Rolex Series

Thomas Detry out to play at Renaissance Club

Thomas Detry was enjoying life in his "playground" as he continued his love affair with The Renaissance Club by carding a 64 on day one of the Genesis Scottish Open.

The Belgian has never finished outside the top 45 at this week's venue, losing out in a play-off in 2021 and finishing in the top ten last season.

He showed yet more links prowess recently by qualifying for The Open Championship at Royal Cinque Ports and was once again enjoying testing himself against the UK coastline.

"It's my playground here," he said. "I always play well. I finished top ten last year. I just feel good out here.

"I have a lovely little cottage out here on the golf course. I'm staying here with my family and everybody is happy. I feel good.

"I qualified for The Open on a links course last week, so it was a good preparation for the tournament this week.

"No big adjustments for me. Just a lot of feel golf, I want to say. Like a lot of feeling, feeling the shot in there, feeling the putts with the wind, I think that's the most important."

The 30-year-old made birdie from inside 12 feet on the tenth, 11th, 12th and 14th to get off to a lightning start and, while he dropped a shot on the 16th, he left himself a tap-in on the next.

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Another bogey came on the fourth but smart approaches to the fifth and eighth were followed by another stunner on the ninth as he got to six under.

"Obviously started the day with three birdies in a row, that always helps," he said. "After that, I missed a couple of tee-shots and managed to get some amazing up-and-downs to really keep the momentum going.

"And then iron play has been off the chart today. I think on nine I hit it to a foot. On 17, which was my eighth hole, I hit it to another foot as well. Easy birdies like that make it quite nice.

"You can kind of make some big numbers out there with the rough up and the wind blowing. So if you can keep it on the fairway and take advantage of the par fives, you can shoot a low one."

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