Martin Dempster: Scottish Open still attracts strong field in Covid world

No big-name Americans on this occasion but Europeans go the extra mile for Rolex Series event

Tommy Fleetwood is among the top players who have committed to this week’s Scottish Open. Picture: Getty

It would be way too easy for anyone to look at the entry list for this week’s Aberdeen Standard Investments Scottish Open and feel a touch disappointed, so please don’t. For the event’s second successive visit to The Renaissance Club in East Lothian, the line-up may be lacking some of the star names we’ve become accustomed to, but that, I’m afraid, is understandable.

First and foremost, of course, it is not being staged on this occasion in its traditional pre-Open Championship slot, having been rescheduled due to the Covid-19 lockdown of the European Tour earlier in the year.

That alone was always going to have an impact on the strength of the field, as, of course, has the ongoing effect of a pandemic that has shaped a different-looking European golfing landscape over the past six months.

Ten full events, including six on a new UK Swing, have taken place since the circuit came out of that lockdown in late July, with each and every one having been vitally important for the morale of the tour’s rank-and-file members. The prize pot in all of those events was either €1 million or €1.25m, the latter being on offer in last week’s Dubai Duty Free Irish Open at Galgorm Castle, near Ballymena, after the decision was made to downgrade its status as a Rolex Series event this time around.

In one respect, that may have been disappointing, but you only had to listen to Paul McGinley in his commentary on Sky Sports Golf to appreciate how fortunate the players should have been feeling about the tournament taking place this year.The same goes for the Scottish Open and well done to the event’s three partners – Aberdeen Standard Investments, the Scottish Government and the European Tour – for doing what was needed for it to be going ahead as planned as a Rolex Series event.

That being the case, a whopping $7m is up for grabs on the East Lothian coast as the tournament marks the start of a second UK Swing, being followed by the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, where the prize fund is the same, then the €1m Scottish Championship at Fairmont St Andrews.

The fields for The Renaissance Club and Wentworth are pretty similar, the main difference being that the 2014 Scottish Open winner, Justin Rose, is not playing this week and neither is two-time Alfred Dunhill Links champion Tyrrell Hatton. That’s a pity, but hats off to world No 17 Tommy Fleetwood, 20th-ranked Matthew Fitzpatrick, former Masters champion Danny Willett, Ryder Cup talisman Ian Poulter and 2010 US Open winner Graeme McDowell for all committing to this week’s tournament.

Poulter and McDowell are both based these days in Florida and the fact they’ve crossed the Atlantic when many are reluctant to make that trip speaks volumes in terms of how European players never forget their roots and will be prepared to go that extra mile. Add in defending champion Bernd Wiesberger, as well as Lee Westwood, Martin Kaymer, Matt Wallace, Erik Van Rooyen, Victor Perez and Christiaan Bezuidenhout, and it is indeed by far the strongest field on the European Tour since the restart, even if some of those American big guns we’ve been used to seeing in the Scottish Open are missing this time.

On the upside, that has partly helped set up an exciting week for a small army of Scottish players, with a 15-strong home contingent set to be made up by Stephen Gallacher, David Law, Marc Warren, Paul Lawrie, Neil Fenwick, Connor Syme, Ewen Ferguson, Craig Lee, Paul O’Hara, Bob MacIntyre, Richie Ramsay, Scott Jamieson, David Drysdale, Grant Forrest and Calum Hill.

The event is being held behind closed doors, with a plan to have 650 spectators in attendance on both Saturday and Sunday quickly being scrapped when Scotland’s Covid-19 restrictions were tightened last week. While having that number of people out on a huge open space like a golf course wouldn’t have caused too many headaches, it seemed the right decision, especially on the back of fan test events in football and rugby being put on hold.

As was the case with the Ladies Scottish Open at the same venue and also the Women’s Open at Royal Troon, the most important thing of all this week is delivering a tournament in a safe environment and what a splendid job the European Tour has carried out in that respect over the past couple of months.

With all that in mind, let’s all enjoy one of the highlights of the golfing season.

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