Highlands ready, insist team behind new course on the block

"I honestly didn't think something of this size could happen here," admitted Inverness-born Fraser Cromarty, the sales & marketing manager at Castle Stuart.

"There was talk at one time about taking a Ladies' Tour event up north, but that was a long time ago.

"It is great because the Highlands is ready for it. As a city Inverness is ready for it, too. As an area it is on the up and there couldn't be a better time for it."

The 1999 Walker Cup at Nairn, where Luke Donald and Paul Casey were both in the winning Great Britain & Ireland team led by Peter McEvoy, is the biggest event to be held in this neck of the woods until now.

"This is another level up from that - 450 million households worldwide will be watching the event," added Cromarty. "The Highlands has always been seen as a golfing destination, but I think this will take it to another level. I also think what it is going to do is open a lot of doors.

"Barclays, for instance, will be entertaining 800 guests during the week and for us, and the area in general, to be getting exposure to those sort of people is fantastic. I think people have had it in their minds that the Highlands is an awkward place to get to, but the airport, of course, is just a long the road."

Stuart McColm, the general manager at Castle Stuart, is another Invernesian who is pinching himself as one of the European Tour's biggest event gets set to tee off on the Moray Firth coast.

"To have the likes of Donald, Westwood, Mickelson and McDowell here is fantastic for the area," he said. "It will be fascinating to see how they handle a course most of us here have been involved in right from the start."

A greenkeeper to trade, McColm started his career at Inverness Golf Club and also had a spell at Invergordon before working under the legendary Walter Woods at St Andrews.

"It was great training down there, working on the Old Course and in Dunhills," he reflected. "I left the year before the 1990 British Open and I remember Walter saying I was mad to be doing that. I told him that time was of the essence and I had to get on with my career."

He moved to Germany, where he was involved in the construction of a number of new courses, before returning to Scotland to work with Mark Parsinen and Gil Hanse, the co-designers of Castle Stuart, on their first project in the home of golf at Kingsbarns then linking up with them again in the Highlands.

"Having worked with Mark at Kingsbarns, I could see exactly what he had in mind here," added McColm. "I believe we are in great shape thanks to a great team. We are also in great shape for a course that is so young. We're not 100 per cent happy with it, but, you know what, it's bloody good for two years old."Last year we were getting onwards of 12,000 rounds. This year we have projected to do 20,000 in total. We might fall slightly short of that and up with 18,000, but, nevertheless, we've been on a steady trend. The future is very bright, no doubt about it."