Even though he’s now a tour winner, and he belongs in this company, Ewen Ferguson still gets a little star-struck.
Reaching the final hole at The Renaissance, he checked the leaderboard to see he was on the same score as Jordan Spieth.
“I’d heeled an approach shot from the rough with a rescue and was in grass up to my knees,” he said. “But I looked at the board and saw a par would get me the same as Jordan Spieth.
“So I splashed out to ten feet and thought ‘it would be pretty cool mto make this and have the same score as Spieth’. So I made it.”
Ferguson’s 67 the best of a reduced home contingent
Genesis Scottish Open 🏴 this week on the @DPWorldTour @ScottishOpen good luck to @modestgolf clients and enjoy your home event @EwboF & @connor_syme 💪🏽 pic.twitter.com/Hdj0gWPQDo
— Modest Golf (@modestgolf) July 4, 2022
In end end Spieth fell back behind by a stroke to Ewen’s 67. It left him the best of the eight-strong home contingent reduced after Richie Ramsay pulled out with illness.
Winning in Qatar on his first full season on tour has given Ferguson room to breathe a little. He’d already shown in limited starts in 2020 and 2021 – especially last year’s Dunhill Links – that he could thrive.
“I played here in 2020 and it gave me so much confidence,” he recalled. “It was my first Rolex event and actually the Covid year helped me a bit as I got starts that I may not have got.
“After I won I was so excited knowing I’d have the opportunity to play here. It’s so good playing at home. It’s cool that people know who you are when you are hitting.
“Then you see all the big guys on the range and you see how they conduct themselves. They are so professional. You can learn so much from the way they go about it.”
He still gets a bit star-struck – even being interviewed by Nick Dougherty for Sky Sports.
“All the time,” he laughed. “I play with Bob (MacIntyre) a lot. He’s done well in the Masters and the Open so you know your game is not far away.
“I played with Joaquin Niemann today who I have known since I was young. How good is he? I enjoy it all.”
Running out of balls
What a reception for @robert1lefty 💙
The home crowd are right behind their man 👏🔥#GenesisScottishOpen🏴 | #RolexSeries | #FedExCup pic.twitter.com/cxRjBGiLYp
— Genesis Scottish Open (@ScottishOpen) July 7, 2022
He also remembers being one of the range rats asking players for balls and gloves as they passed when the Scottish Open was at Loch Lomond.
“I used to wonder why they would say ‘no’,” he said, as he makes sure he hands out a few himself now he’s here.
”I usually have nine balls in my bag and I gave a few away. But my caddie was saying I’ll need to calm down as we’ve only got a few balls left!”
It was not a great day for his friend MacIntyre. He had an early birdie at the third but got bogged down in a three-bogey run around the turn. Two more shots shipped in the final three holes, and a 73 leaves him with much to do to build on his improvement in Ireland.
Connor Syme, who got an invitation to compete, also dropped shots in his final two holes, the 8th and 9th. But he started strongly with a solid par 70 in the stronger winds of the afternoon.
The two other invites, Marc Warren and David Law, both had a 71 and 72 respectively.