Colin Gillies ready to tee off his 25th year on Tartan Tour

Published on Monday 8 March 2010 20:02

COLIN Gillies, the Tartan Tour's most prolific money winner, is aiming to celebrate his 25th anniversary on the domestic circuit this season by breaking the £500,000 barrier in career earnings.

The 43-year-old, a two-time winner of the Scottish PGA Championship, is just over 18,500 short of that historic milestone and is looking to produce another financially fruitful year on home soil in 2010 and earn a place in the tour's record books.

"I earned around 19,000 last year and finished fifth on the money list and hopefully there's enough in the prize pot this season to do that again and get past the mark," said Gillies, who was an assistant professional to the former Ryder Cup skipper, Bernard Gallacher, at Wentworth in the mid-1980s.

"To get to half a million would be a great achievement and, as it's my 25th year on the Tartan Tour, there is a big incentive to do it this season. It would be a nice way to mark my long service."

Gillies, with over 120 Tartan Tour wins to his name, will make his assault on the earnings record at a time when the Scottish tour is facing challenging times in terms of prize-money and sponsorship.

"When I was starting out on the Tartan Tour we had something like seven 72-hole events a year as well as the pro-ams," added Gillies, who is attached to the Playsport facility in East Kilbride.

"We were actually moaning about being tired because of the amount of golf we were playing. But we still have a strong pro-am circuit and hopefully we can ride out these tough times."

&#149 Steve McNally, the former Scottish national high performance coach, has become the head teaching professional at De Vere Slaley Hall, moving to the Northumberland resort from Oulton Hall in Yorkshire.