July is ‘perfect’ slot for Scottish PGA, insists McDougall

it may seem an odd decision at first glance, but Scottish PGA secretary, Michael McDougall, has insisted the staging of the Tartan Tour’s flagship event in the same week as the Senior British Open at Turnberry is the “perfect” slot for Scotland’s leading home-based players.

Held in October in recent years, the Gleneagles Scottish PGA Championship will take place this year on 23-26 July, meaning it starts the day after the Open Championship concludes at Royal Lytham & St Annes and finishes the day the over-50s major starts in Ayrshire.

“In the grand scheme of what’s on that week, it is not going to rank as high with regards to profile,” admitted McDougall as he unveiled the main Scottish PGA events for the 2012 season. “In that sense it is disappointing, but you have to think of the players and, from their perspective, it’s perfect.”

The event, which will again be held on the Kings’ Course, where Ladybank’s Alan Lockhart triumphed last year, forms part of the SPGA Order of Merit, which also includes other established events in the Muir Deer Park Masters Pro-Am (31 July-1 August), the Aberdeen Asset Management Northern Open at Meldrum House (28-30 August) and the Kerr Investments Pro-Am at Dumfries & Galloway (1-2 September).

The schedule also includes the Paul Lawrie Invitational for the second year running, though it will now be held at Deeside on 17-20 September – the week before the Ryder Cup – and not mid-May due to the former Open champion earning a place in the World Match Play in Spain.

A new event, the Tomatin 3-Day Pro-Am, will be held at Castle Stuart, Nairn and Royal Dornoch on 1-3 October and will carry a purse in excess of £50,000 for pros, with entry expected to be around £1700 per team.