Heath heads Challengers set for Troon

While the European Challenge Tour returns to Spain for this week’s Fred Olsen Challenge de España, James Heath will be leading the charge for Europe’s top developmental tour at Royal Troon as he competes in the Open Championship.

The Englishman capped a remarkable week a fortnight ago when, two days after winning the SSE Scottish Hydro Challenge hosted by Macdonald Hotels and Resorts, he tied for second in Final Qualifying at Royal Cinque Ports to earn a Major Championship debut.

The 33 year old could hardly be in better form heading back to Scotland, having contended once again at the D+D REAL Slovakia Challenge, finishing third to boost his position of eighth in the Road to Oman Rankings.

His passage to the Open was far from straightforward – from a commanding lead, he dropped seven shots in six holes before finding two late birdies – but the Londoner is excited to fulfil a lifelong dream by lining up alongside the best players in the world.

“That was a nice couple of days,” he said. “I won in Scotland but I wanted to keep switched on for Open qualifying so I didn’t go out on the lash that Sunday night, I kept my head on and woke up buzzing on the Monday.

“I went down there and tried to prepare properly but was pretty knackered so only played about six or seven holes, but went through all my drills and practice routines, and went off like a train.

“I’m not actually sure ‘capitulated’ is the right word for what happened! I was eight under par through 27 holes and then one under after 33 holes, and out of it – I was just playing terrible golf, it wasn’t a mental thing.

“I made a couple of late birdies and managed to squeeze in, with my brother on the bag – we’ve been wanting to do it forever, since you can enter at 16 or 17 years old. I don’t even want to know how many times I’ve tried to qualify because it will probably be ten or 11, maybe even 12!

“The next two or three days were a whirlwind and I was trying to sort out accommodation, travel, family and friends wanting to come up, and now I know what I’m doing.

“Everybody’s buzzing about the Open and wanting to talk about that, but my focus has been Slovakia and practising shots for that – I don’t have the luxury of peaking for Majors unfortunately, so I’ve got to take each week as it comes.”

Also making their Major debuts this week are Dave Coupland, Ryan Evans, Scott Fernandez, Paul Howard and Jack Senior, all of whom came through Final Qualifying, while Clément Sordet, another first-timer, earned his spot with a runner-up finish in the Thailand Golf Championship in December.

With Romain Langasque, current Rankings Number Two, having made the cut at the Masters Tournament and Sebastian Sodeberg having tackled Oakmont after qualifying for the US Open Championship, 2016 is proving to be an impressive year for the Challenge Tour at the Majors.

And though there will be inevitable excitement and distractions at Troon this week, Heath is determined to treat it like any other tournament and give himself the best chance of putting in a good performance.

“I think there’s two ways you approach your first Major,” he said. “Either you get caught up in everything, walking around, merchandise tent three times a day, 36 practice holes every day, or you approach it like another tournament and go about your business.

“I made the decision to do that and had a good chat with my brother and we’re going to try to stay disciplined, do what we need to do, save energy and go about it our way, so that’s my focus at the moment – when you see me on Tuesday afternoon with full shopping bags having played 54 holes, it might be a different story!

“I haven’t played Troon before, but I’ve heard it’s downwind first eight holes then back into the wind after that, and very tough. Most courses in the UK at the moment are pretty lush so I imagine the rough will be thick.

“Royal Cinque Ports was pretty tough, so I think the two rounds I played there will be good preparation because it was tight, thick rough and windy, and we’ve had a bit of wind in Slovakia, so that should help.

“I’ve been struggling in the wind a bit because when you’re an amateur you play in wind every single week, but as a pro you don’t really play that much, so it’s been nice to get some windy conditions lately to work on those shots.

“I’ve got this bullet going at the moment off the tee which is not really intentional but is a low ball flight, so is setting up perfectly for this week.

“I’ve got my brother, my wife and son, my father, and probably about 15 other people coming along to support, but I’m going to try to keep my game face on and see what happens.”