TWENTY-THREE OF THE WORLD'S TOP RANKED 60 IN THE FIELD

WORLD STARS GATHER AT ROYAL 

ABERDEEN FOR THE BIGGEST GOLF

SHOW YET AT
BALGOWNIE LINKS

EUROPEAN TOUR COMMUNICATIONS PREVIEW
Defending champion Phil Mickelson will head the strongest field in the history of the tournament at this week’s Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open, which visits the spectacular Royal Aberdeen Golf Club for the first time.
Last year Mickelson achieved a brilliant double, following up his triumph at Castle Stuart with victory in The Open Championship a week later, and his success has inspired some of the finest players in the world to tackle Royal Aberdeen’s notoriously tough Balgownie links.
The illustrious line-up for the £3million event contains no fewer than 23 players from the top 60 of the Official World Golf Ranking, ten Major Champions, eight former European Tour Number Ones, 94 European Tour winners and eight former Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open champions
Paul Lawrie, a born and bred Aberdonian, will attempt to win the title for the first time, and it is also a homecoming of sorts for Russell Knox, who will make his first appearance as a professional in Scotland, having left his native Inverness for the USA as a teenager.

Key quotes:

Phil Mickelson
“Royal Aberdeen is a real asset to this tournament. It's a beautiful golf course. I really believe coming here and playing the week before The Open, playing in a great links test like this, is a real asset, an asset for players from overseas to get acclimatised to to these conditions.
“When you really appreciate and love it, like I've kind of learned to, it's exciting. It turns out to be some of our favourite weeks of the year.  Tomorrow is supposed to be terrible weather and I hope it is, because I would love to be able to get out in that stuff which I never get a chance to back home, and have actually started to play pretty well in over the years.”

Rory McIlroy
“It would be nice to contend here this week and go into The Open next week with a bit of momentum. I'm expecting a tough test. It looks like it's going to be a tough golf course. I had a really good week of practice and training last week and that sort of rejuvenated me.  I needed it.”

Justin Rose
“I played the Jacques Léglise Trophy here in 1996 or 97. If I'm not mistaken, I played Sergio Garcia in the singles match, which was cool. I believe I got an honourable half out of the match. It’s a great golf course and it has a great reputation. My Open form has not been fantastic the last number of years so I thought playing my way in, as did Phil last year, would be worth doing.”

Stephen Gallacher
“It's great just to be playing your national Open on links golf. It's golf we very rarely get a chance to play these days, so to play a course that's superbly set up, a little bit of wind here and there and a little bit of variability, it's going to be an exciting week, especially with the stellar field that's here.”]

Ian Poulter
“I'd like to do what Henrik (Stenson) did last year. He kick-started his season at the Scottish Open., finishing second, and went on finished second at The Open, and had an incredible end to the season. That’s in my mind, that it is possible, because he didn't get off to the best of starts, but then turned his season around with the most amazing back end of the year, won both titles (the FedEx Cup and The Race to Dubai).

Rickie Fowler
“I enjoy coming over here and kind of playing the golf courses and using my imagination to get around and hit different shots. This course is a bit narrow in spots and it may be a little tougher tomorrow if the weather comes in like expected.
“I've definitely enjoyed playing a lot of the old‑style courses. I grew up learning the game from an older gentleman who was definitely more old school. I didn't grow up learning how to exactly swing a golf club, it was more learning how to play the game, and I think that's why I appreciate links golf maybe more than a lot of guys in the younger generation from the US.”  

EUROPEAN TOUR COMMUNICATIONS

FOOTNOTE: Royal Aberdeen is about 500 yards short of being on the Open championship roster, so they say. This weekend's action should prove that the Balgownie Links, with its narrow fairways, does rank with the best links in Scotland.
The Senior British Open has been played there ... the Walker Cup ...the Jacques Leglise Trophy boys' international ... the Scottish men's and women's amateur championships ... the Northern Open ... the British boys and the Scottish boys championships .... they have all been hosted by Royal Aberdeen Golf Club.
But this is the biggest yet.