The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Scots’ golfing ego in need of a lift. Steve Scott’s Tee to Green
This is one of the best weeks of the year to be a Scottish professional golfer on the way up the ranks. The SSE Scottish Hydro Challenge hosted by Macdonald Hotels and Resorts is maybe the longest title for a tournament on the Challenge Tour, but it’s also unanimously regarded as one of the best on the European Tour’s satellite circuit.
Set among the Cairngorms at Aviemore’s Spey Valley, it’s as well-run a tournament as some on the main tour, a huge credit to the great enthusiasm of Bounce Sports, the promoters, and the way the two sponsors buy into the whole thing.
The honour roll of winners is pretty decent.
As we noted last week, Brooks Koepka won here on his way to superstardom, but it was also the launch pad for the phenomenon that is Andrew “Beef” Johnson (I remember him as being almost shy when he won in 2014).
A succession of big tour winners have played and caroused (there’s quite a bit of carousing goes on) at Aviemore since the event moved there in 2009.
The first two years at Aviemore brought Scottish victories for Jamie McLeary and George Murray. Since then, despite as many as 20 native players in the field, the impact has been minimal.
On the main tour, the Scots haven’t been setting things alight this season.
Scott Jamieson has done tidily and won’t have the nail-biting flirtation with losing his card he’s had the last two years.
Jamieson is the highest Scot in the Race to Dubai at present and he’s only 51st. Stephen Gallacher is 71st and both Richie Ramsay and David Drysdale barely crack the top 100.
None of the Scots on the big tour are under 30 years old. The youngest, Scott Henry, finished 12th in the BMW in Germany at the weekend but it was his first cut made in 15 events this season, and he’s 196th in the Race to Dubai.
On the Challenge Tour, where the talent should be coming through to improve this picture, it’s equally poor.
The two leading Scots are Craig Lee – who lost his main tour card last year – at 19th and Jack Doherty, a career Challenge Tourer, at 25th.
Grant Forrest, generally accepted as our best shot at a new big circuit regular, is 31st.
It’s early days, with the Challenge Tour schedule only seven events old. Forrest in particular has done OK in his debut pro season, there’s been some signs that Bradley Neil, another big Tartan hope of recent times, might be recovering the kind of form he enjoyed in his illustrious amateur career.
If we’re being brutal, of the 18 Scots taking part at Aviemore only five – Forrest, Neil, Ewen Ferguson, Jack McDonald and possibly David Law – are young players with actual potential to turn into big tour regulars.
The rest are guys in their late thirties playing “between” the tours like Lee, career Challenge Tourers - who may step up once in a while – or those like Greig Hutcheon, the former Scottish PGA champion stalwart who is usually a competitive player in this company but has no intention of taking up tour life again.
Jamieson, when I spoke to him at Wentworth, mentioned a “lost generation” of Scots professional golfers.
There are players of quality I know – seriously good in European terms on their day – driving taxis or teaching the game or running golfrelated businesses instead of playing.
Even with last week’s news that Scottish Government funding to golf has been slashed, it’s still an advantage to be a Scottish pro golfer.
We have two of the best regular tour events in the world, a major championship is on our soil six times every decade, and this week’s event at Aviemore is generally regarded as the best on the junior circuit.
There’s massive support from sponsors even without the government money. What is going wrong?
It can’t all be about our rubbish weather. Hopefully this week in Aviemore we get a much-needed lift to our national golfing ego. In Argentina, it’s a tradition passed on
The recent passing of Roberto de Vicenzo, the oldest surviving Open champion, brought many deserved tributes in his honour.
Much, much more than the man denied a Masters green jacket because of a scorecard mistake, Roberto was a lynchpin of the link that goes through the entire history of golf in Argentina.
He was mentored by Jose Jurado, the man who “lost” the 1931 Open at Carnoustie to Tommy Armour (he was one of many on that final day, to be fair).
Roberto, after his illustrious career and 1967 Open victory, mentored and financially backed Eduardo Romero, who in turn did the same for Angel Cabrera, who has since supported Argentinians like Andres Romero – the winner in Germany this week after a long gap – and Emiliano Grillo.
If you see the Argentines (players and caddies) together on the European Tour, they’re a tight-knit group who practise and socialise together – and they do both in hard and enthusiastic style.
It’s an honoured tradition that helps this unfashionable golfing nation punch way above its weight.
0Jamieson spoke of a ‘lost generation’ of Scottish golfers