Lowry looks to continue links idyll

Shane Lowry was in good form for his first practice round. Picture: Getty Images

Open champion Shane Lowry can take a giant step towards the Race to Dubai by becoming the first player to win the $5 million Alfred Dunhill Links Championship and the Claret Jug in the same season.

The Offaly man arrives in Scotland with only a slender lead over Spain's Jon Rahm after he finished 11th in the BMW PGA Championship on Sunday and the Spaniard was runner-up to England's Danny Willett.

He has a string of big European events to play before Christmas with Rolex Series appearances in Italy and Turkey as well as the WGC HSBC Champions in China.

And while knows the Race to Dubai will not be settled until the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai, he's gunning for a third big win on links terrain following his victory in The Open and his memorable breakthrough in the 2009 Irish Open at Baltray as an amateur.

“It feels like every tournament I play now is a big event," said Lowry, who has two top-10 finishes in ten starts in the event.

”Obviously I had a decent week at Wentworth last week, so I was happy enough with that and hopefully I can take that form into this week and have a good week here.

"It is relaxed here, but we're all very competitive people, I know I am, and I desperately want to go out there this week and do well.

“I want to consolidate my place at the top of the Race to Dubai, but I have a couple of months to do that, and there are going to be some big tournaments.

“There are some great players behind me, but if I can do my own business hopefully, I'll do OK."

Following his epic win at Royal Portrush, Lowry knows this season will go down as a huge success.

But he'd love to cap it off by becoming European number one, and a strong links performance at Kingsbarns, Carnoustie and St Andrews would be just the tonic after his impressive return at Wentworth, where he was bogey-free for his last 39 holes.

"Obviously I've some recent success on links terrain so any time you come here – especially on days like today at St Andrews, the home of golf - it's just special," he said before going out for a practice round. "I'm looking forward to it."

Rory McIlroy partners his father Gerry in the Pro-Am event and he's eyeing his fourth win of the season at the head of a strong field that also features Rahm, Justin Rose, Tony Finau, Tommy Fleetwood and two-time winner Tyrrell Hatton.

Ryder Cup points are up for grabs and European captain Pádraig Harrington, who won the title in 2002 and 2006 and can become the first three-time winner this week, is the senior Irish player in action alongside Graeme McDowell, who cited "personal reasons" for missing Wentworth.

Greystones' Paul Dunne, who has fallen from 120th to 263rd in the world this year and lies 102nd in the Race to Dubai after missing his ninth cut of the year at Wentworth, is desperately seeking a result in an event where he was seventh two years ago.

Certain that his card is secure, he still has the Spanish Open and the Rolex Series' Italian Open to make the field for November's lucrative Turkish Airlines Open.

