santos (Por)
73 Bryden MacPherson (Aus), Neil Schietekat (Rsa), Tae-Hee Lee (Kor), Calum Hill, Grant Forrest, Ignacio Elvira (Spa), Andy Sullivan, Graeme Storm, Santiago Tarrio (Spa), Jacques Kruyswijk (Rsa), David Horsey, Marc Warren
74 Jason Scrivener (Aus), Chris Wood, Andrea Pavan (Ita), Alexander Bjoerk (Swe), Javier Ballesteros (Spa), Jack Dyer, Joe Long, Benjamin Hebert (Fra), Ross Fisher, Adrian Meronk (Pol)
75 Ryan Fox (Nzl), Martin Rohwer (Rsa), Marcus Kinhult (Swe), Padraig Harrington (Irl), Kalle Samooja (Fin), Tapio Pulkkanen (Fin), Cormac Sharvin (Irl)
76 Denzel Ieremia (Nzl), Thomas Bjorn (Den), David Howell
77 Suradit Yongcharoenchai (Tha), Scott Jamieson, Francesco Laporta (Ita), Robin Roussel (Fra), Vincent Norrman (Swe)
78 Toto Thimba Jr. (Rsa), Adilson Da Silva (Bra), Russell Chrystie, Peter Hanson (Swe)
79 Ruan Conradie (Rsa)
