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ries event of the season, the BMW PGA Championship, on offer.
This year marks the third edition of the Nexo Championship, which first featured on the DP World Tour’s Global Schedule in 2020, where it was known as the Scottish Championship. The tournament returns to the Old Course at Trump International Golf Links for a second consecutive year.
Player Quotes
Grant Forrest: It’s great, quite strange to see my face plastered everywhere, but it’s great to be back. Great memories from last year and after a five-week break as well, it’s nice to get back playing.
I mean, just be trying to do the same stuff as always (approach to the week). Coming back from a break, just one shot at a time and really just try and enjoy it as well.
I love it. I mean, both my wins have been in Scotland, so there must be something in that. I love playing golf in Scotland, and we have amazing golf courses and links courses especially, so I definitely love playing at home.
It’s great (the course). It’s in really good condition. It had a lot of rain overnight and into this morning, but it’s immaculate to be honest, and I think even from last year it’s still quite a young course, but it’s really coming on and I’m looking forward to the challenge this week. I think it’s to be an opposite wind direction to what we had last year, so will sort of be like playing a completely different golf course, but looking forward to getting going.
Up to the Scottish Open, it’s been a little bit of a quiet season so far, but I don’t feel like it’s a million miles away. I had a five-week break, and I had surgery on my sinuses during the break, so I wasn’t able to do as much sort of practice as I maybe would have liked over the past two weeks. I’m feeling decent about my game, it doesn’t feel a million miles away, so hopefully we can put some good golf together this week.
Patrick Reed: The golf course to look at is stunning. The way it plays just really all depends. We haven’t had very much wind during practice, and because of that, the golf course is I’d say, a little easier, but the golf course definitely has challenges. I was hearing stories and the guys were telling me about last year, how hard the wind was blowing. I could see that around a golf course like this. With these dunes, if you get up on them, it’s just nasty, thick grass, the ball doesn’t bounce out of it, and because of that the golf course can play really challenging. It definitely puts a premium on ball striking and knowing how you’re going to attack each hole.
It’s kind of a mix between links and that parkland type of feel, but at the same time it’s one of these golf courses that even though it’s a little softer around the greens than links golf, you have to leave it in the right spot. You can’t short side yourself a lot to some of these pins, just because the undulation is hard to get the ball close. So, because of that, we’ll hopefully leave that to the minimum this week, but at the same time, if we have to use a short game, then I feel confident that my short game can bail me out.
It was such a pleasure playing with the Murray family (in the pro-am), and to kind of get to be able to experience and talk to other high-profile athletes. Andy’s usually playing a different sport, and it is always fun to see a competitive side come out, but also that athletic side. But the highlight of the day was Mum (Judy) goes out, drives the green on seven and then makes birdie on her natural birdie ball. If I remember correct, that might have been the only natural birdie of the three on the front nine.
I think the biggest thing is taking it day by day. We know where we stand. At the end of the year, obviously, we want to go ahead and win the Race to Dubai, but really the easiest way, I feel like, to get there is by focusing on each day, just improving each day, and staying present. If you sit there and start thinking too far ahead, then you start losing sight of what you’re doing right then and there. Golf is one of those games, if you start thinking too far ahead or too far behind you, it can bite you. So, for me, it’s just staying present, keep grinding each day, week and a week out, and hopefully, there’s enough late Sundays where we go out and try to win a couple more tournaments, and at the end of the year, hopefully, hold up the big trophy.
Cameron Adam: I’m excited. It’s going to be my first time kind of on home soil as a professional. I’m excited to get going. I played it (Trump International Golf Links) for the first time a few weeks ago, it’s great. I think the conditions will definitely have a lot to say about what goes on during the week, but a great setup. I went out and played nine this morning [Tuesday]. It’s flat calm right now and there was even some sun coming through, which was a bit unusual. It’s looking great and I’m excited.
Just got to try and take the positives (out of the Danish Golf Challenge). It’s finally kind of coming through, the good’s there, it just needs to come through a bit more consistently and at the weekend hopefully at some point. But yes, to go and kind of play that well for Thursday, Friday, I’ve got to take that and bank it and try and run off of that onto this week.
It’s been great (playing on the DP World Tour. It’s very different. There’s a lot of travel and there’s a lot of good players. I think that was kind of the big shock initially, was kind of how well you have to play to sustain a good level. But it’s all been brilliant, everyone’s super friendly and I’m just happy to be playing golf really.
David Law: I’ve played three tournaments staying at home before, and it is definitely a different experience than what we are used to week in, week out when you are staying in hotels and killing time. There’s not much time to kill this week for me as I’ll be taking Josh (son) to his football tonight [Tuesday] and his football again tomorrow night. We were swimming last night and it was also Josh’s first day at school. I’ll have the school runs before golf during the day and it’s a nice distraction to what we normally have during a tournament week. It’s great to be playing at a course I know well and to be staying at home as well is brilliant.
I played nine holes this morning [Tuesday] and the greens were really good. It is obviously a great venue for the DP World Tour to have on the schedule. They are always wanting to make it better and improve where they can. They have also been very welcoming whenever I’ve come to play here and, yeah, it is nice to play on a course that I know pretty well.
I haven’t played as well as I would have liked, to be honest. I was hoping I would have kicked on from where I finished last season and the fact I haven’t is a little bit disappointing. I’ve had a couple of spells where I felt it was pretty close and it was pretty good. But the Italian Open, KLM Open and last week (in the Danish Golf Championship) were all weeks that my game didn’t feel all that great.
You obviously want to win any event, but to win one in Scotland would be unbelievable. Obviously with this one being in Aberdeen, I’ll have my family and friends out watching me, which will be really nice and hopefully that can spur me on. All those things add up in a positive sense, so hopefully by the end of the week that sort of thing will have helped me.
Venue: Trump International Golf Links, Aberdeenshire
2025 Champion: Grant Forrest (SCO)
Prize Fund: $3,000,000
Race to Dubai: Tournament 31 of 42
Closing Swing: Tournament 5 of 5
Race to Dubai Points: 3,500