Alfred Dunhill Links Championship - St Andrews, Carnoustie and Kingsbarns

St Andrews

1 Wil Besseling and Ruud Gullit 09:00 1
1 Nicolai Højgaard and Andrii Shevchenko 09:00 1
2 Tom Lewis and Tom Jermoluk 09:11 1
2 Russell Knox and Nikesh Arora 09:11 1
3 Andrew Johnston and Luke Wilson 09:22 1
3 D A Points and Bill Murray 09:22 1
4 Euan Walker and Michael Vaughan 09:33 1
4 Hideto Tanihara and Peter Jones 09:33 1
5 Nicolas Colsaerts and Sir Steve Redgrave 09:44 1
5 Pablo Larrazábal and Allan Stanton 09:44 1
6 Dimitrios Papadatos and Rob Louw 09:55 1
6 Kiradech Aphibarnrat and Ahmad Rashad 09:55 1
7 Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Schalk Burger 10:06 1
7 Matthias Schwab and Wladimir Klitschko 10:06 1
8 Andy Sullivan and Sir Anthony McCoy 10:17 1
8 Gonzalo Fdez-Castaño and Facundo Pieres 10:17 1
9 Jaco Ahlers and Mark Boucher 10:28 1
9 Min Woo Lee and Jacques Kallis 10:28 1
10 Callan O'Reilly and Allan Lamb 10:39 1
10 Harrison Endycott and Sir Ian Botham 10:39 1
11 Robert Rock and Brian McFadden 10:50 1
11 Louis De Jager and Mike Rutherford 10:50 1
12 Edoardo Molinari and Dave Farrell 11:01 1
12 Tom Sloman and Brad Simpson 11:01 1
13 Stephen Gallacher and Felix Neureuther 11:12 1
13 Trevor Immelman and Greg Kinnear 11:12 1
14 Ryan Fox and Shane Warne 11:23 1
14 Julian Suri and Huey Lewis 11:23 1
15 Kalle Samooja and Eleanor Cannon 09:00 10
15 Jake Burnage and Maeve Danaher 09:00 10
16 Nino Bertasio and Patricia Sawers 09:11 10
16 Jamie Donaldson and Louise Del Balzo 09:11 10
17 Oliver Fisher and Hans Kertess 09:22 10
17 Richard McEvoy and Hansjörg Wyss 09:22 10
18 Philip Eriksson and Mike Fascitelli 09:33 10
18 Marcus Kinhult and Frank Quattrone 09:33 10
19 Richard Sterne and Henry Hickman Bacon 09:44 10
19 George Coetzee and Aidan Crawley 09:44 10
20 Grant Forrest and Oliver Baker 09:55 10
20 Justin Walters and Amit Bhatia 09:55 10
21 Victor Perez and Norbert Dentressangle 10:06 10
21 Raphaël Jacquelin and Pierre-Henri Dentressangle 10:06 10
22 Matthieu Pavon and Miguel Dueñas 10:17 10
22 Julien Guerrier and Beltrán Gómez-Acebo 10:17 10
23 Jordan Smith and Moss Ngoasheng 10:28 10
23 Liam Johnston and Scott Mahoney 10:28 10
24 Joost Luiten and Wijnand Pon 10:39 10
24 Jack Singh Brar and Barry Sternlicht 10:39 10
25 Chris Paisley and Jabu Mabuza 10:50 10
25 Thomas Detry and Billy Getty 10:50 10
26 Kristoffer Reitan and Mark Madden 11:01 10
26 Adri Arnaus and Brett Desmond 11:01 10
27 David Drysdale and Matt Woolf 11:12 10
27 Gavin Green and Mandla Mlangeni 11:12 10
28 Masahiro Kawamura and Nicholas Jonsson 11:23 10
28 Guido Migliozzi and Daniel James 11:23 10

Carnoustie

29 Oliver Wilson and Ian Webb 09:00 1
29 Matthew Southgate and Peter Dawson 09:00 1
30 Chris Wood and Ric Lewis 09:11 1
30 Søren Kjeldsen and Michael Lund 09:11 1
31 Thomas Aiken and Gaynor Rupert 09:22 1
31 Jake Roos and Lindy White 09:22 1
32 Callum Shinkwin and Jeff Pickard 09:33 1
32 Johannes Veerman and Mark Nesbitt 09:33 1
33 Dean Burmester and Guy Sanan 09:44 1
33 David Lipsky and Ryan Friedkin 09:44 1
34 Alexander Björk and Greg Maffei 09:55 1
34 Benjamin Hebert and Matthew Goode 09:55 1
35 Thomas Bjørn and Ross Desmond 10:06 1
35 John Catlin and Anthony Wreford 10:06 1
36 Wade Ormsby and Ian Todd 10:17 1
36 James Morrison and Hugh Roberts 10:17 1
37 Yusaku Miyazato and Ken Hitchner 10:28 1
37 Bryce Easton and Abdullah Al Naboodah 10:28 1
38 Jeunghun Wang and John Fry 10:39 1
38 Daniel Hillier and Ric Kayne 10:39 1
39 Lee Slattery and Kieran McManus 10:50 1
39 Jacques Kruyswijk and Gerry Tvedt 10:50 1
40 Thongchai Jaidee and Thabo Mosololi 11:01 1
40 Alvaro Quiros and Dan Martin 11:01 1
41 Joakim Lagergren and Frank Vivier 11:12 1
41 JC Ritchie and Jay Varkey 11:12 1
42 Jason Scrivener and Andrew White 11:23 1
42 David Horsey and Billy Dewsall 11:23 1
43 Shane Lowry and Gerry McManus 09:00 10
43 Justin Harding and Vinnie Jones 09:00 10
44 Matt Wallace and Brian Higgins 09:11 10
44 Graeme McDowell and Ed Brown 09:11 10
45 Wilco Nienaber and Johann Rupert 09:22 10
45 Tommy Fleetwood and Ogden Phipps 09:22 10
46 Branden Grace and Jeremy Ord 09:33 10
46 Ernie Els and Rurik Gobel 09:33 10
47 Padraig Harrington and JP McManus 09:44 10
47 Rafa Cabrera Bello and Dermot Desmond 09:44 10
48 Jon Rahm and Edorta Rahm 09:55 10
48 Matthew Fitzpatrick and Luis Figo 09:55 10
49 Rory McIlroy and Gerry McIlroy 10:06 10
49 Danny Willett and Mohammed Farooq 10:06 10
50 Eddie Pepperell and AB de Villiers 10:17 10
50 Bernd Wiesberger and Kevin Pietersen 10:17 10
51 Lucas Bjerregaard and Dan Friedkin 10:28 10
51 Andrea Pavan and Chris Goodwin 10:28 10
52 Erik Van Rooyen and Dillie Malherbe 10:39 10
52 Tyrrell Hatton and Tim Edwards 10:39 10
53 Alex Noren and Ernesto Bertarelli 10:50 10
53 Haotong Li and Allen Zhang 10:50 10
54 Robert MacIntyre and Ashton Curtis 11:01 10
54 Martin Kaymer and Horst Kaymer 11:01 10
55 Justin Rose and Justin Timberlake 11:12 10
55 Tony Finau and Ryan Smith 11:12 10
56 Luke Donald and Jamie Redknapp 11:23 10
56 Lee Westwood and Ronan Keating 11:23 10

