WHEN Trish Johnson wrested the Ladies Scottish Open title out of Scottish hands last year, she became the oldest winner on the Ladies European Tour at the age of 48. The Englishwoman won by two strokes to become the first non-Scottish winner of the title since 2010 but she will have her work cut out to retain her crown. The tournament, which begins on Friday at Dundonald Links, has attracted a stellar field, including the world No.2 and golf’s current hottest property, Lydia Ko from New Zealand; the 19 year-old, seven-time LPGA Tour winner is using the Scottish Open as preparation for the Ladies British Open at Turnberry the following week.
Joining Ko at Dundonald is Charley Hull, Suzann Pettersen and Laura Davies as well as a strong Scottish contingent including two-time champion, Catriona Matthew, the 2012 winner Carly Booth, Pamela Prestwell and Kylie Walker. The disappointing thing for Johnson is that she will not be returning to Archerfield Links where she won the title last year but the 49-year-old is excited about her visit to the west coast.
“Dundonald is a great golf course – I’m looking forward to it because it’s going to be a real challenge,” she says. “It’s a tough course and the weather doesn’t look like it’s going to play ball. I like playing on difficult courses and I also like playing in wind but I don’t particularly like playing in rain so we’ll just have to wait and see because there could very well be a lucky and unlucky side of the draw.”
Johnson has had a disjointed season so far – a persistent back injury has limited her to just a handful of tournament appearances although a tied seventh-place finish at the Ladies European Masters earlier this month suggests that she is now finding her form. Injuries are one of the frustrations of ageing that Johnson acknowledges she must contend with but despite being one of the oldest players on the European Tour, she still does not have a retirement plan in place. “When I feel like I can’t win anymore, that’s when I’ll stop – I don’t want to play if I feel like the best I can do is just finish in the top 20,” said Johnson while appearing at a Yonex Golf promotional day at Kilmacolm Golf Club. “I don’t love playing golf for golf’s sake but I love competing and so I love tournament golf. Unless I lived in St Andrews, I don’t think you could get me out on the golf course every day just for the fun of it because, at the end of the day, it’s a job and the part of the job I love is competing, not necessarily just playing.”
Johnson has been a professional for 28 years and in that time the landscape has altered drastically. “Some of the changes have been for the better and some not so much,” says the veteran of eight Solheim Cup campaigns. “The courses we play now are better and the players are fitter. The money hasn’t risen as much as you’d like to think it would have though, which is a shame considering how good the players are. The attitude of players has changed a lot but not necessarily for the better; a few years ago, players realised that you had to give an awful lot to get something back, they didn’t just expect things for nothing. Now, a lot of the players get on the Tour and think that’s it, they’ve made it. And there are more good players on tour now but there are fewer great players – it’s harder to finish top 10 nowadays but it’s no harder to win than it was years ago.”
This week, Johnson will have to fend off the sizeable pack of Scottish players who have broken through in the last few years to fly the flag alongside Matthew, that stalwart of the Scottish game. Johnson is impressed with what she has seen. “The Scottish girls are fabulous – I played with Pamela Prestwell the other week and she’s excellent and Kylie Walker’s a really strong player,” she says. “And with Sally Watson and Vicky Laing, there’s a lot of good young Scottish players and I’m sure everyone up here is hoping one of them wins this week. I hope they do well too, I just hope they come second behind me . . .”
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