A year on from its DP World Tour debut as the host venue, the Old Course layout on the Balmedie links in Aberdeenshire is again causing havoc as the winds blow along the North Sea coastline.
At the end of the second round, only 17 players are under par ahead of the final 36 holes. The cut of five over is the highest this season.
It was tough 12 months ago, with just nine players finishing under par. But a change in wind direction from then and across the practice days this year has caused torment for many in the field.
“It’s just a tough course,” said defending champion Grant Forrest in a mid-round interview with the World Feed on Friday.
“There’s no let up, no forgiveness really. You’ve just got to be on it or you get punished.”
Forrest is among the players to have drawn the harder side of the draw, having started in the wind and rain on Thursday and played in the afternoon wave on Friday as temperatures barely lifted.
He carded a course record six-under-par 66 on his way to victory last year but appears unlikely to join Major champion Paul Lawrie as the third Scot to win three times on the DP World Tour in their homeland after rounds of 72 and 76 to sit four over at halfway – eight shots adrift of solo leader Matthew Southgate.
Forrest’s playing partner Patrick Reed, the Race to Dubai Rankings Delivered by DP World leader, was among those taken aback by the sudden shift in challenge from the practice days.
“The golf course played completely different from Monday through Wednesday,” he explained after his first round of 72, which he followed with a 73.
“When I played the back nine during the practice round, I was debating whether to hit three wood or even two iron off of ten. But into the wind today [on Thursday] it was driver, three wood and pitching wedge.”
Scott Jamieson is faring better in the cold and blustery conditions, carding rounds of 70 and 71 to sit at three under as the 42-year-old targets a big result that could change the course of his season.
“It’s been a while since I was in this position at halfway,” said the Florida-based Scot, who sits 135th spot on the Race to Dubai Rankings Delivered by DP World and is battling to keep his card on golf’s global Tour.
“There is still a lot of golf to be played but I’m really happy to be in a good spot going into the weekend.
“I enjoy playing golf and level par is a good score round here. So I wouldn’t mind these conditions for the next two days.”
The forecast for the weekend is that the north-westerly wind will drop, having blown between 15-20mph across Thursday and Friday.
Connor Syme, another of the 15 Scots in the field, will take plenty of momentum into the weekend after carding a flawless best-of-the-day 68 on Friday to sit just outside the top ten at one under.
After a testing campaign in which he has made five cuts across 15 starts, his performance so far this week is a welcome source of optimism.
“That was great. Very solid,” he said. “I didn’t put myself in too much trouble on a very tricky golf course. So very happy with that.
“It’s definitely one of the rounds of the season for sure. It’s been a while since I have been up at the top of a board.
“I played pretty solid at the Dubai Invitational [in January] but I had a bad round on the Sunday. But there are definite signs of some really good golf coming and it was nice to do that today.”
Eliot Baker, the lone amateur in the field, is another relishing the challenge as he backed up an impressive 69 in the first round with a creditable 73 to sit at two under and firmly in the mix on his DP World Tour debut as he prepares for next month’s Walker Cup at Lahinch.
“That definitely wasn’t easy out there today,” he said.
“That wind got blowing, the rain kept coming through but to be up there on the leaderboard going into the weekend on my debut, I couldn’t be happier.”
Another with plenty of reason to smile was Matthew Jordan, who burst out of the blocks on Friday with a birdie-birdie-birdie-eagle start over his opening four holes on his way to a 69.
“Going out, you know with two par fives kind of downwind, and the way the wind is and the course is playing, that you do obviously want to get off to a good start,” he said.
“Obviously, that was better than good. But it was certainly in my mind to get off to a good start, knowing that you end up playing,
“I’d say, probably like seven out of the next nine holes into a left to right win. To start like that enabled me to then just hopefully try and plod along.
“You are going to hit bad shots, and you are going make mistakes.”
And at three under, after a 69 in the second round, the South African will be thrilled by his decision.
“It’s really an unbelievable golf course,” he said. “You’ve got to plan your way around it, hit the ball well, so I’m very happy with being here and enjoying the whole thing.”
For others, however, they will feel battered and bruised by the experience.
Through the opening two days, 12 of the holes are playing over par. The 500-yard par four eighth is proving the hardest hole, with as many as 42 double bogeys or worse.
Scores have ranged from the low of 67, registered by first-round leader Marcus Kinhult, to a high of 86 by Ryan Van Velzen.
On Friday, India’s Shubhankar Sharma enjoyed a hole-in-one at the 178-yard sixth, while England’s Haydn McCullen made a quintuple bogey ten at the tenth. Both will be back for more after making the cut.
Fun and games, eh? It all sets us up for an enthralling weekend.
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