Richie Ramsay is pondering a world without European Tour golf, just as it seems there’s a coterie of new Scots coming on board to join him.
The 35-year-old three-time Tour winner flirted with losing his playing rights for the first time in a decade on the circuit last year, and he estimates he’ll be around for maybe just five more years grinding in tournament golf.
Meanwhile, as the tour returns to the UK for the first time this season at the Betfred British Masters at Hillside this week, there is an added, younger presence to Scottish contingent on tour bringing numbers to a round ten on the outstanding course just over the fence from the famous Open venue Royal Birkdale.
After last year’s struggles, two Scots have already won on tour this year in David Law with his maiden victory in Australia and Stephen Gallacher in India, his fourth career title.
Fife’s Connor Syme, despite falling off the tour after his debut season last year, won his first time up in Turkey on the Challenge Tour two weeks ago and is in back on the main circuit this week with newcomers Law, Grant Forrest, Robert MacIntyre and Liam Johnston – all Syme’s friends and contemporaries during his amateur days – finding their feet well in the first few months of the campaign.
Ramsay took a while to get started this year bit a strong finish with a 66 in China last week has got him back in the mental groove as much as anything, something he admits he struggled with during the gruelling 2018.
“I’ve been a bit quiet recently, keeping my head down as I work on things, and it might sound funny, but I am trying to enjoy my golf a little bit more,” he said.
“I got torn a little bit between the travelling and not being home spending time with the family. That was a bit of battle that I was fighting towards the end of last year.
“I read a lot of things and one was `if you had a month to live, what would you do?’ Well I certainly wouldn’t be out here.
“I’d be at home every day spending time with (wife) Angela and (daughter) Olivia, they are what is important for me.
“But the other side is what my brother and Angela reminded me; that if I do this job, I get to spend multiple weeks with them as I try to give Olivia as many opportunities as I can as she gets older.”
Coming to peace with himself about this means Ramsay has been able to set a future goal which might be surprising to some.
“With everybody on board, the goal is to pretty much play until I am 40,” he continued. “If I am in place where I don’t want to continue and I’m not motivated, because I need to be 100 per cent in on it, I might decide to do something else or take a year out.
“How good would that be, to spend a whole year with my daughter?”
Despite this, Ramsay’s considerable competitive instinct is still as strong as ever, which is why he was so pleased to play well in China.
“I felt a result like I had there was coming,” he said. “I played well in Morocco without doing too much.
“I am definitely trying to enjoy it a bit more. I am fortunate to be doing something that I love to do.
“If I walked away tomorrow, that’s the thing I would really miss – the competition. You want to test yourself and I just need to go out there and play a little bit better than I have been. If I do that, then some momentum can come with it.”
Ramsay has good memories of Hillside from playing for Scotland’s amateurs and a British Boys Championship here. He also had his best performance in The Open just over the dunes at Birkdale in 2017, being around the top 10 for much of the week before finishing tied for 22nd.
“That was one of my favourite weeks in golf ever,” he recalled. “It was an amazing experience and one I’d love to repeat.
“It’s great to have a European Tour event back here as, outside of The Open, they are a little bit starved of golf around here. The back nine has some of the best holes we’ll play this season.”
