Martin Dempster: Ramsay content to go his own way

IT’S no secret that Richie Ramsay isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. For instance, he once got under Padraig Harrington’s skin when the Irishman felt the need to warn him about his conduct on the golf course.

Ramsay is also the man who once damaged a hotel room in Troon – which he paid for out of his own pocket – after he’d lost both his matches in the Palmer Cup, a college version of the Walker Cup.

“I’m not a good loser, never have been,” admitted the Aberdonian in an interview shortly after he’d turned professional in 2007, the year after he’d become the first home-based Scot to win the US Amateur Championship.

That’s not a crime. Neither is having a feisty attitude and Ramsay has never been too concerned about ruffling the odd feather, first as he became world No 1 in amateur golf then started to learn the ropes in the paid ranks.

“You could say I’m a strong-minded individual,” he admitted in that same interview and, as a perfect illustration of that, he has never been afraid to make tough decisions in a bid to become a better golfer.

A couple of years ago, for example, he left the Granite City to establish a base outside Edinburgh, believing that would help him cut down on travel time to and from tournaments.

As luck would have it, he’d just moved in when Scotland was hit with its worst winter weather for many a year and his hopes of practising on some of the fine links in East Lothian were well and truly scuppered.

Time for another big decision. Hence Ramsay found himself forking out a considerable sum – “writing the cheque was tough at the time,” he admitted – to buy a house in Atlanta next door to the Golf Club of Georgia.

It wasn’t a random choice. Ramsay earned life membership there through his US Amateur win and has been a regular visitor in the intervening period, having found its short-game facilities particularly helpful.

Ramsay, in fact, had just returned from a spell in Atlanta when I bumped into him a few weeks back on the eve of the Dunhill Links Championship.

He was feeling confident about his game and, while it maybe didn’t all click into place that particular week, that self-belief has now been vindicated with back-to-back third-pace finishes – both behind Sergio Garcia ironically – in the last two European Tour events.

The 28-year-old is up to 29th in the Race to Dubai and is back showing the sort of form that suggests he could become the successor to Colin Montgomerie as the standard-bearer of Scottish professional golf over the next decade or so.

We were saying that two years ago when Ramsay beat a strong field to win the South African Open – his maiden professional victory. But, a third-place finish apartat last year’s HSBC Champions event in China, he hadn’t really kicked on from that.

It wasn’t down to lack of effort. Few players work harder on their game than Ramsay and now, after suffering one of those dips that are inevitable in professional sport, the Scot is on the up again and heading for an exciting finish to the season.

What is refreshing about Ramsay, who has received terrific support from the Aberdeen-based Craig Group since he turned professional, is that he’s a glass half-full man. He bristles when people talk negatively about Scottish golf.

“Okay, we are waiting for someone big to come along and win a big tournament, but I think we are naturally just a little bit sceptical of guys and we can be a bit too negative too quick,” he once remarked.

“Whereas, I think you need to go out there and tell people that we are proud of what we have achieved and really kind of believe that we are a strong golfing nation. Don’t sit back and moan about it, but actually be positive and do something about it.” Ramsay, for one, is letting his clubs do the talking at the moment and, without doubt, he’s a player who should be held up as the shining example by the Scottish Golf Union as it nurtures the next crop of top young amateurs.

He cut his teeth at the highest level in the amateur game, playing in a Walker Cup as well as the World Team Championship. He was a proven winner and also had the good sense to get a sound education behind him in the form of a BA Hons in Marketing and Sports Studies at Stirling University.

Ramsay may not win too many prizes in life for being popular, but that does not concern him. “I’ve always been driven; always wanted to succeed,” he said after that win in South Africa. “People watch me and form an opinion of my personality and my game. I have my own way of doing things and I don’t care what anyone else thinks.”