Gray’s eyes on prize as Tartan Tour heads for exciting finish

In addition to the battle for a coveted crown, there are sub-plots aplenty as the race for the order of merit and prize-money titles draw to a conclusion, as well as the fight for three places in the PGA Play-Offs in Turkey.

Stephen Gray, the affable Hayston man, is leading both the order of merit and money-list, but the 37-year-old has players snapping at his heels.

His advantage over David Patrick, the Scottish Young Professionals’ champion, on the order of merit is just over 100 points, while Greig Hutcheon, last year’s No 1, and the on-form Paul McKechnie are both within £8,000 of him on the money-list.

Gray figured prominently in the two most recent order of merit events, finishing second behind amateur David Law in the Aberdeen Asset Northern Open then winning the Kerr Investments 36-holer.

One more decent display will carry him over the finishing line and, though the chasing packs on both lists will be taking heart from the fact Gray has been unable to land a 72-hole victory during his 15 years on the Scottish circuit, he is feeling good about his game.

“There are a lot of permutations heading into this week. In fact, you almost need to be a mathematician to work it all out,” said Gray.

“Finishing at the top of both the order of merit and the money-list has been my goal since I became No 1 on them after the Northern Open, but I can’t get too ahead of myself.”

Gray turned down the chance of playing in last week’s EuroPro Tour Championship in Spain, preferring to stay at home and practice. He has been paying particular attention to his short game, an area he feels has improved thanks to his coach, Lanark professional Alan White.

“I have always been pretty consistent tee-to-green and now my putting and chipping have got stronger as well,” he added. “I discovered during this year’s Johnnie Walker Championship those areas of my game were still not good enough at that level. Alan came up to watch me and pinpointed a couple of things that I have been working on.”

Like Gray, both Patrick, who won the Scottish Young Professionals’ Championship for a record-equalling third time in a row this year, and McKechnie, winner of both the Sprint Series and PGA Fourballs (along with David Orr) in the last week, are bidding to claim the order of merit for the first time.

“I know a lot of people are saying Paul is my biggest danger and he’s certainly playing well at the moment, but it would be wrong for anyone to forget about David as well,” admitted Gray. “He’s the assistants’ champion and also played in the Walker Cup, so he certainly can’t be discounted.

“The same certainly goes for ‘Hutch’ – add the play-offs into the mix and it’s great there are so many things up for grabs going into this week.”

Given a choice between the three prizes he’s bidding for in Perthshire, Gray said he “would have to pick” joining the likes of John Panton, Eric Brown, Bernard Gallacher and Sam Torrance on the Scottish PGA Championship roll of honour. It would also see him land those two other titles. That would be quite a triple whammy.

The 69-strong field includes a one-time European No 1 in Ronan Rafferty and nine former winners.

However, West Linton’s Gareth Wright, who lost to Doak in a play-off 12 months ago and sits fifth on the order of merit, is a real contender, as are the likes of Neil Fenwick, Alan Lockhart, Graeme Brown and Mark Kerr.