Richie Ramsay out to turn good season into really good one

Richie Ramsay is hoping it will turn out to be a ground-breaking year for him when the European Tour's Final Series concludes: Picture: Ross Kinnaird/Getty

Helped by the whopping £467,885 cheque he picked up for finishing second in the Irish Open, a Rolex Series event, at Portstewart in the summer, the Aberdonian has already earned a career-best £923,214 this season.

Sitting 24th in the Race to Dubai, he is also on course to beat his highest-ever finish of 26th in 2012, when  Ramsay won the Omega European Masters at Crans-sur-Sierre in Switzerland for the second of three triumphs on the circuit.

In short, the last three events of the campaign are about trying to add the cherry to the cake and the 34-year-old is relishing that opportunity, beginning at the Regnum Carya resort in Belek as it gets the Final Series underway for the second year running.

“You can gain so much,” said the Edinburgh-based player of this week’s event, the Nedbank Challenge at Sun City in South Africa then the now traditional last hurrah, the DP World Tour Championship at Jumeirah Golf Estates in Dubai in a fortnight’s time.

“Access to WGCs, for example, and, of course, world ranking points. It’s based around money. Money relates to rankings and that relates to what events you get into. You have to make as much money as possible.”

Ramsay was pleased with how he handled a first WGC appearance since 2013 in last week’s HSBC Champions in China. On a course that played more into the hands of big-hitters, he shot rounds of 73-71-75-71 to finish joint 41st behind Justin Rose as the Englishman took full advantage of a shock last-round collapse by world No 1 Dustin Johnson.

The big decision now for the Scot is what mindset does he adopt for these events and, by the sounds of things, he plans to play an attacking game rather than erring on the safe side. “Do you play smart and kind of passive aggressive or do you go flat out for three tournaments?” said Ramsay, who is joined in this week’s tournament by Marc Warren, David Drysdale, Scott Jamieson and Stephen Gallacher. “If I get one event where I am playing flat out and I’m holing putts, then you could finish third, for which the money is ten times more than if you finish 40th three times.

“I don’t know how to approach it, but I’m playing well. I can play quite aggressive into the greens as my iron play is good. My driving is lovely, too, and my short game has improved hugely this year.

“It could be a ground-breaking year for me by the end of these three events. On the other hand, the guys behind me have nothing to lose as they are chasing tournaments. But you have to look forward not look back at what others are doing. You have to think you are maybe in second place and chase birdies and try to push forward all the time. If you start playing passive, it doesn’t work out. You have to chase birdies.”

Before turning his attention to an event that sees Tommy Fleetwood taking on the likes of Rose and 2016 Open champion Henrik Stenson as he bids to stay on course to finish the year as European No 1 for a first time, Ramsay’ admitted his return to the WGC stage was an eye-opener.

“I’ve noticed a difference in the stereo-typical player who plays in these events,” he said. “There’s definitely a shift. You can see that in America, you can see that in Europe. I’m talking about the types of players coming along. They are all really impressive, but they are all centred round a certain type of game.

“I played with two guys the first day, Hudson Swafford, a lovely guy from Georgia, and Chan Kim, who plays in Japan. Hudson was long, but Chan was different level. He hit it miles. When he hit a good one and I hit a good one, there was like 30 yards in it.

“He just flat out bombed it. He hit one on the second and he got it about 360 run-out. I hit a good one, and I was probably 315. That was interesting to see. But then you’ve got other guys up there like Matt Kuchar, a lone wolf out there. He gets it done. He’s very good in the important areas, the putting and the chipping.”