Jarvis impresses on day one at British Open

By Bob Harig at St Andrews, Scotland, for the Cayman Compass

This has been another dream week for Aaron Jarvis, and a decent three-over-par round in tough conditions in Scotland, Thursday, leaves him with an outside chance of making the cut in one of the biggest tournaments in golf.

Jarvis, 19, the first golfer from the Cayman Islands to qualify for a major championship, is playing in his second at The Open after missing the cut in April at the Masters.

Such are the perks of winning the Latin America Amateur Championship in the Dominican Republic in January.

“It’s been great,’’ said Jarvis, who shot 75 on the Old Course at St. Andrews, besting both of his playing partners, major champions Sergio Garcia and Stewart Cink. “There’s a lot of preparation necessary for this golf course and it’s completely different to Augusta. It’s been a lot to deal with the wind, the colder weather but it’s been good.’’

Jarvis ended the day 11 shots shy of day one leader Cameron Young, who blitzed an impressive eight-under-par 64. Rory McIlroy was in second place on six-under with Cameron Smith one-shot further back in 3rd.

The Caymanian has a chance of making the halfway cut – likely to be around evens or one-over-par – though he will need a good round on Friday.

Jarvis visited St Andrews last month to get a first look at the famous links when he came to the United Kingdom for The Amateur Championship. He returned on Saturday to get in more prep, and managed to get a practice round game on Tuesday with Phil Mickelson, Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau.

Experiences such as that might be more valuable than the golf itself, and Jarvis – who will be a sophomore at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, in the fall – is trying to take it all in.

“It was great,’’ Jarvis said. “Phil was fun, he tried to tell me a few things about the course. I was trying to learn as much as I could.’’

Jarvis got off to a tough start, bogeying three of the first five holes and not making his first birdie until the ninth. He then added another birdie at the 12^thto get back to 1 over par, but then made consecutive bogeys, including the par-5 14^th. Jarvis played the two par-5s in 12 strokes.

He also failed to take advantage of a short birdie chance at the 18^th.

“All the young guys look great to me,’’ said Cink, 49, who won The Open in 2009 and is playing the tournament for the 23^rd time. “I watched him win that Latin American Amateur, so I saw it on television. So I already knew a little bit about him.

“And no surprise that he played really good golf. We all took our lumps out there a little bit at times. But he hit some nice shots and he’s powerful and he’s going to school for golf and that’s great. I think that’s awesome and I’m happy for him. And he’s a pleasure to play with. You can tell he’s excited about being here and he’s got a good attitude.

“That’s what I look for the most, enjoy it. Don’t come out here and try to be one of us already. We’re serious. We have fun, too, but let him have a good time.’’

Cink noted that learning a course as intricate as the Old Course takes some time.

“It takes some getting used to it,’’ he said “What you see out there on he Old Course right now is links golf in extreme form. With the way the ball in the fairway is just rolling until something stops it. That something is usually rough or sand.

“So it is extreme links golf. And it throws you for a loop sometimes. Even somebody like me. I played in 24 of these. It threw me for a loop a few times with some of the bounces how far some of the shots were going, short and long on both different wind directions.

“So I don’t think the forecast is for a whole lot of wind. But if it was blowing 20 to 30 miles out there, I don’t know how you can play this thing right now. I don’t know. It’s kind of insane out there. In a great way, though. I love playing here. But I feel very blessed and fortunate to be able to play St Andrews when it’s like this.’’

So did Jarvis, who figures to have more fun on Friday. He will have a much earlier start along with Cink and Garcia at 7:52am local time (1:52am in Cayman).

Perhaps the weather will be calmer, the conditions a bit easier.

“I’ve got some things to work on,” Jarvis said, “but I’m looking forward to another chance tomorrow.’’