Michael Stewart Shares Dunhill Links Lead With 65

A world No. 979 with no practice rounds carried the first-round lead at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship into Thursday evening, and he got there without a single bogey on the back nine. Michael Stewart's only competitive reps this week were three days on the regional Tartan Pro Tour, Monday through Wednesday. His 65 at Carnoustie, an eagle on the 12th, five birdies, a clean back nine, ties him for the lead with Jack Buchanan's bogey-free 65 at Kingsbarns.

• Michael Stewart (world No. 979) shares the Round 1 lead at seven under after a bogey-free-back-nine 65 at Carnoustie, built on an eagle on the 12th and five birdies; Jack Buchanan matched him at seven under with a bogey-free 65 at Kingsbarns.
• MJ Daffue and Casey Jarvis sit one back at six under after matching 66s.
• Major champions are within range: Matt Fitzpatrick and Sepp Straka at four under, Brooks Koepka at three under.
• Carnoustie is playing to a par of 72 for this event's pro-am setup, different from the par-71 Open Championship card our Carnoustie course review covers.
• Defending champion Robert MacIntyre and Lee Westwood sit at one under; Ian Poulter is at even par.
• The field moves to a new course for Round 2 Friday, with a 54-hole cut after every player has seen all three courses, then the Sunday final at the Old Course.

What happened: Stewart and Buchanan share the lead

Stewart's 65 is the headline, but it didn't happen in isolation. Buchanan, an Australian playing Kingsbarns, matched the number hole for hole with a round that never touched a bogey at all, which is arguably the tidier of the two sevens-under given Kingsbarns' own exposed, coastal layout. Behind them, MJ Daffue and Casey Jarvis each carded 66 to sit one shot back at six under, and a cluster of major champions settled into range rather than at the top: Matt Fitzpatrick and Sepp Straka both at four under on 68, Brooks Koepka at three under on 69.

Carnoustie is set up to a par of 72 for this pro-am week, which is worth flagging on its own: our course review of Carnoustie covers the Open Championship card, which plays to a par of 71. Same course, two different par numbers depending on which event is using it, and Stewart's seven-under 65 is measured against the pro-am par, not the Open one. Our full Carnoustie Championship course review has the Open setup and the hole-by-hole detail, for anyone who wants both numbers side by side.

Further down the board, defending champion Robert MacIntyre and Lee Westwood are at one under, and Ian Poulter sits at even par, seven shots off the pace after one round.

The player nobody had on the leaderboard

Stewart is Scottish, playing a tournament on home ground, and he came into it without a single practice round at any of the three courses. His preparation for Thursday was three days of competitive golf on the regional Tartan Pro Tour, not a look at Carnoustie's pins or a read of its greens. That's a genuinely unusual way to post the clubhouse lead at a DP World Tour event, and it's the kind of story that reads better as a one-day anomaly than a form line, a position I hold about most first-round leaders ranked outside the world's top 500 until a second round says otherwise.

Where that skepticism gets complicated is the shape of the round itself. A bogey-free back nine isn't a hot front nine that cooled off before anyone noticed, and an eagle at the 12th paired with five birdies is a round built on more than one good par-5 number. None of that guarantees Friday goes the same way. It does mean this isn't a case of someone catching one good number on an easy pin sheet and being flattered by the scorecard.

Three courses, two different pars

The Dunhill Links rotates its field across three courses in the opening rounds: the Old Course at St Andrews, Carnoustie, and Kingsbarns, before the field converges on the Old Course for Sunday's final round. The yardages tell their own story about what each course is asking of players this week. The Old Course plays 7,318 yards (6,692m) to a par of 72. Carnoustie plays 7,394 yards (6,762m), also to a par of 72 for this event, the longest of the three. Kingsbarns plays 7,227 yards (6,609m), also a par of 72.

Our Alfred Dunhill Links Championship 2026 preview has the full field breakdown and the pro-am format details ahead of the week; Thursday's results are the first test of how that preview's storylines actually play out on the course.

What to watch

Round 2 starts Friday morning in Scotland, with the field rotating onto a new course rather than returning to Thursday's layout. The real test of this leaderboard isn't Friday alone, it's the 54-hole cut that follows once every player has played all three courses at least once: Old Course, Carnoustie, and Kingsbarns, in some order, before the cut trims the field for the Sunday final back at the Old Course.

That rotation matters more for a round like Stewart's than for most. A 65 at Carnoustie says something about Thursday; it says nothing yet about how he handles the Old Course or Kingsbarns once he's seen them. The same question applies in reverse to the major champions sitting three to four shots back after one round, Fitzpatrick, Straka, and Koepka all have two rounds left to make up ground before the cut, and a rotation that puts every player on all three courses tends to separate the real contenders from the one good number by Saturday night.