Billy Horschel one shot off lead at Dunhill Links Championship as Ryder Cup winners return
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Written by Associated Press
ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — Sebastian Soderberg, Adri Arnaus and Peter Uihlein shot 8-under 64s to share the first-round lead at the Dunhill Links Championship on Thursday as three of Europe's Ryder Cup-winning team returned to action with solid starts at the DP World Tour event.
The tournament is played over three of Scotland's best courses across the first three rounds — each player has 18 holes at St. Andrews, Carnoustie and Kingsbarns — before the final round is held back at the Old Course.
Six of the best nine scores in the first round came at St. Andrews, including the rounds of Uihlein and Soderberg that featured fast starts in good conditions.
Soderberg birdied seven of his first eight holes to go out in 29, while all eight of the birdies by Uihlein were in the first 14 holes of the American's bogey-free round.
Arnaus played at Carnoustie, where he birdied the five straight holes from No. 17 after starting at the 10th, and also eagled the par-5 14th hole.
Among the six players a shot off the lead was Nicolas Colsaerts, one of Europe's vice captains at the Ryder Cup in Rome that ended Sunday with a 16.5-11.5 win over the Americans to regain the gold trophy. Former FedExCup champion Billy Horschel shot 65 at Carnoustie, the second-lowest score there Thursday. Horschel, a seven-time TOUR winner, shot 7-under 29 on his front nine.
Of greater notoriety were Matt Fitzpatrick (67), Tommy Fleetwood (69) — who won the clinching point for the Europeans at Marco Simone Golf & Country Club — and Robert MacIntyre (70), all of them at Carnoustie just four days after they helped Europe to an emotional and thorough victory over the United States in the Ryder Cup outside Rome.
History came from David Howell, who made his 722nd appearance on the DP World Tour to break the record of Miguel Angel Jimenez.