Scott

Jamieson

The 38-year-old Scotsman, No. 283 in the world rankings, stayed in contention through three rounds and held a one-shot lead after 54 holes. But Jamieson surrendered his advantage after opening with back-to-back bogeys, failing to get up and down from the sand at the first and missing the green again at the second, putting eventual winner Thomas Pieters of Belgium in the driver’s seat. It marked the second top 10 in Abu Dhabi for Jamieson, who is 6-for-10 in the event. He said after his first round, he wasn’t sure exactly how his game was going to be taking a different approach during his offseason. “This is the first off-season I haven’t actually peeled the skin back and try to figure out how to get better,” he said Thursday. “Felt like the game was in a good place finishing in Dubai (T-13 at Dubai Championship in November) and just missed out on a top-10 there. I’ve been driving it a lot better the last few events of the year last year, so no, I was pretty comfortable where my game was. I just had to hope that it turned up again eight weeks later.” He may need to reexamine a few things after making seven bogeys and just two birdies in his 5-over 77 on Sunday, which dropped him into a tie for 10th with Adam Scott. He’s in the field this week at the Dubai Desert Classic, where Jamieson has made 10 starts and missed just one cut (2019). His best finish at Emirates GC was a T-5 in 2012. He was T-27 last year.

The Scot lost some consistency this season with just 13 cuts made in 23 events played but made up for it with five top 20s. The highlight was a T8 at the Italian Open. He now boasts a 185-for-299 career record on the DP World Tour and he’s finished 109th or better in every season that he’s played since 2011. Gamers should continue to consider him in weekly fantasy formats when play resumes in late January. Looking to stay busy over the holidays, Jamieson entered the Big Money Golf Classic in the Orlando area this week. He posted three straight 2-under 68s to hover right around the top 20 with play still winding down on Friday afternoon.

The 37-year-old Scotsman opened with a 2-under 69 then followed up with his blistering bogey-free, 10-birdie performance. “I just did the simple things well, holed the putts at the right time and kept momentum on my side,” said Jamieson, who has one Euro Tour title to his name (2013 Nelson Mandela Championship). He ballooned to an even-par 71 on Saturday but finished off with a 1-under 70 to place T-22. He’s made five cuts in seven starts this season, and he cracked the top 20 with a T-16 in Abu Dhabi in January. Last season, the 11-year European Tour veteran went 15-for-18 and posted four top-10 finishes with his best coming at the Alfred Dunhill Championship where he finished T-6.

With the exception of 2015, when he failed to land a top ten and consequently slumped to 134th on the Race to Dubai, the Scot has always retained his European Tour card since he arrived on the circuit via the Challenge Tour in 2011. In that time he has collected ten top three finishes, but just the one win and that was something of a remarkable curiosity (the 2013 Nelson Mandela Invitational). The course? A par-65 inside a horse track. The tournament? 36 holes. Weather explained all of that, of course, and Jamieson carded 57 to win in the second round! He has not been without chances to add to that win. In all, he’s had ten top three positions with 18 holes to play on the ET, but only twice has he then gone sub-70. He opened 2020 with T8 in Abu Dhabi, was T12 in Qatar when last seen, made two of three cuts in-between, and is 46th on the Race to Dubai.

The Scotsman has never particularly enjoyed his forays to the Turkish town of Belek, playing there four times in the past and having a best of T39. But this week he needs a strong finish to guarantee his participation in next week’s Nedbank Challenge, and he is also taking aim at the top 50 who will progress to the DP World Tour Championship. He started the week ranked 74th and was projected to climb 12 spots with his 67 which started on the back nine with seven pars followed by a birdie brace at the 17th and 18th. He kept his foot down with more red at the first, sixth, eighth and ninth, with just the one error on the fifth. The 35-year-old will be celebrating ten years on the European Tour next season and told the Scottish media: “I’d like to make it 20 by the time I’m in my mid-40s.”

Right now, he’s T3 on the live leaderboard, a shot behind fellow Scot Robert MacIntyre (thru 12) and England’s Matt Wallace (9). Jamieson had to contend with cool morning temperatures to begin with but was steady over his first five holes, parring them all. He bagged a first birdie of the day at 6 and added another circle at 9 to turn in 2-under. The World No. 281 dropped a shot at 15 but birdied all three of the back nine’s par 5s (12, 17 and 18), his gains at the final two holes finishing off an excellent morning. Jamieson was second after day one here two years ago before finishing T14 while he was the halfway leader in last week’s KLM Open before sliding to T21. That followed T12 at the European Masters so he’s been showing some nice form.

The Scot, playing in the penultimate group of the day from tee No.1 at The International, separated himself from the pack with birdies on the par 5s at 15 and 18. That broke him out of a five-way tie from James Morrison, Callum Shinkwin, Segio Garcia and Matthew Southgate, who are all at -9. Jamieson had a bogey and a double bogey in his opening 68 but eliminated the mistakes on lap two whilst shooting seven birdies for the second day running. The first five came at 3, 4, 5, 10 and 14. The World No. 283 was T10 in this event three years ago while he posted T12 at the European Masters on his last start. He’s held the halfway. lead five times on the European Tour, converting once. That’s actually misleading as it came at the 2012 Nelson Mandela Championship where the event was cut to 36 holes due to bad weather. On the last two occasions he led going into the weekend, Jamieson slipped to T14 (2017 BMW PGA Championship) and T42 (Nordea Masters).

Starting his day at 10, the Scot had an early opportunity to advance his 3-under overnight score but on two holes he birdied yesterday, Jamieson went 5-5 (bogey-par). He swallowed another square at 12 and closed out a poor opening nine with a dropped shot at the 9th. But after slipping outside the top 20, he started his second nine with four pars and then went 3-3-3-3 (three birdies and a par) to return to page one of the leaderboard. A closing par saw him come home in 32 and in position to make a title run this weekend. Jamieson was tied sixth on his last start at Valderrama in 2017 so certainly has some pedigree at the famed Spanish track.

The Scot took his lunch six shots behind the early pace-setter Ashun Wu, and three back of second placed Jorge Campillo, but sat alongside Jacques Kruyswijk and Matthieu Pavon in the clubhouse, although afternoon starters were well set to get ahead of him. That said the trio will remain high on the leaderboard. Jamieson was on fire early in his circuit, thrashing a hat-trick of birdies at the second, third and fourth, then adding back-to-back red numbers at the sixth and seventh. A first error of the day came at the eighth, but he repaired the damage with red at 11. However he then lurched home with five pars and dropped shots at the 15th and 18th.