Graeme McDowell has apologised to Scottish Open event sponsors for his damming criticism of Castle Stuart and host venue for this week’s tournament.

McDowell, and a former Scottish Open winner, was outspoken late last month in declaring the tournament had lost its prestige since moving to Castle Stuart in 2011.

And while McDowell is practicing this week at Muirfield ahead of next week’s British Open, the former double (British) Open winning duo of Ernie Els and Padraig Harrington disagreed with McDowell declaring Castle Stuart to be an ideal preparation for the year’s third Major.

Graeme McDowell apologises over his Castle Stuart remarks. (Photo – www.golffile.ie)

But given the controversy McDowell’s comments created the three-time winner this year  phoned Martin Gilbert, CEO of Aberdeen Asset Management and sponsors of the event to apologise for his remarks.

“Graeme contacted me to aplogise and he’s not the first person to say something they regret, so we’ve got no problems whatsoever with him.

“In fact, Graeme’s been a true gentleman. He said he’d consider issuing a statement himself but we agreed that would keep the matter running.

“So my hope it that he will play Royal Aberdeen next year after saying what a great golf course it is.

“He was fantastic for taking the time to get in touch and I really admire him for that.  He said he we should catch up at The Open for a chat and I was really impressed with how he had handled the situation.

“In fairness, Graeme has a point to a certain extent in terms of old and new links courses.

“It was also interesting to read what Padraig Harrington said about Graeme loving Loch Lomond , where I think everyone enjoyed seeing the Scottish Open being staged.

“But I’m firmly of the view that the Scottish Open should be played on a links course and, for Scottish golf to be trying to sell itself as a global brand, if we don’t play this event on links course it would be crazy.

‘It’s a pity the French and the Irish aren’t the other way around as you could possibly have three events – the Irish, Scottish and The Open – all being played on links courses.”