Kingsbarns:

57 Steven Brown and Korn Chatikavanij 09:00 1
57 Nacho Elvira and Alex Acquavella 09:00 1
58 Robert Karlsson and Paul Harris 09:11 1
58 Andres Romero and William Heyman 09:11 1
59 Zander Lombard and Dan Fireman 09:22 1
59 Scott Jamieson and Cian Foley 09:22 1
60 Michael Campbell and Manish Chopra 09:33 1
60 Bradley Dredge and John Van Wyk 09:33 1
61 Marcus Fraser and Marco Saviozzi 09:44 1
61 Harry Hall and Graham Head 09:44 1
62 Darren Fichardt and Hilgon Van Breda 09:55 1
62 Tapio Pulkkanen and Rob Hersov 09:55 1
63 Brandon Wu and Jim Crane 10:06 1
63 Sam Horsfield and Todd Wagner 10:06 1
64 Gaganjeet Bhullar and Sean Summers 10:17 1
64 Aaron Rai and Stephen Miron 10:17 1
65 Neil Schietekat and Denis Bowden 10:28 1
65 Jens Dantorp and Wayne Quasha 10:28 1
66 Hugo Leon and David Kilburn 10:39 1
66 Lucas Herbert and Philippe Bucheton 10:39 1
67 Renato Paratore and Ludovico Del Balzo 10:50 1
67 Sihwan Kim and Geoff Beattie 10:50 1
68 Jarryd Felton and Wilhelm Van Zyl 11:01 1
68 Jake McLeod and Gerard Rupert 11:01 1
69 Ashley Chesters and Michael Wang 11:12 1
69 Daniel Nisbet and Charlie Van Dyk 11:12 1
70 Paul Waring and Tony Bird 11:23 1
70 Adrian Otaegui and Ferdinand Groos 11:23 1
71 Alexander Levy and Pascal Grizot 09:00 10
71 Mike Lorenzo-Vera and Nick Acquavella 09:00 10
72 Romain Wattel and Robert Hissom 09:11 10
72 Romain Langasque and Dilip Thomas 09:11 10
73 Berry Henson and Liam Botham 09:22 10
73 Matthew Jordan and Mark Nicholas 09:22 10
74 Thriston Lawrence and Harry Van Dyk 09:33 10
74 Terry Pilkadaris and Simon Doull 09:33 10
75 Brandon Stone and Brett Pickett 09:44 10
75 Simon Hawkes and Duncan Simpson-Craib 09:44 10
76 Sean Crocker and Peter Bowden 09:55 10
76 Sebastian Soderberg and Jan Bengtsson 09:55 10
77 Fabrizio Zanotti and Joseph Lopez 10:06 10
77 Keenan Davidse and Jannie Durand 10:06 10
78 Alex Haindl and Bob Diamond 10:17 10
78 Haydn Porteous and Martin Gilbert 10:17 10
79 Rikard Karlberg and Walter Hussman Jr 10:28 10
79 David Howell and Stewart Forsyth 10:28 10
80 Paul Dunne and Jeff Kelter 10:39 10
80 Michael G Palmer and Giuseppe Ciucci 10:39 10
81 Victor Dubuisson and John Hegarty 10:50 10
81 Ross Fisher and Charles Ayres 10:50 10
82 Calum Hill and John Tyson 11:01 10
82 Joachim B. Hansen and Erwee Botha 11:01 10
83 Richie Ramsay and Richard Bevan 11:12 10
83 David Law and Scott Desano 11:12 10
84 Ricardo Gouveia and Bob Israel 11:23 10
84 Shubhankar Sharma and Johan Van Zyl 11:23 10