David Law’s early recollections of the Old Course hardly inspire a great deal of confidence.
“The first time I was here was 2009 when I played the St Andrews Links Trophy … very unsuccessfully,” he said with a wry grin. Or was it a grimace?
The Aberdonian certainly has plenty to smile about this week as he makes his first appearance in a very special Open. A major debut in the 150th staging of golf’s most cherished championship? It doesn’t get much better.
“If you were to pick one it would be The Open,” said the former Scottish Amateur champion. “And if you were to pick one particular Open it would be at St Andrews. It’s a really special one. You can feel the buzz and the vibe around the tournament.”
Law is certainly buzzing for this particular occasion. It’s taken him a while to reach this major stage but good things come to those who wait. Having joined the paid ranks back in 2011, after a stellar amateur career burnished by all sorts of baubles, Law chiselled away at the coalface of the lower tier tours for so long, he was just covered in a dusting of soot.
The breakthrough finally came in 2018 when he won the Scottish Hydro Challenge on the second tier Challenge Tour and earned promotion to the European – now DP World - Tour. The following year, he won on the main circuit in Australia as his career accelerated after years of graft.
Through it all, the presence of his mentor Paul Lawrie has provided a constant source of support, encouragement and inspiration. Lawrie, the Claret Jug winner in 1999, was set to batter away the first tee-shot of this week’s Open at the crack of dawn today.
“It’s something he deserves and he’s excited about that,” added Law of the honour bestowed upon his fellow Aberdonian. As for the pearls of wisdom Lawrie has provided down the years?
“It’s quite a difficult question because he has given me so many little things,” said Law of the abundance of knowledge, experience and advice that has been passed down. "It can be things he has said or done. Whatever it is, I’m always learning and trying to pick up on the things he does.
“He has always said to me right from the start of my professional career, from being on the Challenge Tour and then onto the European Tour, that I deserve to be here.
“It’s just nice to be here and to be able to practice with Paul. He has helped me out since I was 14, so it’s special to play in a major tournament that he is competing in as well.”
Given all historic hoopla surrounding this week’s showpiece, it could be easy for an Open debutant to get caught up in the general point-and-gawp wonderment of it all. Law is taking it in his canny stride, though.
“It’s a fine line between really enjoying the week and focussing on competing because, first and foremost, that’s what I’m here to do; to compete.
“I’m trying to find the balance as I want to enjoy every minute, while at the same time preparing as best as I can to play a golf tournament.
“I’m trying not to do too much either. A younger me might have played 18 holes on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and then be burnt out by the time the tournament starts.”
The Old Course is certainly burning up nicely with the glorious weather that’s shone down on the links recently. It will be playing as firm as the A90 to Aberdeen and Law, who played all four rounds of last week’s Scottish Open at The Renaissance, has been grateful for that pre-Open tune-up.
“The place is brick hard,” he said. “We discussed that it was difficult to even take the bunkers out of play because you can’t predict how the ball will run. It might run 60 yards along the ground.
“It’s a completely different test to most weeks. Luckily last week was really similar in terms of balls running a long way. It was tough to stop the ball on the greens. That was a good run out.”
Now Law is set to step out on golf’s biggest stage.
