Castle Stuart looking for record numbers at Scottish Open
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CASTLE Stuart officials want a bumper crowd for this year's Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open in order to give the European Tour plenty of reason to return to the Highland Capital in the future.
Having made its debut at the links course in 2011, the prestigious tournament returns to Castle Stuart for the final time of a three-year run next month before moving to Royal Aberdeen.
Despite heavy rain affecting the opening event, which had to be reduced to 54 holes, attendance figures rose from 51,340 in 2011 to 63,363 12 months later.
These numbers have been more than satisfactory in convincing the European Tour that it has been a hugely worthwhile exercise to bring the Scottish Open to the Highlands.
However, it will not stop Castle Stuart from wanting to go out with a bang in terms of a record attendance.
"The interesting thing is that the average number of spectators attending a European Tour event is around the 45,000 mark," said Castle Stuart's sales and marketing director Fraser Cromarty.
"So to get close to 64,000 last year is a good number and the European Tour are happy with that. Only probably the BMW PGA Championship and the Irish Open would get beyond that average.
"It would be nice, however, to really push on with our crowd figures.
"Over the five days of this year's Scottish Open, if you include the pro-am, I would love to see a figure nearer 80,000, but whether that happens is another matter.
"Another 20 per cent increase on last year's figures would be absolutely wonderful."
For Stuart McColm, general manager at Castle Stuart, another impressive turnout by the Highlands would, he believes, leave the European Tour in no doubt that the area is keen to see more events on this magnitude on their doorstep.
"Inverness has complained bitterly for a while now that it never gets anything and they feel hard done by, so let us show them how we can get right behind something like the Scottish Open," he said.
"We have a world class event with some top golfers coming, so come and watch them – do your bit.
"Make it unequivocal that the European Tour need to come back. Give them something so that they can see there is a desire and hunger in and around Inverness to see an event like this.
"All the infrastructure and all the rest is taken care of, the European Tour know that is good.
"If the crowds come out, it will just cement us for who knows what in the future."
It might be the final instalment of the Scottish Open at Castle Stuart for now, but McColm is confident that the course has made an indelible mark on the European Tour, so much so that other major tournaments could soon be coming to the Highland Capital.
"In the first year he played here, Phil Mickelson said this was a course that was worthy of a World Golf Championship event, so that would be a fantastic attraction," he said.
"It's the top 64 players, so you are not having to look at a huge amount of hotel rooms for them or anything like that, but you've got the best players in the world coming to compete in front of a worthy Highland audience.
"It's far from outwith the realms of possibility that we'll get the knock on the door."
