Colin Montgomerie admits he is not expecting to take the title at this week's Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open but he hopes a fellow Scot can claim victory on home soil.
Montgomerie was the last Scottish winner in 1999 and Russell Knox looks to be the most likely of the home challengers this week, with the WGC - HSBC Champions winner 27th in the Official World Golf Ranking, although there are 14 other Scots in the field battling for home glory at Castle Stuart Golf Links.
Richie Ramsay and Marc Warren also both have European Tour wins in recent seasons and Montgomerie - who won the Order of Merit eight times - believes some home success is long overdue.
"Probably not for me, but other Scots, let's hope 17 years on," he said.
It seems a long time since a Scot has won this, too long. So let's hope that the younger guys can perform and win here - Colin Montgomerie
"It's great to have as many Scots playing and Aberdeen Asset have done a good job in sponsoring and promoting this event. It gives us an opportunity of someone performing well and, hopefully, not just performing well but succeeding on Sunday. So we'll see.
"Let's hope that the Home of Golf produces a star or many stars of the future, but that's all one can say right now.
"We're going through a lean spell, there's no getting away from that. Let's hope we can see some light at the end of the tunnel there."
At 53 years of age, Montgomerie now plys his trade largely in senior golf with this week being his first appearance at a regular European Tour event since last season's staging at Gullane Golf Club.
He will make it back-to-back appearances next week when he tees it up at the Open Championship on his home course of Royal Troon, and the 31-time winner is relieved to have qualified for the year's third Major Championship.
"It was just relief at the end of the day because I'd come so close at Sunningdale last year to try to win the British Seniors and of course came up short. I knew the winner got an invite into Troon," he said.
"I asked for an invite but that wasn't forthcoming, so the only other way was trying to qualify. It just happened to work. So relief more than anything, because I did realise that at my age that when the Open comes back to Troon in, say, 12 years' time, being 65, I won't be able to play, never mind qualify, because that's the age limit.
"So this was the last opportunity to try to get in to play an Open at Royal Troon, so it was a relief more than anything."
