Drysdale Heads Into Hong Kong Open Singling Out Exciting New Era Of Young Scottish Golfers

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It is a marvellous tribute from a golfer who has been a professional for near on 30-years.

With Scotland’s David Drysdale paying tribute to a ‘new era’ of his younger countryman golfers ahead of proudly taking his place as an Asian Tour rookie in this week’s $US 2m Hong Kong Open.

Drysdale, 48, tees-up in the last of just a handful of events remaining in his Asian Tour member first season ahead of the near-assurance of enjoying full-season playing rights for the New Year, and in what will be a 29th pro career season before talk of then joining the ‘Over-50’ brigade in 2025.

As a lone Scot in this week’s $US 2m International Series event, Drysdale is full of praise for the collective likes of Bob MacIntyre, Ewen Ferguson and David Law, and how proud he is of this new breed of exciting Tartan players carrying the Scottish flag on the DP World Tour.

He said: “Bob’s showing in the Ryder Cup was brilliant, fantastic and an amazing achievement.  That’s what he had been talking about for some 12 months, and then to qualify and to go to Rome and perform so well as he did, was truly remarkable.

“His efforts mirror what we’re seeing in Scottish golf as there are a lot of nice young lads out on the Tour like Bob, Ewen (Ferguson), Connor (Syme), David (Law), Calum (Hill) and others such as Grant Forrest.  Grant is a fantastic talent, as they all are.

“There was a few years back we were not seeing any new players coming onto the Tour until guys like ‘Jamo’ (Scott Jamieson) and Richie Ramsay joined the Tour.

“Now Scotland has five to six players that are all fantastic players, and each with the potential to win a tournament or two a season, and I wish each of them the best of luck”.

A decade ago, Drysdale was playing practice rounds with the likes of Paul Lawrie, Stephen Gallacher, Scott Jamieson, Marc Warren, Peter Whiteford, Craig Lee, Richie Ramsay, Scott Henry and Chris Doak.

And in mentioning Jamieson, Drysdale reached out to him last fortnight and soon after Jamieson dramatically attained his 2024 Tour card in sharing third place at the Qatar Masters, an event Dyrsdale had lost out three years ago in a five-hole play-off.

Drsydale said: “It was a fantastic result for Scott and just shows what you can do when your back is against the wall.

“I’ve found myself in that same situation, at this time of year a couple of times.  I also understood what he was facing as going into the back nine he’s trying to win a golf tournament but in the back of his mind he was in Qatar to do one job, and that was to secure his card for next year.

“He just did amazingly well.  Head down and ground it out and probably would have taken top-20 or whatever at the start of the week and, in fact, would have bitten your hand off on Thursday for a top-20”.

Drysdale takes his place in this week’s field that features major winners Graeme McDowell, Patrick Reed and Cam Smith, and with the Aussie looking to become the 16th ‘Down Under’ champ in this year’s 62nd hosting of the event.

Drsydale first made his way to Hong Kong 13-years ago in 2010 ahead of best finish of fifth in the 2018 DP World Tour sanctioned event while he was ninth earlier this year on the same course that hosted the World City Championship.

He said: “That’s been a great thing about these International Series events on the Asian Tour as we’ve got guys like Patrick Reed, Cam Smith and G. Mac playing this week here in Hong Kong, and well-established pros who played on the DP and PGA Tour’s.

“I caught-up with G Mac and Blandy (Richard Bland) recently at an event a few weeks ago in Singapore. I’ve known Blandy for a long time and I managed to take some money off him, though he could afford it as he’s probably earned about $8m in the last few years (smiling).

“As for myself, I’ve played this Hong Kong course more than any other golf course in this part of the world, and also had some great finishes including fifth back in 2018 and a great ninth place result earlier this year.

“So, delighted to be back here in Hong Kong as the food is great, the golf course is always enjoyable to play and it’s always a good week here”.



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