Ferguson learns a valuable lesson from ‘ultimate pro’ Westwood
Ewen Ferguson is starting to feel at home on the European Tour after learning from "ultimate professional" Lee Westwood that scoring at the top level isn't always about hitting wonder shots.
The 24- year-old from Bearsden joined Scott Jamie son and Marc Warren in putting the Saltire on the leaderboard in the first round of the Scottish Championship presented by AXA with matching fiveunder-par 67s at Fairmont St Andrews.
Ferguson' s effort was bogeyfree as the former British and Scottish Boys' champion maintained his promising run of form on the main tour, having recorded top-30 finishes in the Andalucia Masters, Irish Open and Scottish Open.
"After having one good week, you have a bit of confidence, you realise ,' I can do it '," he said. "At Valderrama, I got to play with Lee Westwood and played quite well. Playing with some of these guys who have won on Tour gives you belief.
"You think, 'you know what, I can hit these shots, I can do it'. You learn so much, especially when you realise you don't need to hit every shot perfect. You just need to sometimes play the right shot, which can be 20 feet, 30 feet and you can still make a good score. Lee seems to be the ultimate professional at that. He just seems to do the right thing and that's why he's up there every week."
Jamie son made his solid star t thanks to four straight birdies around the turn before adding another three on the spin on his back nine. He dropped a shot at his closing hole but said: "Standing on the first tee, my tenth, I was only level-par, so five-under is a good start after that.”