FROM the base camp of the media centre here at Close House, you can watch distant figures trudging wearily up the face of the precipitous opening hole.
Forget the British Masters title. They’ll probably dish out the Edmund Hillary Memorial Salver at the prize giving ceremony on Sunday night.
“The caddies will suffer more than me,” said Alvaro Quiros in sympathetic tones as the Spaniard praised the sterling efforts of the bagmen.
Quiros certainly got his bearings here in the north east and a sprightly six-under 64, which was inspired by an early burst of four birdies in his first six holes, had him moving in the right direction as he finished just a shot off the early pace set by South Africa’s George Coetzee and Englishman Tyrell Hatton.
There was a time not so long ago when Quiros was one of the most recognisable figures on the European Tour.
His swashbuckling style, rampaging frontrunning and barnstorming blooters off the tee earned him plaudits and prizes in abundance. Between 2006 and 2011, he won six tour titles, flirted with the possibility of a Ryder Cup appearance and reached a career high of 21st on the world rankings.
Rather like the topography of the course here, it was a case of what goes up must come down for Quiros, however, and the last few years have been characterised by toil and trouble. He made a return to the dreaded qualifying school for the first time in a decade last season to try and regain his full playing rights, but failed.
The golfing gods can be a funny lot, though. Amid the debris of the general despair, Quiros, with a real bolt from the blue, won on the main tour for the first time in six years in Sicily this year when he was ranked a lowly 703rd on the global order.
Cue a rousing return to form? Well, not quite. He missed the next eight cuts in a row and only ended that wretched run with a share of 62nd in last weekend’s Portugal Masters.
What Quiros will do next is anybody’s guess. Even the man himself is not quite sure. “I wasn’t playing well before I won and I haven’t played well since I won,” he said. “Basically, the main issue that I constantly have is that I don’t feel confident in the way I hit the ball. That’s why it’s so difficult to get confidence and to really believe that you are able to do what you want to do.”
Coetzee’s route to the top, meanwhile, was pretty decent.
A birdie putt of some 50-feet on the first got him on the right road and he bolstered his assault with an eagle on the sixth, where he clattered a 2-iron into a couple of feet, as he carded a 63.
Hatton, who will defend his Dunhill Links title at St Andrews, Kingsbarns and Carnoustie next week, made his surge on the top during round which included five birdies on his last seven holes.
Richie Ramsay recovered from a double-bogey seven on his fourth hole to post a battling 67 as he finished as the best of the Scots.
Scott Jamieson opened with a 68 but Russell Knox could only muster a 74.
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