HUTCHEON (33) THINKS THERE
IS STILL TIME TO MAKE IT
BIG ON EUROPEAN TOUR

By COLIN FARQUHARSON
Greig Hutcheon, who will be 34 on March 29, still has not given up hope of making it on to the European Tour on a more permanent basis than has been the case since 1998.
“I don’t want to come across as getting too big for my golf shoes, but I have looked at all the top players in Europe and I honestly believe that the difference between them and me is in the region of 1 ½ to two shots a round," said Greig (pictured right).
“That’s how close I feel I am to the top. I am not at the top, obviously, but I don’t feel as though I will be out of my league when I play in the PGA championship at Wentworth, and then the big ones at Loch Lomond and Gleneagles in the new season.
“Four good rounds strung together in any of these big tournaments could change my life. It’s a nice thought. If you lose your dreams, your ambitions as a pro golfer, then you are in danger of going backwards.”
WINTERING ON ALGARVE
Hutcheon is spending the winter on the Algarve – at Penina, to be precise – just as he did in the winter of 2005-2006 and he reckons that daily practice in the comparative warm conditions of southern Portugal meant he went into the 2006 Tartan Tour schedule with a game that was much sharper than if he had stayed at home in the North-east and been confined to the house by the freezing weather for long periods.
Hutcheon, who plays out of Peterculter Golf Club nowadays, highlighted his first full campaign on the PGA Scottish Region circuit by winning the Order of Merit and the Callaway Order of Merit and also finishing seventh in the money table with in excess of £20,000 from only 26 competitions – considerably fewer than anyone in the top six.
Quite apart from the success, the former Scotland boy and youth amateur international from Crathes, Aberdeenshire, enjoyed every minute of the Tartan Tour.
“For a start, it was reminder to me just how many good golf courses there are in Scotland. I hadn’t played some of them for a few years – and some I was playing for the first time,” said Greig with enthusiasm.
STRENGTH IN DEPTH
“The competition is good too. There are a lot of good tour pros playing in Scotland, more than I think might have been the case a decade or two ago. I think the success of Craig Lee, James McKinnon and Sam Cairns in the PGAs of Europe team championship in Spain at the end of the year underlined the strength in depth we have up here.

“I had played the Challenge Tour and the European Tour almost alternately every year since 1997 and it was really an accident that turned my attention to my domestic tour.
“It was December 23, 2004 – I shall never forget the date – and I was horsing about with some pals in the snow. I fell heavily on my right shoulder which pushed it out of alignment. It was very, very painful for a long time and virtually screwed up the 2005 season for me.
“Looking back, I should have gone for a medical exemption for the year, as the European Tour people told me I would have had no difficulty in getting but, foolishly I think now, I decided to soldier on.
“I could have an operation to put the shoulder back into sync with the rest of my body but there is a risk of making the situation much worse and I am not prepared to take that gamble.
“So, in a way, the 2005 season was the lowest point of my playing career … not being able to play for a long spell ... then trying to play and finding, not only that it was painful but that I couldn’t play as well as I used to.”
1999 SCOTTISH PGA CHAMPION
The silver lining for Hutcheon was that his inactivity combined with his lack of success on the Challenge Tour – on which he had been a winner three times - forced him to look closer to home for an opportunity to make a living. Having won the Scottish PGA title in 1999, Greig was entitled to play the Tartan Tour.
“I should have done it earlier. It doesn’t cost nearly as much to play anywhere in Scotland as it does to follow the Challenge Tour – and I think the calendar of events is great, just the right mix of tournaments.
“I like pro-ams. I like meeting people and playing golf with strangers. That’s just the way I am.”
Finishing third in both the Northern Open at Skibo Castle and the Gleneagles Scottish championship provided the platform for his first capture of the Order of Merit title.
“The Northern Open’s long history – the golden days of John Panton and Eric Brown, etc – puts the tournament on a pedestal and I like playing in it. Combine that with the fact that Skibo Castle has become its home and I go into that week with a sense of excitement and expectation.
“The Carnegie course has become one of my favourites. You can shoot 66 – which I did in the last round in 2006 – or some days you can shoot a 76 which feels like a 66. That’s the mark of a very good course.
“I ‘lost’ the 2006 Northern Open by starting with a 73. That let the leaders get away from me. I shot 68-70-66 after that and came one short of being in the play-off between Jason McCreadie and Chris Doak.
“That 70, by the way, was played in a howling gale and I rated that almost as good an effort as the 66.”
INCREDIBLE GOLF
Hutcheon also had a 66 in his four rounds at the Gleneagles Scottish professional championship. That was in the second round, but that was the only time he broke 70 over the PGA Centenary course.
“I finished eight under par for the four rounds and thought I had played quite well. For Dean Robertson and Craig Lee to shoot 17 under par and tie was incredible golf.
“It was an an amazing last day to that tournament. I started 7-5-5, which put me three over par on the fourth tee – and then I had four birdies. I think it was battling on for a high finish that secured the Order of Merit title for me.”
So what was the best part of Greig’s game during 2006?
“I think was more consistent than I had been in some of my previous years. There was never a great peak or, fortunately, a big slump. I just kept a fairly good standard going most of the time.
“If you pressed me, I would say my putting was the most reliable part of my game. Over the years, I switched backwards and forward from cackhanded to orthodox putting – not to be recommended, I know, but some years, cackhanded putting works for me, and 2006 was one of them.”