The world’s top two ranked players in Luke Donald and Lee Westwood are set to resume their rivalry for global supremacy at this year’s Barclays Scottish Open at Castle Stuart.
Donald and Westwood fought out the recent ‘winner takes all’ BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth with Donald moving to No. 1 in the world after beating Westwood in a play-off.
Tour Miss at Barclay's Scottish Open media day at Castle Stuart.
Details of the stars heading to the north of Scotland was announced today at a media outing today at Castle Stuart.
The England pair head a star-studied field that will take to the stunning Castle Stuart course located just to the east of Inverness.
Also to tee up in the Scottish Highlands is World No. 5 Phil Mickelson, World No. 6 Matt Kuchar, who was runner-up yesterday in the Memorial in Ohio.
Graeme McDowell, who captured the 2008 Barclays Scottish Open, is committed to contesting the event along with strong Scottish contingent headed by former Open Champion, Paul Lawrie.
Joining Lawrie, and in an event set to attract record crowds, is Colin Montgomerie, Martin Laird and the in-form Scott Jamieson.
Castle Stuart, that takes its name from nearby Castle Stuart, is just over two years old and was designed by Mark Parisen, owner of the course, and Gil Hanse.
The Philadelphia-based Hanse designed the much-acclaimed Craighead course at Crail that was his first design project in Britain.
Castle Stuart is also one of the newest golf courses to play host to a European Tour event and is just one of three links courses to play host to Scotland’s national Open with the others being the Old Course at St. Andrews and Carnoustie.
“It’s probably fair to say we were a little bit cautious about coming this far north but the Highland community has really got behind this and our advance ticket sales have far exceeded any at Loch Lomond,” said Tournament Director, Peter Adams.
“We’re hoping for about 50,000 spectators over the course of the week. We think that figure is very reachable on the basis of advance sales and what we know about the walk up and it could even be higher.”
The media, thanks to Barclays and Castle Stuart, had the opportunity today to play the course located along the shores of the Moray Firth.
It’s a stunning venue commanding some fabulous both up and down the Moray Firth and with organisers revealing the tournament is already a sell out.
The Barclay’s Scottish Open will take place from July 7th to 10th and will carry a first prize cheque of £500,000 from an overall prize fund of £3m.
