The Open: Barclay Brown takes break from university to tear up St Andrews

With his trendy camouflage bucket hat, Barclay Brown could have passed for a gap-year student earning some extra cash here at St Andrews.

Yet by the time he had spent all day near the top of the Open leaderboard, there was no chance he would go unnoticed.

The 21-year-old amateur from Sheffield, who is still at university, carded a four-under-par 68 to find himself sandwiched between names like McIlroy and Westwood.

Getting up at the very non-student hour of 4am, he was in the second group out. Well before lunch he had registered five birdies and one bogey to live among such hallowed company. After an anxious beginning he was able to implement some of the advice he had sought this week from former Open champions.

‘I was unbelievably nervous at the start,’ admitted Brown. ‘Then once I got through the first couple of holes it was nice to calm down a little and hit some good shots.

‘I had a good chat with Sir Nick Faldo and Darren Clarke as well before coming out and they were able to help. They said keep it out of the bunkers and get good at hitting 60-foot putts.’

Sheffield is a city synonymous with silver and, increasingly, with golf. It could now boast a second Silver Medal winner at the Open in nine years — for best amateur — after Matt Fitzpatrick won it at Muirfield. That might be more than coincidence. The current US Open champion emerged from the same Hallamshire Golf Club as Brown, where his brother Elliott, company director father Seb and mother Jayne are members.

Not only has Sheffield also produced Danny Willett, but it has another amateur in the field, Sam Bairstow, who shot 72 on Thursday. Last year Brown partnered Fitzpatrick’s brother Alex in the Walker Cup match against the US.

Thursday’s surprise package, who earned his spot through the qualifying event at Hollinwell, has undertaken his own particular golfing journey. He is in his third year studying economics and industrial relations at Stanford, the California university once attended by Tiger Woods.

By no means the first from the unpaid ranks to mix it with the pros at the Open, he believes there is a reason why. ‘I think amateurs are comfortable with it. So many of the big events that we play as UK players, it’s links golf all year round,’ said Brown.

Yet by the time he had spent all day near the top of the Open leaderboard, there was no chance he would go unnoticed

The 21-year-old amateur from Sheffield, who is still at university, carded a four-under-par 68 to find himself sandwiched between names like McIlroy (above) and Westwood

Staying with his family up in the town, he wasn’t even bothered by the 6.45am tee-off. ‘When I saw the draw, I said it’s not too bad because I’ll probably be awake at 4am anyway playing the first day of the Open,’ Brown added. ‘I might as well be out playing golf rather than sitting twiddling my thumbs.’

The birdies started rolling in for him on the seventh and then the ninth. After bogeying the 10th he gained strokes again on the 12th and 14th. On the Road Hole 17th he sank a putt from 63 feet to go four-under and could easily have finished even better, had he not taken three from the edge of the green on the 18th.

Brown still has some way to go to emulate Paul Dunne, the Irish amateur who jointly led the Open after 54 holes at St Andrews in 2015. And glory can be fleeting — seven years and many injury struggles on, Dunne is currently ranked 1,806 in the world.