Home favourite Ewen Ferguson reaped the rewards of heading to Scotland's east coast a week early as he posted a bogey free 67 on day one of the Scottish Championship presented by AXA to sit alongside countrymen Scott Jamieson and Marc Warren on five under par.
The players wrapped up warm on Thursday as the inaugural edition of this event got under way at a chilly Fairmont St Andrews.
But despite the cool weather, the scoring was good, with early starter Ferguson following up two birdies on his front nine with three more coming down the stretch, shortly after Adrian Otaegui had notched ten birdies in his sparkling 62.
Ferguson travelled up late last week and played a round in colder conditions than the field experienced on day one, and he believes that made his first round feel a little easier.
He said: "It was really good, no bogeys. I tried to stay really calm, hit one shot at a time.
"I tried to make it a little job of hitting a good shot, get the gloves on and snood up and moving on to the next shot.
"It's hard trying not to get frustrated out there. It's easy to make mistakes when your hands are freezing and it's windy as well.
"I am kind of used to it. I came up here on Friday last week because I wasn't playing. Came out with my friend and girlfriend and played 18 holes.
"It was even colder and windier so I guess it felt a bit easier today. I'm used to cool-ish conditions but not as much wind. It wasn't too bad today, it was kind of nice for us."
Starting at the tenth tee, Jamieson carded one birdie and one bogey on his front nine before catching fire after the turn.
He made three straight birdies from the first before repeating the trick and the sixth, seventh and eighth.
Jamieson closed his round with a bogey but was happy with his back nine effort.
He said: "Standing on the first tee, my tenth, I was only level par so five under is a good start after that."
