…And Dornan puts an Eagle in Round 1 of the Alfred Dunhill & Links Championship 2015 edition!

It was a surprise to to many of Jamie’s fans when he showed up on the greens of the St.Andrew’s golf course in Scotland for a round of training in preparation for the ADL Championship. It was a real treat for his fans as the self proclaimed Bad Golfer, would try his hand a ta second time in the tournament. “A year really helped. You don’t feel as scared on the first tee. We’ve been lucky with the weather and so I’ll just relax and enjoy,” Dornan reflected on his first take of his second round of participation in the tournament and for the next 3 days; four if he and partner Peter Uihlein make it the final round on Sunday.

So how did Jamie do on his first round? He was phenomenal for being such an amateur playing with the pros.  Not nearly as well as on a team as they missed placing in the top 20 on the leader board. Jamie and Peter need to land a spot among the top twenty teams if they want to compete in the final round. After today’s game, they’ve placed 24th out of 168 teams. Not too shabby! The team completed the Old Course at St.Andrew’s in Scotland with a score of 64 with 8 points under par. (To refresh your memory, the par on a golf course is the average number of strokes, or number of ball hits, expected on a course. The lower number of strokes you make on an 18-holes course, the better your score.) The Old-Course has a par of 72. With a score of 64, Jamie and Peter played 8 strokes under the average expected. Each hole also has their own individual par; when you play par, you play the average number of strokes expected. When you score a birdie, you put the ball in the hole by striking it one time under the average. With a bit of luck and practice, one might also hit the hole two strokes under the average. This is called an eagle, and is exactly what Jamie accomplished today. A bogey is logged in when the average number of strokes expected on the hole is above average.

According to the team scorecard, Jamie played par on holes 2, 4 and 9. On hole 7, he scored a birdie. He registered a 5-stroke bogey (as did Peter) on hole 12. It’s unknown what Jamie’s results are for 11 holes because he scored more than Peter. As the goal in golf is to finish the game with the least amount of strokes possible, the team records on the leader board the lowest score between the two players. But Jamie blew the crowd and TV analysts away on the 18th hole when he scored a magnificent 64-foot eagle. This shot was easily the highlight of the day and was featured on various sports networks including NBC’s Golf Channel and on the European Golf Tour website.

It looks like Jamie also worked wonders on hole 15 where he most likely managed another eagle. It didn’t produce any buzz among the online golf community, in relation to his 64-footer on hole 18. Overall, Jamie doesn’t give himself any credit, as the self proclaimed Bad Golfer, seems to be pretty damn good. Afterall, bad golfers don’t get invited to prestigious golf tournaments to join the pros on the green. Let’s not jump to conclusion and say that Dornan is ready to play professionally.

According to Janice, a devoted golf fan that knows her stuff, it’s possible to think that Jamie’s handicap can be something between 15 and 10 (meaning 15 or 10 strokes above par). She bases her belief on Peter’s individual score and the overall team results. Furthermore, Janice finds Jamie’s swing fairly decent and fine tuned. (A handicap is a numerical measure of a golfer’s potential playing ability based on holes played for a given course.) For this particular tournament, Jamie had to provide his card, holding the scores he’s got on his 10 left games to calculate his handicap. And because the tournament is part of the European Golf Tour, ADL amateur competitors are given the right, per some given rules, to take off one stroke on a number of holes on the three golf courses on which the championship is held. “Neither Janice nor me know which holes are subject to handicaps.”

“It’s not wrong in thinking that based on today’s scores for Team Dornan/Uihlein, Jamie may had played five under his handicap as his teammate and pro golfer Peter was -3 and together, they totaled -8”, says Janice. Supposing Jamie’s handicap is 15 (15 strokes above the par of 72 for the Old Course) and that he played today 5 under his handicap, it would mean that Jamie played 82 (+10), which reflects a really good score for an amateur player.

Tomorrow, Team Dornan/Uihlein play the Carnoustie Course. It is said to be the most difficult among the three courses. He’s teeing off at 11:12 AM local time. Let’s hope they can come together as a team and place in the top 20. But regarless of the outcome, Jamie fans everywhere are just excited to see him play.

Credit to Karoline of @Jamie_DornanCAN for the article.