ST ANDREWS, SCOTLAND - OCTOBER 06: Dermot Desmond (L) and Thorbjorn Olesen of Denmark (R) with their trophies as they win the team event during the 2024 Alfred Dunhill Links Championship Final Day at the Old Course, on October 06, 2024, in St Andrews, Scotland. (Photo by Ross Parker/SNS Group via Getty Images)
Day 2 of the Alfred Dunhill Cup turned out to be another disaster for the Desmond Family.
The annual trip through to Fife to lord it up among top golfers, fading celebrities and other rich old guys is normally aan annual highlight for Dermot and his kids.
Brett, Ross and Dery have joined their Daddy in Fife for this week’s competition but it seems that they aren’t having much fun out on the fairways.
For the first three days each amateur is paired with a professional. They play over three courses- Carnoustie, The Old Course St Andrews and the nearby Kingsbarns.
The amateur gets to use their handicap with the best score being used for the team scoreboard. Effectively the amateur gets two chances to make their score at each hole.
After three rounds over each course and with a different professional each day the top 20 amateurs get to play at St Andrews on the Sunday.
In total there are 168 amateurs in the tournament with three members of the Desmond family in the bottom 25.
Ross and Dery are in danger of fighting it out to avoid the wooden spoon as they sit in joint 145th place. Only 14 other players have posted higher scores over the first two days.
Celtic shareholder Desmond is sitting one place ahead in joint 135th place with no chance of a round over the Old Course on Sunday.
THERE IS ONE MEMBER OF THE DESMOND FAMILY HAVING A DECENT WEEK
There is some good news for the family with Brett in contention for the trophy, sitting joint second, one stroke behind the leader.
At the age of 44 Ross should be doing far better on the golf course.
True his father does spend much of his life on assorted fairways across the world but being 32 years younger should see Ross a few points ahead of his pensioner father.
At the 2025 Celtic AGM Ross was chosen to deliver an attack on anti-establishment supporters. Visibly shaking as he addressed fans Chairman Peter Lawwell abandoned the AGM rather than see Ross continue.
While he has attended 25 out of 26 Dunhill Cup events Dermot hasn’t turned up at a Celtic AGM since 2006.
That level of dis-interest doesn’t surprise fans that have watched Celtic fail to make any impact over the same period.
Desmond’s last AGM appearance came as Gordon Strachan was guiding Celtic into the last 16 of the Champions League despite being drawn against Manchester United, Benfica and Copenhagen.
That season Celtic took AC Milan to extra time in the San Siro before falling to a goal from Kaka to secure a place in the quarter-finals.
Since then Celtic haven’t won a knock-out tie in any UEFA competition.
The last victory in a UEFA tie was in March 2004 away to Barcelona in the UEFA Cup. Significantly that win came five months after the appointment of Peter Lawwell as CEO.
NOTE: For today’s Third Round Ross tees off at 11.01 on Kingsbarns, Brett 10.39 at Carnoustie, Dermot 11.01 at Carnoustie on the 10th hole with Dery also off at 11.01, this time at Kingsbarns starting on the 10th hole.
From over performing 2 years ago to not making the grade now, that’s the Desmond sporting brand is it not. It’s a familiar story for sure. CUNextTournament!