Mike Stewart set for Highland homecoming

As the Tour's senior tournament director, Stewart will effectively be running the Barclays Scottish Open at its new home at Castle Stuart in July, the prospect of Phil Mickelson, Padraig Harrington and Graeme McDowell amongst others heading for the Moray Coast being something that even in his wildest dreams seemed fanciful for the born-and-bred Invernesian.

"It is an event that is going to be close to my heart as that is my part of the country," he told The Scotsman. "I never envisaged an event of this magnitude going to that part of the world, either when I was growing up in Inverness or during the 20 or so years I have worked for the European Tour."

Stewart, who cut his teeth as a tournament controller on the Tartan Tour before moving to the European circuit at its Wentworth headquarters, recently spent three full days conducting a detailed site visit at Castle Stuart. He's due back there again next week and reckons he's likely to pay up to ten visits in total between now and July.

That's considerably more than he would make for an established venue but, considering the fact it has been open for less than two years, Stewart says it's probably not going to take an awful lot of work to get Castle Stuart ready to host one of the Tour's biggest events with its 3 million prize fund.

"It is very exciting," he admitted of a task that will also give him the chance to visit his mum, who still lives in Inverness, and sister Gillian, the former Ladies European Tour player who is heavily involved in coaching these days and, during recent Scottish Opens, has been part of the BBC Radio Scotland on-course commentary team.

"The first time I saw the venue, which has excellent infrastructure and is potentially superb, was when I was up north with my family at Christmas. I popped along but, unfortunately, the course was covered in snow then. However, I recently spent three days up there and it is very special.

"It is very exiting to think the Scottish Open is going to be held there so soon after it opened. Hopefully it will achieve the acclaim from players that I think it deserves but you never know until it happens.

"There are some great spots to view the golf and, of course, it has a fantastic backdrop as well. There's a great buzz from the club and also individuals in Inverness as well. I've had lots of messages and emails from old friends and contacts saying they want to get involved in the event in some way or the other."I am sure the players and VIPs will all be well looked after and enjoy some of that special Highland hospitality."

As for the test he'll play a key role in setting, Stewart shares the view of Mark Parsinen, the American co-designer and managing partner at Castle Stuart, that, while it's great on the one hand for players to get some links practice the week before the Open Championship, on the other they don't want to be heading down to Royal St George's feeling they've been beaten up by a course that was too tough.

"If there has been an argument against that (playing the Scottish Open on a links before The Open), it is that very one. We have been slightly concerned about that in the past," admitted Stewart. "I would hate to think that all these top players come along to the Scottish Open and lose their swing going into the biggest event of the year.

"The way the course is set up is fairly generous off the tee and we will be realistic in the way the greens are set up. They will not be silly fast as that could kill us. We will be erring on the side of caution this year. In fact, we will not be making many changes to the way the course is set up at the moment. I would hate to propose all sorts of changes that did not work and the players did not like them. We will learn a lot from how it goes this year."