Dunhill Links weekend.

The Alfred Dunhill Links Trophy has been won by the 31 year old Englishman Simon Dyson, who had a blistering start to his final round over the Old Course at St. Andrews, with six birdies in his first seven holes. After a few birdies in those initial holes on the Old Course you would normally be feeling pretty good about how the round was progressing, so goodness knows how Mr Dyson must have been feeling as he watched all those putts drop into the hole.

Go on and win the tourny my son...Your time has come.

My amateur golfer from San Francisco, Doug, had his best Dunhill for quite a while only missing the 'Team Event' on the final day by one shot. We managed to score -20 for the tournament but the cut for the final day was set at -21. Doug picked up 8 shots at Kingsbarns after starting out at -12. A wonderful effort.

Below I have copied/pasted a full run down of the final days events as reported via the great Scottish golf web site 'Golf Scotland'.

Scotland's Richie Ramsay achieved his highest European Tour finish - joint fourth - in this his first season playing with the "big boys" and his biggest cheque for 149,809 Euros (£134,677) guarantees him playing rights for next season and well beyond because this performance should work wonders for his self-confidence.

After four sub-par rounds over Kingsbarns, Carnoustie and the Old Course (twice), the Aberdonian, in his second year as a pro after a stellar amateur career, can probably hardly wait for next year's Open championship over the Old Course, although he might take an iron off the tee at the last!

Former US amateur champion and Walker Cup player Ramsay is 96th in the European Tour money list with 308,871 Euros to his credit. Another Scottish rookie, Callum Macaulay is in 124th spot with 209,443 Euros in winnings. Steven O'Hara is 151st with 151,273 Euros to his name. Ramsay could actually have finished joint second but he missed a short, downhill putt on the Old Course's sloping last green. Had he holed it, Richie would have earned an additional £82,000.

The Aberdonian's last drive landed on the tarmac road that bisects the 18th fairway. It is an integral part of the course and you either play off it or take a lift and drop under a one-stroke penalty. Ramsay's second shot, played from the tarmac, came up short of the green in the notorious Valley of Sin. From there he putted up four feet passed the hole - and, a la Doug Sanders in the 1970 Open, missed the next one. "I said at the start of the week that I was going to be as positive as I could and I'm not going to let that Scottish negativity creep in," said Ramsay later. "I'm delighted, not only to have done so well in one of the biggest tournaments on the circuit at the home of golf, but also to have secured my job for another year." Ramsay, whose previous best European Tour finish was 10th in the Wales Open earlier this year, added: "Things have fallen into place this week and I feel this could be the start of something that I need to replicate more often. Scottish golf is looking for a player to be up there winning some big titles. We have a number of players knocking on the door like Callum Macaulay, Steven O'Hara and myself who are all looking to be the guy to make the breakthrough."

Wallace Booth earned his first cheque as a tour pro - £6,000 - for a total of four-under-par 284.
Simon Dyson must have known it could be a special day from his second shot - a pitch to three feet that brought him level with Donald, who, with a 73, fell all the way back to seventh place. Luke still has not won for three-and-a-half years. By the eighth tee, Dyson was already four clear - and although McIlroy did cut it back to two by turning in 32 to the winner's 30 that was as close as it got. Dyson added another birdie on the 12th and could afford to bogey the Road Hole 17th.

McIlroy ruined his chances of winning by bogeying the 12th, 16th and 17th. But his birdie on the last was huge for the Tour money list battle. For Wilson it was an eighth runners-up finish - he has yet to win - while for 20-year-old McIlroy it was good enough to take him from third to first on the money list with two months of the race to go. Dyson now leads Europe's Ryder Cup race and is in the world's top 50 for the first time.

FINAL TOTALS
Par 288 (4x72). Final round over Old Course, St Andrews.
268 Simon Dyson 68 66 68 66 (540,440 Euros).
271 Rory McIlroy 68 65 69 69, Oliver Wilson 69 67 70 65 (281,690 Euros each).
272 Richie Ramsay 67 66 70 69, Rafael Cabrera Bello (Spa) 70 68 65 69 (149,809 Euros each).
273 Ross McGowan 66 68 71 68
274 Luke Donald 72 65 64 73, Darren Clarke 68 68 67 71
275 Gary Lockerbie 69 71 67 68, Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg) 70 71 68 66, Francois Delamontagne (Fra) 71 67 67 70, Gregory Bourdy (Fra) 73 67 67 68, Kenneth Ferrie 69 66 69 71, Paul McGinley 69 67 69 70, Lee Westwood 73 67 66 69
276 Peter Hanson (Swe) 72 64 75 65, Jose Manuel Lara (Spa) 67 68 69 72, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 67 71 68 70
277 Brett Rumford (Aus) 68 71 70 68, Marc Warren 70 69 71 67, David Dixon 68 67 73 69, Simon Khan 74 70 67 66, Graeme Storm 69 69 72 67, Michael Hoey 67 66 70 74, Paul Broadhurst 70 67 72 68
278 Richard Bland 72 67 71 68, Carlos Del Moral (Spa) 69 69 71 69, Mikko Ilonen (Fin) 70 64 70 74, Graeme McDowell 69 70 68 71, Steven O'Hara 71 66 74 67, Johan Edfors (Swe) 70 68 70 70, Ernie Els (Rsa) 72 72 66 68, James Kamte (Rsa) 69 69 70 70, Sam Little 68 71 67 72, Padraig Harrington 70 70 72 66
279 Joakim Haeggman (Swe) 73 69 68 69, Francesco Molinari (Ita) 71 68 69 71, Damien McGrane 71 71 68 69, Dale Whitnell 69 69 73 68, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 74 67 68 70, Ignacio Garrido (Spa) 68 71 71 69
280 Callum Macaulay 72 73 67 68, Alessandro Tadini (Ita) 69 70 73 68, Soren Hansen (Den) 71 69 71 69, Thomas Bjorn (Den) 64 74 72 70, Marcel Siem (Ger) 70 71 70 69, Danny Willett 71 67 70 72, Mark Foster 71 70 68 71, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 70 69 73 68, Bradley Dredge 72 69 69 70
281 Gareth Maybin 66 73 71 71, Wade Ormsby (Aus) 70 66 73 72
282 Hennie Otto (Rsa) 70 70 72 70, Graham Delaet (Can) 70 68 74 70, Marc Cayeux (Zim) 70 70 71 71, Daniel Vancsik (Arg) 70 71 70 71, Brad Faxon (USA) 74 67 71 70, Trevor Immelman (Rsa) 71 67 72 72, Keith Horne (Rsa) 70 70 70 72, Richard Green (Aus) 72 69 69 72, AlastairForsyth 70 64 77 71
283 Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 70 71 70 72, Gary Murphy 71 72 69 71, Michael Jonzon (Swe) 72 73 67 71, Alvaro Quiros (Spa) 72 68 70 73
284 Brett Quigley (USA) 72 71 69 72, Wallace Booth 72 65 75 72, David Lynn 73 66 73 72
285 Chih-bing Lam (Sin) 69 69 74 73
287 Lee Slattery 68 71 72 76