Bradley Neil put in a performance of poise and purpose over the links of West Kilbride as he set a brisk early pace on day one of the Ramsdens Currency Scottish PGA Championship.
The 30-year-old from Blairgowrie, who is doing his PGA training at Turnhouse in Edinburgh, posted a neatly assembled six-under 65 to lead by two shots from Jordan Sundborg.
Neil, the winner of the Amateur Championship as a teenager back in 2014, harnessed the tricky conditions to good effect and illuminated a seven-birdie round with a raking putt of 35-feet for a two on the short fourth.
“Today was about having a really clear strategy and making sure I didn’t get into trouble,” said Neil, who had a season on the DP World Tour in 2018 before changing career direction and going down The PGA route.
“There are a few tee shots you have to be really careful with and a few where you can use other holes for lines in. It all worked out well.
“Turning back for home, the wind is pushing you towards the beach, so I was really pleased with the way I kept my ball under control.”
As a talented junior, Neil played his first Scottish Boys’ Championship at West Kilbride back in 2010 and the former Eisenhower Trophy player enjoyed his walk down memory lane.
“I always have fond memories of this place,” he added. “It’s nice to revisit a course you played a lot as a junior. But it does make you feel old!”
Sundborg, playing in the final match of the day, emerged as Neil’s closest challenger with a 67.
The former Scottish Young Professionals’ champion made five birdies in his first 11 holes, but his par save on the 13th was just as important as those earlier gains.
“That was probably the highlight of the round,” he said. “It was a 40-footer from just off the green and it kept the momentum of the round going.”
John Henry benefitted from a little tweak to his swing and opened with a three-under 68 to lurk in third.
“All season, I’ve been hustling my way around the course and not been hitting it great tee to green,” said Henry, who made an early advance with an eagle on the third and holed a 15-footer for a birdie on the last.
“I was away with some friends to Southerness recently and I found something in the swing there. I’m now just having a wee pause at the top of the back swing, instead of rushing it. It seems to work.”
Paul O’Hara, the national champion in 2025 and a runner-up the last time the event was held at West Kilbride in 2022, clocked in for the early shift and emerged with a steady two-under 69.
“It was a 4:30 am alarm for me,” said O’Hara, who was out in the very first group of the day and managed to pick up a couple of birdies on the inward half.
“I was level-par going out and treading water, but I played the hard holes well coming in.”
O’Hara was joined on the two-under mark by the in-form Graeme Robertson, who arrived at West Kilbride off the back of his first top-10 finish on the second-tier HotelPlanner Tour in Finland.
His journey home meant he didn’t have time for a practice round, but he used his knowledge and experience to chisel out a sturdy card which included four birdies in five holes from the fifth.
Robertson, with two Order of Merit wins on the Tartan Tour this season, won the Scottish PGA title in 2023 and 2024.
But his hopes of a triple crown were dashed by injury as he missed the 2025 championship and relinquished his title to O’Hara.
“We’ll need to put a wee asterisk next to Paul’s name from last year,” chuckled Robertson, who is eager to add to his haul of domestic silverware.
The posse on two-under also features Tartan Tour grandees, Alan Tait and Scott Henderson.
Tait, 57, who was runner-up in the Scottish PGA Championship in 1998, rolled back the years and rallied from an early double-bogey to shoot a 69.
“I put a terrible drive into a bush, took six and thought, ‘this will be a long day’,” said Tait.
“But I hung in there and it started to click. I’m delighted. West Kilbride is perfect for us older boys. It’s not a course for bombers and we can plod our way round.
“The goal is to be here on Friday. At my age, to play all four rounds would mean a lot to me.”
Follow the live scoring here.
