Gemma Dryburgh opens up on 'exciting' personal news after strong start in Malaysia

The Scottish No 1 carded a bogey-free seven-under-par 65 at Kuala Lumpur Golf & Country Club to have the pacesetter, Korea’s Hye-Jin Choi, in her sights heading into the second circuit.

“I think I hit every green today, so that always helps,” said Dryburgh, who birdied the first, third, fifth and eighth to be out in 32 before adding gains at the tenth, 16th and 18th on the inward journey.

“You don't do that very often and, yeah, obviously made it stress-free, which was nice. I had lots of birdie chances and holed a couple long putts here and there.”

Dryburgh started the week sitting 79th in the Race to CME Globe Rankings. She jumped to 54th in the projected standings on the back of this effort and needs to be in the top 60 at the cut-off date in the middle of next month to make the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship in Florida.

‘It’s going be life-changing but all for the better’

“Yeah, absolutely,” she said of that being her goal over the next few weeks. “Obviously got this week and then Japan and Pelican to go to get into CME and a good finish this week would mean a lot.”

Aberdeen-born Dryburgh, who lives in New Orleans, announced her exciting personal news along with partner Anne-Lise Bidou in a post on social media recently, saying: “Baby incoming this December.”

Asked about that after her round, she said: “Yeah, looking forward to it. It's going to be life-changing but all for the better and I’m excited for the off-season to come in a few weeks.”