In 1996 we were halfway through Colin Montgomerie’s epic run of seven successive European Tour Order of Merit titles, and it was a great time for Scottish professional golf.
That year nine Scots finished in the top 60 of the tour. As well as Monty, there was Andrew Coltart (7th), Raymond Russell (14th), Paul Lawrie (21st), Sam Torrance (22nd), Andrew Oldcorn (34th), Gary Orr (41st), Ross Drummond (42nd) and Gordon Brand Jr (57th) .
It’s wasn’t just quantity, there was real quality there. Many of those guys had a genuine chance of winning when they teed it up most weeks.
Only a year before, the battle for the OoM title had gone all the way to the final tournament before Monty prevailed over Sam.
Right up until the turn of the century, Scotland remained strong on tour. Eight players made the top 60 in 2000, six in 2001.
By 2009, something had gone badly wrong. In just eight years we went from being a dominant nation on tour to just one player – David Drysdale as low as 48th – in the tour’s top 60.
I think we all realise the tour is much tougher and far deeper in talent now than it was, even as recently as 2000. When incredible talents like Brooks Koepka choose to start their pro careers in Europe, the talent pool is truly formidable.
Also, the money won in all majors and WGC events has skewed the Order of Merit/Race to Dubai.
Paul Lawrie’s outstanding season of 2012 (two wins, seven other top 10s) was just good enough for 10th in the R2D. Stevie Gallacher’s 2014 season (one win, seven other top 10s) got him to 16th.
So far this season, we’ve got just three players in the top 60, including weekend winner Richie Ramsay, of whom more below. But I reckon Richie’s win in Morocco underlines that we have a quality of player on tour right now as good as the halcyon days of the mid 90s.
Ramsay’s win was his third on tour. Gallacher has three, so does Marc Warren, and Paul Lawrie has eight. Scott Jamieson has just one but is generally regarded as being set for another.
Craig Lee and David Drysdale have been close before, and I firmly believe that Lee has the game to get there soon.
The fact we have no players on tour at present under 30 is a bit worrying, as players now seem to be blossoming in their mid-20s or younger.
But the narrative that we’re toiling at the moment on tour isn’t right. We’re stronger than we’ve been for years, I’d say in terms of potential winners as good as we were in 1996.
It’s a group of players in their prime who are a threat almost every week. Ramsay’s win shows Scottish professional golf is actually in a pretty healthy state at the moment.
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Richie Ramsay’s third tour win was not easy, either on Sunday nor in the months leading up.
We’d hoped his European Masters win in 2012 might have been the start of a top-50 breakthrough for Richie, but illness and injury got in the way.
Now he’s over all that, he can build on his true potential. Certainly, the old whispers of his mental fortitude can be finally dismissed by the circumstances of Sunday’s performance.
Richie was a fiery lad in the amateurs and when he came on tour. He got in his own way more than once being so hard on himself.
Sometimes when we spoke at the end of rounds he was so down it seemed he might even jack it all in. One of those occasions was the Open at Lytham in 2012 – yet he won in Switzerland two weeks later.
The old Richie – indeed most players – would have folded after a triple bogey to lose a two-shot lead, as he did in Morocco on Sunday. The mental toughness he showed to fight back and win was hugely impressive.
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Being a former champion, Tiger Woods can wait right up until the 11th hour at Augusta next week before committing himself to play in the Masters.
His friend and confidant Notah Begay said the other week that Woods was “50-50” on whether he’d play. But the portents are not good.
In his previous emergences from injury or self-imposed sabbaticals, there’s been smoke signals of him shooting 61 at Isleworth or the Medalist to put the wind up the others, but this time there’s been nothing coming out the chimneys at Tiger Towers in Jupiter.
After the embarrassments of Phoenix and Torrey Pines, I think if there’s any prospect whatsoever of Tiger making a fool of himself by showing the extent of his alleged chipping yips, he’s not showing. Augusta’s the last place in golf you want to expose such a shortcoming in your game.
On the other hand, Tiger dropped out of the World’s Top 100 at the weekend for the first time since he entered it, as a callow youth in 1996. That indignity should stir the old juices, one hopes.
The winner of this week’s Houston Open is supposed to swell the Masters field to 100, but with injuries it’s likely to be more like 96.
Not among them, agonisingly, will be Scotland’s Marc Warren, who went to Texas last week aiming to get himself inside the world’s top 50 and thereby get his invitation up Magnolia Lane.
A final round 70 left him, excruciatingly, 51st in the rankings. Marc’ll move into the top 50 before long, but it would have been further vindication of his growing improvement.
That leaves three Scots in the field; former champion Sandy Lyle, Stephen Gallacher by virtue of the World’s Top 50, and the Amateur Champion from Blairgowrie, Bradley Neil.