Matthew

Jordan

The 25-year-old Jordan, 76th in the Race to Dubai rankings, will make his second start at the European Tour’s penultimate event of the season in Dubai. Last year at Jumeirah Golf Estates’ Fire Course, he rebounded from a first-round, 1-over 73 to card three rounds in the 60s – 68-69-66 – and finish at 12-under 276, 13 strokes behind winner Antoine Rozner of France. Jordan is still chasing his first European Tour victory, but he does have one Challenge Tour title to his credit, capturing the 2019 Italian Challenge in his just his seventh start with a playoff win over Italian Lorenzo Scalise. On the season, he’s made 13 cuts in 22 starts with three top 10s including a T-4 at the European Masters and T-6 at the Hero Open, both in August.

Al Mouj Golf is a desert resort course close to the ocean, but it bears a distinct visual linksland look in places and the course itself also plays like one in some senses. The grass is paspalum, which prevents true links shots being played, but stood on tees and in the fairway the shots very much look like traditional British and Irish seaside challenges. And that bodes well for the Englishman who plays his golf at Royal Liverpool. Moreover, he led the British Masters at Hillside last year after round one and was first at halfway in October’s Dunhill Links ahead of landing fifth. He was also T20 last time out at the linksy Vic Open, a decent effort after he found himself T100 after 18 holes.

The English youngster finished ninth on the Challenge Tour to earn promotion to the big time, but it hasn’t quite worked for him yet. He was T49 at Leopard Creek before missing cuts in Mauritius and Saudi Arabia. But maybe this week is set up nicely for him to thrive and kick start his rookie season. The two tracks are effectively linksland and he enjoys that challenge having been brought up playing at Royal Liverpool. He proved as much when finishing T32 in the Dunhill Links in 2018, claiming the first round lead in the British Masters at Hillside (he ended the week T16) and finally logging T5 at last year’s Dunhill Links.

The young Englishman flattered to deceive a little last week in the Alfred Dunhill Championship. He opened 69-74 to lie T14 at halfway, but then lurched home in 80-72 for T49. It was a disappointing seasonal debut for a youngster much is expected of. In 11 European Tour starts he chugged along nicely until this season when he began to suggest he’s really rather good. At the British Masters he led by two after round one (finished T15) and he led by one after 36 holes at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship (finished T5). He closed the 2019 Challenge Tour season with T9 in the Foshan Open in China and then T4 in the Grand Final.

Jordan started his week with a 66 at Kingsbarns and then caught fire at St Andrews today when playing Nos. 3-8 in 7-under, the Englishman starting that six-hole sequence with eagle-2 at the third. The pace slowed in the poorer weather after that and he took it the clubhouse with nine pars and a final birdie at 13. Jordan was the surprise first-round leader in the British Masters at Hillside back in May, another tournament played on the links (finished T15), and has amateur victories at the Lytham Trophy and over the Old Course at the St Andrews Links Trophy so it’s no surprise to see him thriving. This is the 23-year-old’s first 36-hole lead on the European Tour and puts him in great position to improve his Race to Dubai ranking of 194th. Jordan, who plays Carnoustie in round three, said: “I was just free-wheeling it really. I wasn’t thinking too much which is probably a good thing.”

That’s a drop of six spots to T7 but the youngster, who has lots of experience on these local Lancashire links, is still a part of the conversation as we head into the final 36 holes at Hillside. A wild start today saw the Englishman birdie the par-3 10th before taking seven swishes at the par-5 11th. He let another shot slip at 14 but then reminded us of yesterday’s heroics by connecting a trio of birdies at 15, 16 and 17. Jordan still had the chance to reel in Wallace, who had led in the clubhouse all afternoon, but struggled on his second nine with two bogeys (2 and 8) against a lone birdie at 3. He had a cushion today after such a hot opening 18 so we’ll see how he goes on from here now the momentum has switched.

The Royal Liverpool GC member, and Lytham Trophy winner, was always going to be an interesting contender this week and he has duly impressed with his competence at the links game (and his ability to withstand the cold and wet weather). His card was splashed with red right from the get-go. He opened with birdies at the first and second, adding three more before the turn at the fourth, sixth and eighth. The back nine was a similar story with ticks at the tenth and 11th, then more of them at the 13th and 15th. He could have gone lower, but he only made par at both the 504-yard par-5 fifth and the 548-yard par-5 17th. He has finished T7 and T20 on the Challenge Tour in the last two weeks and he was also an interesting performer in the Dunhill Links Championship last Fall when he opened and closed with laps of 77 and 74, but pegged 67-66 in the middle rounds. When he signed his card he was two clear of Marcus Kinhult both in the clubhouse and on the live leaderboard.

The young Englishman, who plays out of Open venue Royal Liverpool, has made just seven starts on the European Tour since turning pro last year but he’s cashed in five of them. His latest, and best, finish came via T34 in last month’s Saudi International when he recovered from an opening 73 to fire 65-67-71. Two weeks later he headed to South Africa for the Dimension Data Pro-Am and finished T34 again so he’s slowly building some confidence in the pro ranks. Don’t be surprised if he plays all four rounds again here.

The young Englishman turned pro last month after a fine amateur career. On invite he made the cut at the KLM Open and wrote on Twitter: “What a great week in Holland. First event, first cut made. However the whole excitement of the event/turning pro led to me being drained and a bad weekend.” He then missed the cut in Portugal. Linksland will be more his style at this stage of his career, having spent lots of time on it during his amateur days. He won the St Andrews Links Trophy in late 2017 and the Lytham Trophy this summer, when the only player in the field under par.