Ewen Ferguson and Connor Syme are hoping to harness the benefit of home comforts when they lead the Scottish charge at the Nexo Championship this week.
The DP World Tour is making its second trip to Scotland in five weeks as the event returns for the first time since 2020 at a new venue in Trump International Golf Links.
Ferguson has three DP World Tour wins to his name in Qatar, Northern Ireland and Germany but he would love to overcome the home pressure and lift a trophy on Scottish soil.
“I’m buzzing to be on home soil,” he said. “It's nice when the tournaments start back and you just need to drive to the next venue which is rare for us and a nice feeling.
“It’s going to be cool playing in front of family and friends. I’ve never played here before... the pictures look incredible so it’s going to be a really fun week.
“It can work for you and against you: if it’s going well it’s the best feeling ever and you’re flying and if it’s not you’re a bit like ‘oh damn it’.
“It’s one that I’m going to try and use to my advantage and try and ride it with some birdies and some good vibes. It’ll be a fun week.
“It would be incredible (to win), with all your family and friends around it would be unbelievable. I’d take some time off after that I think.”
For Syme, victory would be a first at home but a second in three months following his maiden DP World Tour triumph at June’s KLM Open.
The 30-year-old believes this week’s windy conditions could be similar to those at The International and is hopeful his new found confidence down the stretch can bring a quickfire double
“Being Scottish it’s nice to be playing at home,” he said. “We came up here a few weeks ago to have a look around the course and it’s beautiful, I’m looking forward to this week.
“It’s brilliant playing at home. My last start was also in Scotland at the Genesis Scottish Open. There’s a lot of home comforts and stuff like that that you obviously don’t get every week so I’m looking forward to that and looking forward to playing the golf course and being at home.
“It’s all positive signs and hopefully I can feed off that a little bit and have a good week.
“I’ve only played a couple of times since winning the KLM Open but it’s nice to know I can do it and have those successes. Hopefully when I get into position somewhere I can draw on that given the fact I managed to win.
“I’m excited for the challenge this week.”
As for the challenge posed by this week’s modern links layout, both men think mastering the wind will be key.
“I came up and played it with a few of the other Scottish lads a few weeks ago, we got quite a nice day for it, obviously it’s going to be a windy challenging week this week,” said Syme.
“There’s a lot of high dunes and with the wind, keeping it in play off the tee is going to be important so we’ll do our best to try and do that.”
Ferguson added: “It looks super tight with all the dunes separating the fairways so it will be a good challenge in this wind. Being Scottish we might be a bit more equipped to it than other people.”
