Tour rookie Craig Howie insists he’s ready to set off the fireworks as he seeks to celebrate making it seven pay cheques in as many events this rookie season with a hopeful victory in this week’s Catalunya Championship in Girona.
Howie, 27, has not missed the weekend rounds since earning his 2022 DP World Tour card and with the Peebles golfer among eight Scots teeing-up on the Stadium course at PGA Catalunya to the north-east of Barcelona. It’s the first time the course has hosted a Tour event since the 2016 Tour’s Q-School and two years before Howie made his Challenge Tour debut.
Tour rookie Craig Howie insists he’s primed to ignite the fireworks
In Howie’s combined 75 tournaments, 22 on the DP World Tour and 53 on the Challenge Tour, his best run of events was eight weekend appearances in succession last year from mid-April to mid-June, and capped by victory in the fifth of those in Sweden.
And now the quietly-spoken Scott’s first goal this week is to match that run of a year ago that proved instrumental in finding his way onto the main Tour.
He said: “I feel pretty settled on the main tour, and I don’t feel out of my depth, and I feel this is where I should be.
“I’ve played decent golf this year with a couple of top-20s but then there’s not been any fireworks yet though my golf’s been really solid.
“I feel I’ve got a game that suits a lot of the course set-ups where we’re competing, so I’m comfortable out here and hopefully we can turn making it seven cuts in row into maybe a top-five or a win”.
If there’s been one aspect of his game holding him back, the prolific Scottish amateur winner says it’s been his putting that’s holding him back.
He said: “My play tee-to-green has been good but it’s just that the putter has not been hot, but I feel it does get hot so I can get myself into contention. I feel very confident about that. It doesn’t need to be too much different and if I can cut out a couple of silly mistakes, and then get the putter hot”.
Helping encourage Howie is the success being enjoyed by those fellow Scots he competed against and teamed with in his amateur days and are now are closer friends including now Tour winners in David Law, Connor Ridge, Grant Forrest, Callam Hill and more-recently Ewen Ferguson.
Howie said: “When I see guys like Connor, Grant and Ewen winning it’s great for Scottish golfers but I’m also thinking why is it not me.
“There is absolutely no reason why I can’t follow in their footsteps. What they’re doing is inspiring all Scottish golfers, and I feel we’re all inspiring each other as we’re taking that winning form from our amateur days onto the Challenge Tour and now the main tour.
“So, we’re all feeding off each other and that is great”.
