Walker Cup stars Jimmy Mullen and Paul Dunne got their professional careers off to scintillating starts with rounds of 64 to take a share of the lead on the first day of the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.
Dunne’s opening effort included a hole in one on the 15th at Kingsbarns, one of the three venues hosting this week’s festival of links golf. Talking about the perfectly-struck 5-iron, the Irishman said: “I tried to start it at the left edge of green and let the wind drift it in. I thought I’d hit it close and when I saw it drop, it was great. I played some good golf from then on. I’ve been looking forward to getting started as a pro for a while. No better place to do it than on a links-style course like this. All three courses are in fantastic condition. They are all very different, but all of them put up different types of tests. It’s a long week, but for now I’m just pleased with my round and look forward to the rest of the week.”
Mullen, who won four points out of four as GB&I beat America 16½-9½ at Royal Lytham & St Annes last month, also started at Kingsbarns, and the youngster took full advantage of the perfect scoring conditions to notch eight birdies and an eagle to join Dunne and Swede Kristoffer Broberg – who was playing at St Andrews – on eight under par.
Over at Carnoustie, traditionally the hardest of the trio of courses, Scotland’s Marc Warren continued his solid season to post a four under par 68, the same score as Martin Kaymer and Graeme McDowell.
At St Andrews the cheers also rang out for film star Jamie Dornan, who dramatically eagled the 18th on the Old Course. Playing with American professional Peter Uihlein in the Team Championship, Dornan rolled in a 30-foot putt for the eagle two, and said: “That’s up there as one of the most amazing feelings of my life. Whatever your standard, you have your moments in golf when you play a great shot, but it’s usually on some dirt track of a course. To do that here at St Andrews, on the 18th, well, that’s the closest I am going to get to winning the Open!”
Dornan, from Holywood, the same town in Northern Ireland as Rory McIlroy, said: “It’s a shame Rory wasn’t here to see that, but I’ll be texting him to let him know.”
Dornan and Uihlein are eight-under in the team championship, five shots behnd the leaders. He said: “I’ve got tickets to watch Ireland play Italy in the Rugby World Cup on Sunday, but I’d swap those to get to play here again on the final day, especially if I could eagle the 18th again to win the team tournament.”