Garcia’s Close House date
Scottish golf fans have been handed an extra incentive to cross the Border for this year’s British Masters after Masters champion Sergio Garcia confirmed he’ll be in the field at Close House in Northumberland.
The Spaniard has added the 28 September-1 October event to his schedule as repayment of a favour to Lee Westwood, who is hosting this year’s event after Ian Poulter at Woburn in 2015 then Luke Donald at The Grove last year.
Apparently for tax reasons, Garcia has rarely played on British soil outside the Open Championship and Ryder Cup in recent years, but he is looking forward to what is an unexpected visit to the Newcastle area.
“Lee came to play our charity event last year in Switzerland, Sergio and Friends, right after the Open Championship,” he said. “He asked me if I would do the same thing for him for the British Masters and obviously he is a good friend of mine, so I said yes.
“I played it as an amateur a couple of times and I have good memories. It should be fun to go back there and it seems like the last couple of years the event has taken a big step forward and it looks really fun, so we will try to have a great weekend at Close House.” Richie Ramsay is hoping to maintain his recent good form when he tees it up for the fifth week running on the European Tour today.
The Aberdonian could easily have decided to take a well-earned break after capping a good run by finishing just outside the top 20 in last week’s Open Championship at Birkdale.
But he has kept the Porsche European Open on his schedule and is feeling confident about getting in the mix in an event being played near Hamburg.
“This is my fifth week and the reason I’m playing is because I feel like I’m playing good,” said Ramsay, who is sitting 20th in the Race to Dubai.
“I just want to get out there and compete and try to put a number together. I took Monday off to relax and let the body rest and can hopefully have one more big week.”
Ramsay produced easily his best performance in seven Open appearances as he tied for 22nd behind Jordan Spieth in Southport, having tied for second in the Irish Open a fortnight earlier.
“It went so quick, a little bit of a blur,” he recalled. “I just remember Friday was an incredible day, my ball striking was great, the fans were incredible, and then you kind of think can it get better than this and then it did!
“Sunday was brilliant with the walk down 18, obviously with the stands being packed and the yellow leaderboards, and all of those things you see when you are a youngster on TV. You got to kind of live that and I said to someone that I effectively got to live the dream that week, so it was great fun.”
David Drysdale, the only other Scot to make the cut at Birkdale, has started a three-week break, but Ramsay has six other compatriots for company – Marc Warren, Scott Jamieson, Stephen Gallacher, Duncan Stewart, Scott Henry and Craig Lee.
The field is headed by US Ryder Cup star Patrick Reed and also includes Austin Connelly, the young Canadian who gave a great account of himself in The Open.