In-form Ewen Ferguson feels he can 'thrive' on BMW PGA debut at Wentworth

The majority of 2021 Challenge Tour graduates may be missing out on playing in this week’s BMW PGA Championship due to the presence of 18 LIV Golf players in the field but not Ewen Ferguson.

Ewen Ferguson pictured during the BMW PGA Championship Pro-Am at Wentworth. Picture: Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images.

The 26-year-old is no longer in Category 14, which has only managed to secure four spots in the $8 million Rolex Series event, after emerging as one of the DP World Tour’s brightest prospects this season.

Ferguson landed his maiden win in the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters in March before adding the ISPS Handa World Invitational at Galgorm Castle in Northern Ireland last month.

It would have been a hat-trick of titles if Englishman Oliver Wilson hadn’t holed two 60 plus-feet birdie putts on the back nine in the final round to deny him another victory in the Made in HimmerLand in Denmark on Sunday.

“Coming to this in this form adds to the excitement,” admitted Ferguson as he looked forward to making his Wentworth debut in an 11-strong Scottish contingent at the leafy Surrey venue.

“I feel comfortable in the whole environment and getting the respect from players I have looked up to since I started playing has been great. Suddenly they are coming up to me and saying ‘well done’. It makes me feel proud of myself.”

And rightly so. The Bearsden man sits 11th in the DP World Tour Rankings and could break into the world’s top 100 for the first time with another big performance this week.

“This is where you want to be,” he added before heading out in the celebrity pro-am. “I love the atmosphere on the range and on the putting green. I feel I can thrive on this stage.

“It’s my first time playing in this. I watched it loads on the TV. Always wanted to play in it. It’s another experience in a great year. I’m in the Tour Championship now, so I can relax and enjoy all this. It helps when you are relaxed.

“It’s a proper test this week. You need to hit it straight, long, you’ll have to do everything well. But good golf is good golf. It’s about controlling the emotions. Last week I just played my usual game and I nearly won again. So, if I keep doing that, then hopefully there will be more.”

A strong end to the season could see Ferguson be part of the new Hero Cup, which will take place in Abu Dhabi in January as part of Europe’s preparations for next year’s Ryder Cup in Italy.

“The next goal is to get into the Hero Cup team, I’d love that,” admitted the former Scottish and British Boys’ champion. “I spoke to (European vice captain) Edoardo Molinari and he told me I was on the radar about it.

“Then Thomas Bjorn (another vice captain) told me about it and then (captain) Luke Donald came up to me on the putting green in Denmark last weekend and said he’d been looking at my results and saying how well I was doing. It’s all cool stuff.

“At the start of the season, Jamie (Gough, his coach) and I set out some goals and they were about getting in contention. It was about getting into the last group three times in the year. I’ve done that quite a lot now. I don’t want to set any new goals really as I don’t want to put pressure on myself.

“Jamie’s is pretty smart about that, too. He says just keep doing what you are doing and get better and all those little areas and build blocks, then everything, like playing in big events and maybe majors, will take care of itself.

“I fully believe in everything he says. So I’m just going to keep on taking care of the little things and the big things will happen hopefully.”