Will Clark - Great Scott can be inspiration for other golfers
CALUM Scott wanted to know if he could cut it against the best players in the world at The Open.
Turns out he could, as he put in a tremendous performance to reach the final round at Royal Troon.
Not only that, he ended up as the top amateur to win the prestigious Silver Medal.
His name will be engraved alongside former Silver Medal winners Rory McIlroy, Justin Rose and Tiger Woods who have all gone on to become superstars of the sport.
It is the latest success story for Scottish golf with Oban’s Robert MacIntyre winning the Scottish Open earlier this month.
Scotland is the home of golf and where the sport was invented.
But it has been a long time since we have produced a player who is consistently challenging for the major titles.
The last superstar Scotland could arguably say they have had was Colin Montgomerie, although he himself never won a major.
The last Scottish player to win a major tournament was Paul Lawrie when he won at Carnoustie in 1999.
Before that, the last Scottish winner of The Open was Sandy Lyle in 1985 at Royal St George in England.
Those are the only two Scottish winners of The Open since 1920.
With the world class golf courses available and people coming from across the globe to play at venues, worth millions to the Scottish economy, should we have produced more outstanding golf players?
However, that is perhaps unfair given that golf is a global sport played throughout the world.
Three of golf’s four majors are played in the United States, the US Open, PGA Championship and US Masters.
The American college system attracts golf players from all over the world to play on its circuit, including Scott himself, who combines his golf career with his academic studies.
Three of the top five players at The Open were from United States, with Xander Schauffele deservedly taking the title with -9.
However, Scotland is capable of producing top golf players, shown with Scott himself winning The Silver Medal.
His older brother Sandy Scott has experience of playing in a major event, when he played at the US Open in 2020.
Russell Knox, who started playing golf at Nairn Dunbar Golf Club, won the Irish Open in 2018 and also went on to play at the US Open where he tied for 12th place.
The Highlands have shown they are great training grounds for producing top quality golf players.
Achievements such as Calum Scott, both at amateur and now at professional level, will hopefully inspire aspiring golf players to follow in his footsteps and try and make it on the world stage.
Scott himself definitely has the right attitude to make it as a professional player.
He is also determined to finish his studies at university at Texas Tech in the United States before going to try and make it as a professional golf player in the future.
He has already proven himself at amateur level, and can produce outstanding rounds of golf at one of the world’s top competitions.
If he continues his form from Royal Troon, there is no doubt he will be swinging for success at other competitions in the future.
