Three Scots have been confirmed as getting sponsor’s invitations for next week’s Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open at Castle Stuart.
Two-time tour winner Gary Orr, Tullialan’s Callum Macaulay and former Walker Cup star James Byrne take the Scottish contingent for the tournament to 16.
Former Open and Masters champion Sandy Lyle had already been confirmed as an invitee.
Byrne is sponsored by Aberdeen Asset and won the Northern Open, also sponsored by the finance company, at Meldrum House last year, his first win since turning professional.
Ernie Els meanwhile has confirmed that he will warm up for the defence of his Open Championship crown by competing at Castle Stuart.
With Darren Clarke also committed to playing the £3 million event, Els’ participation means that the last two Open Champions will be teeing up at the Inverness venue next week.
Els, who secured his second victory in The Open Championship last year to add to his previous win at Muirfield, has enjoyed great success in the Home of Golf and will be bidding for his third Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open title, having first triumphed in 2000 and then again in 2003, when Clarke finished in a tie for second place.
Els, who has 28 European Tour titles to his name, competed at Castle Stuart the week before his triumph at Royal Lytham and St Annes, and the 43 year old is hopeful the same routine will aid his quest to become the first man since Ireland’s Padraig Harrington in 2008 to win back-to-back Open Championships.