Duncan Stewart returns to his home patch for this week’s SSE Scottish Hydro Challenge hosted by Macdonald Hotels and Resorts as a hot favourite to become the first Scottish winner of the event since 2010, having come close to taking a second victory of the season at last week's Najeti Open.
Stewart claimed a maiden European Challenge Tour win at last month’s Challenge de Madrid before coming close to doubling his title haul. He was leading after three rounds at Aa Saint-Omer Golf Club and was still ahead with five holes to play before two late birdies gave Portugal’s José-Filipe Lima the title.
The 32 year old has set his sights on the European Tour, ideally by winning two more times to earn immediate promotion, and Stewart would dearly like one of those might come this week at Macdonald Spey Valley Golf Club, close to his home town of Grantown-on-Spey, with the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open down the road at Inverness also on the horizon.
It's always good to win your home event but it would be fantastic to win this week
“It’s going to be different, being back as a winner,” he said. “I said after Madrid that the goal was to try to get two more to three wins before the Scottish Open to get into that – I’ve got two weeks now so I’d better pull my finger out.
“I can’t wait to be back at the SSE Scottish Hydro Challenge. I used to live up there so I’m going to stay with my family, I’ve got family all around there and I’m going to stay at home – I’ll have my son there with me too, it will only be his second event after Turkey, so hopefully he’s a good luck charm.
“I know the course well, and I’ve played there the last five or six years. I’ve heard it’s in great shape, and every year it’s getting better, with more definition, because it was a new course. I can’t wait to get back there.
“It’s always good to win your home event but it would be fantastic to win this week and that would pretty much seal the deal for next year as well, and it’s going to be fun because there’s always a lot of people out watching.”
Stewart, a member of Team Scottish Hydro, is also impressed by the emerging golfing talent coming from his home country and hopes that this week can encourage more youngsters to take up the game.
“It’s looking good, it’s promising,” he said. “I met the two amateurs, Ewen Ferguson and Grant Forrest, and they look like good players and know what they’re doing. It’s all part and parcel of why we’re having an event in Scotland, the work Team Scottish Hydro are doing.
“We’re in a good place, we all just need to keep chasing that and try to give the crowd something to cheer about this week – it’s been a disappointing couple of years there for myself so I need to try to make up for it.”
Stewart is joined in the Highlands by all of the winners from the 2016 Challenge Tour season as they battle it out for the €250,000 on offer.
The tournament has in recent years witnessed victories from two of the Challenge Tour's biggest rising stars, Andrew Johnston in 2014 and Brooks Koepka in 2013.
Englishman Johnston's victory played a huge part in his crowning as Challenge Tour Number One later that year and he has since gone on to European Tour fame, winning his first title at April's Real Club Valderrama Open de España, Hosted by the Sergio Garcia Foundation.
Koepka, meanwhile, has become one of the hottest properties in the game on the other side of the Atlantic. His win in Aviemore was the third of the 2013 season, earning him instant promotion to the top tier before claiming a maiden victory at the Turkish Airlines Open the following season.
He has since been a permanent fixture in the top 25 of the Official World Golf Ranking, having added to his trophy haul with a win on the US PGA Tour last year.
