Castle Stuart plays host to Ryder Cup stars
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FOUR of Europe’s Ryder Cup heroes from two years ago have been confirmed in the field for next month’s Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open.
Miguel Angel Jimenez, Francesco Molinari and Peter Hanson were part of the European team that was captained to success at Celtic Manor, Wales, in 2010 by Colin Montgomerie.
This quartet are now set to play Castle Stuart when the Scottish Open returns to the spectacular links course between 12-15th July.
They will join an already impress list that includes reigning champion Luke Donald, Louis Oosthuizen, Padraig Harrington, Nick Watney and leading Scottish golfers Paul Lawrie and Martin Laird.
These, however, are not the only familiar names who will be entering what is looking increasingly like a strong line-up for this year’s Scottish Open.
Nicolas Colsaerts, Fredrik Jacobson, Aaron Baddeley, Andres Romero, Rich Beem, John Rollins, Branden Grace and Rafael Cabrera-Bello are also scheduled to be coming to the Highlands.
With more players expected to confirm their schedules after this week’s US Open, officials at Castle Stuart are expecting that entry list to be strengthened even further.
"There is a good mix to the field, but then we had that last year as well," said Stuart McColm, general manager at Castle Stuart.
"If you base it on who is in the top 60 in the world then we are virtually like-for-like compared to 12 months ago.
"The field certainly has the potential to be just as strong as last year, which is great given everything that happened last time out."
Castle Stuart’s Scottish Open debut was badly affected by a freak deluge of rain, as well as a thunderstorm, before and during the third day’s play, which subsequently had to be abandoned.
Despite this, around 51,000 spectators came out to support the event, which greatly impressed Castle Stuart’s sales and marketing director Fraser Cromarty
"I think it exceeded expectations," he said.
"I was wondering what to expect, but it certainly was better than anything I’d hoped for.
"Seeing the tented village, the size of the hospitality, but it was just everything that greatly impressed me."
Dwelling on last year, however, has not come into the thinking of either McColm or Cromarty. Making this year’s Scottish Open even better is the priority.
There are changes off the course with the players now set to use the clubhouse rather than the tented village they had 12 months ago, while the press are also being relocated and will now be closer to the main buildings.
Alterations have also been carried out on the course, although if anything they have been of a relatively minor nature so as not too make it too inaccessible for the amateur golfer, the lifeblood of Castle Stuart’s business.
"This course was built for the mid-handicapper and we make no apologies for that," said McColm.
"We know that birdies are easy to come by at times, but equally there are disasters looming around the corner.
"The spectators want to come and see players making birdies and eagles and moving up the leaderboard.
"In terms of the work we’ve done on the course, we’ve put in some bunkers on the fifth, which has been notoriously wide.
"However, we’ve introduced some bunkers there that are on the drive for down the wind and into the wind conditions.
"We’ve got new bunkers on 14 as well around the 300-yard mark, while we’ve put in a few new tees that have added around 150 yards to the course.
"The ninth is short par four, but we’ve put 40 yards on that, while we’ve put 60 yards on the 12th and changed the angle as well.
"At 15, we’ve added another 40 to 50 yards if needed, so all in all we’ve made some subtle changes and grown some of the roughs also a little bit thicker.
"However, it’s a work in progress and we’ll see how we get on this year."
Having come through the difficulties of last year, which included a landslide on the first fairway, Cromarty remains positive that the Highlands will once more give their backing to what is a huge event for the area.
"The feedback from the local community and just everyone who attended the event was great," he said.
"You always have that little bit of doubt, especially after what happened, but what’s done is done.
"You can’t dwell on it. We’re progressing on, moving forward, and we just want everyone to get behind the event again to see if we can make it the biggest and best Scottish Open ever."
