With almost 30 years of active service on the various battlefronts of the women's professional tour, Trish Johnson has seen it, done it and accumulated enough t-shirts to clothe a small country.
At the age of 49, Johnson has witnessed plenty of new waves of talent lapping against the established ramparts down the seasons and the decorated Englishwoman believes there could be a sizeable Scottish assault to come as the Ladies' European Tour builds towards a feast of top class fare in the cradle of the game this summer.
First up on this golfing hit parade is the Aberdeen Asset Management Ladies' Scottish Open at Dundonald Links in July before the bandwagon rumbles down the A77 to Turnberry for the Ricoh Women's British Open a week later. Johnson won the Scottish title a year ago at Archerfield to become the oldest winner on the European Tour and, as she helped promote this year's championship, the Solheim Cup stalwart had plenty of praise for the Caledonian contingent. In fact, Johnson wasn't even prompted to give a shameless Scottish line by those domestic golf writers who have a rich history of sticking kilts on to every conceivable golfing subject. "I just want to say one thing, especially as I am talking to the Scottish press, but, in my opinion, it's an exciting time as there are a lot of very good Scottish players," declared Johnson before the assembled scribblers could even ask the question. "Kylie Walker won twice last year while Sally Watson and Pamela Pretswell are doing very well. I think it's going to take one player to breakthrough and it will be tremendous for Scottish golf. There is the talent there. There are a lot of players that are just there on the periphery but another win could spark something very, very exciting for the Scottish women's game."
The Ladies' Scottish Open will be the ideal place for this talent to be showcased. Having been moved to a prime slot in the schedule before the British Open and with its prize fund doubled to £370,000, the tournament has attracted an impressive cast list. Suzann Pettersen, the world No 5, has added the Dundonald stop off to her programme while Cheyenne Woods, the niece of a certain Tiger, will no doubt attract plenty of attention. Catriona Matthew, the two-time Scottish Open winner, will be back for another stab at glory while Charley Hull, the young star from south of the border will venture north to tackle Dundonald's abundant challenges. There is even talk of Lydia Ko, the teenage world No 1, pencilling the Scottish showpiece into her diary. "In this day and age, all players will look at prize funds," added Johnson, who has won 19 European Tour titles and a trio of LPGA Tour crowns down the years. "That's the same everywhere. Tournaments have to have big prize funds and now this event has been elevated tremendously. The better the player, the better the tournament. The fact it's also the week before the British Open makes it huge. In my eyes it is massive. Scotland has always been my favourite place to play golf. I fell in love with Archerfield when the Scottish Open was there and now Dundonald looks magnificent. I can't wait to be honest."
Johnson may be defending the Scottish Open but there are no guarantees that she will be in the field the following week at Turnberry. The niggles that come from a career spent thrashing away at a wee, dimpled ba' continue to be, well, a bit of a pain. "I've had a difficult start to the year," confessed Johnson. "After coming back from an event in Morocco, I was playing up at Montrose in a couple of the Ladies Tartan Tour events and when I was hitting balls before going out my back went. I could hardly move for five weeks so I've not played many tournaments this year. That means that at the moment I'm going to have to qualify for the Women's British Open on the Monday before it.
"But we've got Holland next week, which is the last qualifying event, so hopefully a top-five finish there will mean that I don't have to qualify at all."
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