Scots battallion ready to storm the Castle

Senior Sports Writer

Wednesday 11 July 2012

Home support could make the difference to the massed ranks of up and coming Scottish golfers who are hoping to break into the top tier of European golf according to Richie Ramsay, the former South African Open champion.

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Kevin Ferrie

The Aberdonian, who turned 29 last month, has never lacked self-belief and ranks himself as part of a substantial group of players who are poised to make that step up. He sets out tomorrow having been drawn in the pick of the groupings with Luke Donald, the world No.1 and defending champion and three-time major winner Ernie Els and reckons this week's tournament offers a prime opportunity.

"I can't think of any reason why not," he said when asked whether he believes there could be a home winner at the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open this week."Scott [Jamieson] was pretty close last year. I mean, to lose to Luke Donald, you take your hat off to him because I think he played some great golf on the last 18 holes, but there's more strength in depth than we maybe had five years ago."There were Paul [Lawrie] and Stephen Gallacher and then there was a gap between them and probably myself, Scott and George [Murray] coming through. But now they have progressed and we've got a few guys behind us that are popping up the ranks. A lot of positive things."There are 21 Scots in the field at Castle Stuart and Ramsay clearly knows those based on the European Tour the best. However, while acknowledging the emergence on the US Tour of Martin Laird, he suggested the Scots could also draw inspiration from another of their sporting countrymen."You've got Martin and Paul who can do well, so there's definitely a good chance we could have a home winner, but you look at what Andy Murray's done, you look at someone playing well in a massive major tournament and the whole nation starts watching," Ramsay observed. "I'm not saying that everybody is going to turn on the TV and start watching the golf but is has an impact and there is a feel-good factor that it brings."If we had someone like that, or if Paul gets in the Ryder Cup, then there's definitely a kind of knock-on effect that rolls through all of the players and the golf clubs."Ramsay has had a mixed season, finishing runner-up in the Ballantine's Championship in Korea but missing three cuts in five outings since. However, he believes he got a reminder of what to expect this week when putting in his last decent performance at the Irish Open, where he tied for 15th in front of the Tour's first-ever sell out."In Ireland when I holed a putt on the 10th green from about 30 feet the roar was unbelievable," he said. "I'm not even Irish. I don't know if they knew who I was. They knew that I was obviously playing quite good and that's what they want to see."It changes the atmosphere. You want to go out there and play well and there's an added incentive to do well in front of the home fans."He is, too, relishing the opportunity of feeding off their support."When I was young I used to go and watch the Dunhill and the Scottish Open. You sort of sit there and you used to watch the shots coming down and think: 'How good are these guys?' Now you're out here playing and you kind of want to show off a little bit and kind of show people that I am good, I've practised and this is what I can do. I can hit it left to right and I can hit it up and down and I can spin it back and I can stop it."You want to show them how good you are. So when you get people standing on the hills and watching you it does create a better atmosphere, there's no doubt about it."While he enjoys the appreciation of those onlookers, however, Ramsay was more sceptical about how much the views of those other than a chosen few should be listened to.Much has been made of the struggles of most of Scotland's best amateur players to establish themselves on the European Tour in recent years. Gaining valuable experience at Castle Stuart will be David Law and Michael Stewart, winners of the last three Scottish Amateur titles between them, James Byrne, a former Walker Cup player, and two members of the current amateur national team, Jack McDonald and Brian Soutar.Ramsay first became known to a wider audience six years ago when he became the first Scot since the 19th century to win the US Amateur Championship and he knows all about what it takes to make the transition to the professional ranks. His advice to the current set of graduates is to be very selective about the opinions they listen to."I felt quite comfortable straight away," he said of the process of adapting to competing for a living."I felt I believed in my ability, or I started to believe more after sort of consulting a few people and keeping a close circle of friends around me and I would say not listening to what other people had to say outside that was the other reason I felt more comfortable because I started to believe in myself a little bit more."I started to continue with what I had done previously, which was just trying to improve all the time."There is a point where you feel more comfortable playing, there's a point where you feel you can go out and really compete."I think that comes when you've been in the mix and maybe didn't play so well, but you'd been up there and think 'well, if I can play my game for 72 holes I have a good chance of winning,' and that's when I won in South Africa [in 2009]."So it does take a bit of time, but I think you've got to be careful, more so mentally, about listening to the right people and not taking advice from certain people."

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Scots battallion ready to storm the Castle

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