'I played well' - Jack McDonald off to solid Open start after round with Max Homa
Scot’s aggressive approach off the tee reaps reward at fast and firm Royal Birkdale
Jack McDonald overcame a light preparation for the 154th Open to get his name on the leaderboard in the first round and then digging in to give himself a chance of making the cut.
The Ayrshireman, who qualified for the Claret Jug event for the second time in three years, started birdie-birdie at Royal Birkdale before finding himself in the top five after also making a gain on par at the fifth.
He then dropped a shot at the par-4 sixth before getting back to three under again following a birdie from ten feet at the tenth only to then run up a double-bogey 6 at the next hole.
After also dropping a shot at the par-5 14th, his card added up to a par-70, giving him an opportunity to be inside the top 70 and ties after the second round and making the cut.
“I played well,” said McDonald, who is training to be a PGA professional at Whitecraigs in the south side of Glasgow. “I stuck to my game plan, which was hitting the driver a lot. Apart from the par 3s, the only hole I didn’t go with the driver was the ninth.”
Referring to the Southport course being firm and fast, he added: “ think you can tackle it one of two ways. You can be quite defensive and you can attack it.”
Doing the latter led to his blip at the 11th. “It stayed in,” he said of finding a fairway bunker. “It was a wedge, but I caught it thin and it just caught the top of the lip.”
The 33-year-old, who missed the cut by a single shot at Royal Troon two years ago, didn’t go out on the course at all on Tuesday.
“It was really warm,” he said, laughing aloud. “I was out there and was going ‘this is really warm’. So I decided to try and conserve energy. (and then found himself playing with Max Home in a practice round on Wednesday)”
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