Two former amateur stars, Byeong-hun An of Korea and Alan Dunbar of Northern Ireland, put on a world-class display at the Scottish Hydro Challenge hosted by Macdonald Hotels and Resorts as they both carded stunning nine under par rounds of 62 to share the lead after day one.<\/p>\n
The European Challenge Tour is regarded as the best school for fledgling golfers to develop from promising amateurs to polished professionals and this was certainly a case of gifted young stars coming of age.<\/p>\n
Korean An, the 2009 US Amateur Champion who holds the record as the youngest winner of the prestigious event, and 2012 Amateur Champion Dunbar have both shown in the non-paid ranks that they have the talent to reach the headiest heights of the game.<\/p>\n
And in an incredible morning at Macdonald Spey Valley Golf Club in Northern Scotland, they both proved that they can also cut it in the professional ranks with superb performances.<\/p>\n
Dunbar got off to a poor start after teeing off at the 11th, bogeying his opening two holes, but that did not deter the 23 year old as he fired 11 birdies to smash the course record almost exactly a year after his biggest win as an amateur.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was in just the zone,\u201d said Dunbar, whose Amateur Championship win came at Royal Troon in Scotland. \u201cI\u2019ve been playing well all year now, shooting good scores but missing the cut by a couple of shots. It\u2019s good to put it all together and have a strong round.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt like a round like this was coming. I have been saying to my coach that I am playing well, and most of my rounds could easily have been four or five better. Even after the start I was confident of hitting good shots.\u201d<\/p>\n
Barely 30 minutes after Dunbar came in with that record-breaking score, the American-based An also signed for a 62. In contrast to Dunbar, An did not card a single bogey as he shot nine birdies on the way to his lowest round as a professional.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really like this course but it\u2019s actually fairly hard,\u201d said the 21 year old. \u201cThere are some hard holes. It is pretty long and gets pretty tough if you don\u2019t drive it very well. I missed the cut last year but this year I guess it suits me better.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was never thinking about 59 to be honest,\u201d he continued. \u201cI fired well on the front nine but the back nine is definitely harder. I just wanted to make par on the harder holes \u2013 11 and 12 are the hardest – and just get through those holes and see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n
Spaniard Sebi Garcia was a shot back after carding an eight under par 63 while there were seven players three shots further back on six under par, including former Challenge Tour Grand Final winner Andrea Pavan and local favourite Duncan Stewart, who lives just 15 minutes from this week\u2019s venue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Two former amateur stars, Byeong-hun An of Korea and Alan Dunbar of Northern Ireland, put on a world-class display at the Scottish Hydro Challenge hosted by Macdonald Hotels and Resorts as they both carded stunning nine under par rounds of 62 to share the lead after day one. The European Challenge Tour is regarded as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4545,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t