DP World Tour Announces Dunhill Links Shotgun Start

The DP World Tour is adopting shotgun starts…but only for one day because of the bad weather expected Friday afternoon.

Round two of the Dunhill Links Championship, held across  the Old Course at St Andrews, Carnoustie and Kingsbarns, will be played using a shotgun start - one of the differentiating factors of the rival LIV Golf Series - to try and get all players back to the clubhouses before the worst of the weather hits. 

Shotgun starts see all players tee off at the same time, starting at different holes on the course. It is integral to LIV Golf’s offering meaning a day’s golf only takes around three hours, though it means numbers are limited. With three-player groups, LIV, whose tournaments feature 48 players, can only have a maximum of 54 players. 

With the Dunhill Links being played over three course, the shotgun start is available for the whole field, with all players teeing off at 8.30am, half an hour earlier than scheduled. All three courses are on the east coast of Scotland, where heavy rain is forecast on Friday. Southerly winds are expected to gust up to 45mph, though the rain should end in the late afternoon, with winds dying down too.

The forecast for Saturday is mostly cloudy and windy with scattered showers, though the gusts are a bit more manageable, up to 30mph. On Sunday the sun should come out on occasion, though there are still those gusty winds, up to 25mph.

On an opening day with barely a cloud in the sky and no hint of the bad weather expected, the scoring was very low. Romain Langasque was the early leader after carding an 11-under-par round of 61 at St Andrews with fellow Frenchman Frederic Lacroix 10-under after his 62 at Kingsbarns.