Marc Warren has rejected criticism that the Scottish Open course at Castle Stuart is a poor test for competitors.
Former champion Graeme McDowell labelled the Gil Hanse-designed links along the Moray Firth, where play gets under way on July 11, as lacking "prestige".
McDowell won the event in 2008 when it was staged at Loch Lomond, a success that led to the Northern Irishman gaining his first Ryder Cup cap.
However, his remarks went down like a lead balloon among many northern golf fans who are again likely to come out in their thousands for the last Scottish Open tournament at Castle Stuart before its move next year to Royal Aberdeen.
And Warren, who almost secured a first Scottish Open success a year ago when he began the final day three shots in the lead, believes McDowell has got it wrong.
"I would say the exact opposite because if a course is too tough the week before the Open and I was an American, for example, and it was too brutal two weeks in a row, then I wouldn't play," said Warren.
"Castle Stuart lets you relax a little bit more off some of the tees and play your way into some form. The important thing about a links course is how the ball runs, how you can attack the holes and play your shots around the greens.
"Castle Stuart offers the perfect opportunity to work on these types of shots without being under the stress of finding fairways 10 yards wide, which is what the Open is."
The 32-year-old from Rutherglen, South Lanarkshire, hopes he can make up for his Castle Stuart disappointment of last year and qualify for the following week's Open Championship.
While he missed out on qualifying last week at Sunningdale, he still has two bites at the Muirfield cherry.
Warren needs to be one of the top-five non-exempt Muirfield players and inside the top 20 on the Race to Dubai money list at the close of this coming week's French Open.
At present, Warren is fourth of the five, but is lying in 22nd place and £20,001 outside the top 20. If he should miss out through that route, he would need to win a week later at Castle Stuart to secure the last spot in the 142nd Open.
"I've never played Muirfield but I saw it the other week when I was playing at the Renaissance and it looks spectacular, lush and green," added Warren. "I am taking the philosophical view that if I don't make it, so be it, but I'd love to play in the Open and Muirfield would be a great place to start."
Colin Montgomerie, meanwhile, will miss his first Scottish Open since his debut in 1987 as the Scot is taking part in the Senior US Open in Omaha, Nebraska.
However, he will be in action on Tuesday, teeing up in a 36-hole Open Championship qualifier at Gullane No 1 and seeking to play a first Open in five years.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article