Knox would dearly love to be crowned homecoming king
WHEN Russell Knox strides out to play his first shot in the Scottish Open at Castle Stuart, it will feel like the fulfilment of a longoverdue wish. He will be righting the wrong of a ‘horrible decision’ that forced him to miss his only previous crack at this perfect homecoming.
Inverness born and bred, right up until he left for Jacksonville on a golf scholarship, the US-based Scot, who currently sits fourth in the FedEx Cup standings, is excited about the prospect of tackling a still-new course just outside his old hometown.
If he hits some of the form that saw him become the first Scot to win a World Golf Championship event in November last year — maybe even the game that got him into a tie for second place at the more recent Irish Open — Knox will certainly be in contention.
DONALD SEALS HIS SPOT AT THE US OPEN
LUKE DONALD will tee up at the US Open at Oakmont next week after he came through qualifying for the second year in a row. The former world No 1 is no longer exempt for the year’s second major championship after slipping to 80th in the rankings — and faced a six-man play-off in Ohio yesterday after a weather delay prevented play from being completed on Monday. ‘Mission accomplished!’ Donald posted on his Instagram account. ‘Can’t wait to get to Oakmont next week for the US Open.’
Winning? That would make amends for the tough call he made when the Scottish Open was last in the Highlands, in 2013.
Invited to play but struggling with his game, Knox was straddling the main PGA circuit and its little, less lucrative brother, the Web.com Tour, at the time.
Faced with fulfilling a lifelong dream or trying to gain a foothold and establish himself on the richest Tour in the world, he did the smart thing. And suffered for it.
The 30-year-old, who missed the cut in the John Deere Classic while Phil Mickelson was nailing down the first leg of his Open Double during that perfect summer, revealed: ‘I wanted to play there so badly.
‘But I was struggling to keep my card in the US at the time, so I had a horrible decision to make. Ultimately it has worked out fine but, at the time, I was going back and forth with it. And when I made up my mind, I was still 100-per-cent convinced that I’d made the wrong decision not to come and play.
‘So this is it for me. This is one of the biggest tournaments I could ever play. To come home to Inverness and play as a pro for the first time is something I thought could never happen. I can’t wait.
‘The atmosphere is going to be just amazing and it will feel like playing in a Major. I’ll go there and give it a crack.
‘Playing in Ireland with Rory McIlroy on the Sunday kind of made me look forward to Castle Stuart because he was the heavy home favourite with the crowd. So, coming to Inverness, I’m hoping I’ll have the same amount of backing.
‘If I can win, it will be the biggest of my career. Of course, winning the WGC event in China was massive for my career but everyone dreams of winning in their home town and I’d love that to come true for me.’
Considering he’s won a little over $3million already this season, it’s great to hear Knox — the only Scot in next week’s US Open field — getting excited about a tournament unlikely to draw a host of global stars in this busy Olympic summer.
The world No 24, who will stay with friends in Inverness for the week of the tournament, knows he will be operating under the burden of some fairly intense expectation from the local galleries. A far cry from his formative years playing pick-up games with pals. Matches that could encompass three complete rounds in a single day.
‘I think I will feed off the pressure,’ said the Ryder Cup hopeful. ‘Golf is a pressure game. It’s whoever can deal with that pressure the best — they normally win.
‘It’s not a comfortable feeling. But playing professional golf is hard. That’s why so few people do it.
‘So, yes, there will be pressure on me. That’s what I’ve always wanted, to have the chance to win tournaments — particularly in Scotland.
‘I look forward to that. I feel like I play better on the bigger stage. I loved playing with Rory and Danny Willett in the last group in Ireland and feel I did pretty well. I love feeling the pressure, even if it is an uncomfortable feeling at times.
‘The Irish crowd were obviously for Rory but they were great to me. They certainly weren’t rooting against me, just shouting more for Rory. If I can have the kind of support Rory had when I come to Castle Stuart, I’ll love that.
‘Obviously, the crowd will be supporting all the Scottish players. But it would be nice if they were cheering me a little bit louder, as the local boy.
‘It will be similar, actually, to The Players Championship — because that’s near to where I live now in Florida. There were a lot of friends and family there cheering me on. If it can be anything like that, I’ll be OK.’
Knox, who left for the States before Castle Stuart was much more than a dream and a few sketches, added: ‘I remember playing in a lot of junior events in the area when I was growing up.
‘My parents used to drop me off at the course with my friends and we’d play 36 holes, often 54 holes a day until we ran out of daylight.
‘Sometimes, we’d go back out in the afternoon with just three clubs each and have a match trying to outscore each other with those three.
‘I miss those days because, back then, you were just playing golf purely for the joy of the game and your love of it.’