Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Star-struck Ewen Ferguson leads the home challenge at the Genesis Scottish Open

Ewen Ferguson tees off from the 10th.
Ewen Ferguson tees off from the 10th.

Even though he’s now a tour winner, and he belongs in this company, Ewen Ferguson still gets a little star-struck.

Reaching the final hole at The Renaissance, he checked the leaderboard to see he was on the same score as Jordan Spieth.

“I’d heeled an approach shot from the rough with a rescue and was in grass up to my knees,” he said. “But I looked at the board and saw a par would get me the same as Jordan Spieth.

“So I splashed out to ten feet and thought ‘it would be pretty cool mto make this and have the same score as Spieth’. So I made it.”

Ferguson’s 67 the best of a reduced home contingent

In end end Spieth fell back behind by a stroke to Ewen’s 67. It left him the best of the eight-strong home contingent reduced after Richie Ramsay pulled out with illness.

Winning in Qatar on his first full season on tour has given Ferguson room to breathe a little. He’d already shown in limited starts in 2020 and 2021 – especially last year’s Dunhill Links – that he could thrive.

“I played here in 2020 and it gave me so much confidence,” he recalled. “It was my first Rolex event and actually the Covid year helped me a bit as I got starts that I may not have got.

“After I won I was so excited knowing I’d have the opportunity to play here. It’s so good playing at home. It’s cool that people know who you are when you are hitting.

“Then you see all the big guys on the range and you see how they conduct themselves. They are so professional. You can learn so much from the way they go about it.”

He still gets a bit star-struck – even being interviewed by Nick Dougherty for Sky Sports.

“All the time,” he laughed. “I play with Bob (MacIntyre) a lot. He’s done well in the Masters and the Open so you know your game is not far away.

“I played with Joaquin Niemann today who I have known since I was young. How good is he? I enjoy it all.”

Running out of balls

He also remembers being one of the range rats asking players for balls and gloves as they passed when the Scottish Open was at Loch Lomond.

“I used to wonder why they would say ‘no’,” he said, as he makes sure he hands out a few himself now he’s here.

”I usually have nine balls in my bag and I gave a few away. But my caddie was saying I’ll need to calm down as we’ve only got a few balls left!”

It was not a great day for his friend MacIntyre. He had an early birdie at the third but got bogged down in a three-bogey run around the turn. Two more shots shipped in the final three holes, and a 73 leaves him with much to do to build on his improvement in Ireland.

Connor Syme, who got an invitation to compete, also dropped shots in his final two holes, the 8th and 9th. But he started strongly with a solid par 70 in the stronger winds of the afternoon.

The two other invites, Marc Warren and David Law, both had a 71 and 72 respectively.