Donald Trump course packs punch again in windy conditions for Nexo Championship

Adri Arnaus, a DP World Tour winner, ran up a 9 at the par-3 sixth, where the Spaniard had a nightmare in a native area. Having just taken a triple-bogey 8 a couple of holes earlier on the Martin Hawtree-designed course, he must have felt battered and bruised signing for an 11-over-par 83.

South African Ryan Van Velzen took three shots more in his equally-dismal opening effort, spilling 11 shots in a six-hole stretch on the front nine, where Australian Ryan Peake also had a colourful card that added up to 44 at the turn and 84 in total.

Others had horror stories at the par-5 tenth. Grant Forrest, the defending champion, lost a ball with his opening blow of the day there and ran up a 7. Ewen Ferguson matched that shortly afterwards then Daniel Young as well. With Martin Laird opening with a 6 as well, it was a sore hole for the Scots in the morning wave.

Later in the day, despite the test becoming a bit easier as the wind dropped, Englishman Jack Yule and Estonia’s Richard Teder both took 8s at the tenth, with Portugal’s Ricardo Gouevia outdoing everyone by stumbling to a 9, which included two penalty shots. Ouch!

Just nine players finished in red figures after 72 holes in last year’s first DP World Tour event on the Donald Trump-owned course north of Balmedie. On the evidence of the opening day in this edition - a social media post by the DP World Tour revealed that the worst scores at each hole combined added up to a staggering 54-over-par total - it could be a similar story come Sunday night. If so, it has quickly established itself as one of the toughest tests on the circuit’s global schedule.

“The holes out there are either really tough or you have a good chance - there is nothing in between,” observed Forrest, who’d talked earlier in the week about how it could be “silly” if the course wasn’t set up properly and, as was the case last year, it seemed as though tournament officials had taken steps to avoid such an accusation being aimed at them.

“I feel like the Tour did a really good job because the golf course really easily could have gotten away from them, so the set up was great today and made it playable with the winds picking up,” declared Patrick Reed, the Race to Dubai leader.

Playing in the same group and also having both cold and rain to deal with at the start in addition to that wind, Forrest and Reed opened with matching level-par 72s. Having started how he did and then finding himself four over after just five holes, it was a praiseworthy fightback from Forrest, helped by an eagle-birdie-birdie burst around the turn.

“I’ll take that score,” admitted the 33-year-old, who is making his first start since undergoing nasal surgery to have polyps removed from his sinuses as he bids to join Paul Lawrie as the only home player to win three times on Scottish soil on the DP World Tour. “It was a tough day and it wasn’t an ideal start. But I bounced back well after that. I dug in on one of those days when you could have played yourself right out of it.”

Reed, the star attraction in the field, mixed two birdies with two bogeys on his front nine before reeling off nine straight pars coming home. He’d felt “cold” at the start and was also taken aback a bit by a “heavy wind” compared to how it had been in the practice rounds.

“The golf course played completely different from Monday through Wednesday,” said the 2018 Masters champion. “When I played the back nine during the practice round, I was debating whether to hit 3 wood or even 2 iron off of ten. But into the wind today it was driver, 3 wood and pitching wedge.”

At the end of an exhausting day for everyone, it was the afternoon starters who definitely got it slightly easier as Swede Marcus Kinhult carded a five-under 67 to lead by two shots from a group that includes English amateur Elliot Baker, who will represent Great Britain & Ireland in a second Walker Cup at Lahinch in a fortnight’s time.

Scott Jamieson, also out in the afternoon, is handily-placed after producing one of the steadiest rounds of the day, carding a 70 that contained two birdies, two bogeys and 14 pars. “It’s a nice start,” admitted the Florida-based Scot, who sits 135th in the Race to Dubai Ranking and is battling to hang on to a seat he’s occupied at the top table in European golf since 2011.

“It was hard to keep the ball in play, but I did a good job of keeping the ball in front of me off the tee. Putting was also tricky in the wind with a lot of slopes but I managed to putt pretty well which was nice.”

Englishman Richard Mansell holed an 85-foot putt - surely a contender for the longest one of the season - for an eagle at the fourth while South African Dylan Naidoo slam-dunked his second at the 12th for another eye-catching eagle.

One of the day’s most-colourful cards belonged to Spaniard Eugenio Chacarra, a two-time winner this season. “My good was really good and my bad was really bad,” he said after signing for a 72 that contained seven birdies, including three to finish, but also five bogeys and a double bogey. John Daly II, son of the two-time major champion, also signed for a level-par effort in his first professional start on the DP World Tour.