Scottish Open (golf)

The first Sunbeam Electric Scottish Open was part of the 1972 European Tour and was held at Downfield Golf Club near Dundee. Neil Coles beat Brian Huggett at the second hole of a sudden-death playoff, holing a 12-foot putt.[1] Total prize money was £10,000 with a first prize of £2,000. Sunbeam Electric had sponsored the Sunbeam Electric Tournament in 1971.

In 1973 the event was played on the Old Course at St Andrews. Graham Marsh won by 6 strokes from Peter Oosterhuis.[2] Total prize money was increased to £15,000 with a first prize of £2,500.[3]

Both 1972 and 1973 tournaments were broadcast extensively on ITV.[4][3] The tournament was cancelled when television coverage could not be arranged in 1974.[5]

The event returned to the European Tour calendar in 1986 when, under a new sponsorship deal with Bell's, the Glasgow Open, which had been held at Haggs Castle Golf Club from 1983 to 1985, was rebranded as the Scottish Open.[6][7] After remaining at Haggs Castle for the first year, the tournament moved to Gleneagles in 1987 and was played the week before the Open Championship. It remained at Gleneagles until Bell's withdrew their sponsorship in 1994 following the switch of TV coverage from BBC to SKY that year. In 1995 and 1996 it was held, without a sponsor, at Carnoustie.

The 1986 event had prize money of £130,000 with a first prize of £21,660.[8] This rose to £200,000 with a first prize of £33,330 for the 1987 event at Gleneagles.[9] This had risen to £600,000 and a first prize of £100,000 for the 1992 tournament. Despite the loss of Bell's sponsorship the prize money increased to £650,000 in 1995 but, with the event losing money, this was reduced to £480,000 in 1996.[10]

From 1997 the Scottish Open's pre-Open place on the European Tour schedule was taken by the Loch Lomond World Invitational, which had been first held at Loch Lomond Golf Club in September 1996. The top-60 in the World Rankings were invited but few non-Europeans entered.[11] The event was broadcast by the BBC. From 1997 to 2000 the Loch Lomond event was played the week before the Open Championship. These events did not use the Scottish Open name, the rights to which were owned by ISM. From 2001, it was decided that the Loch Lomond event would be known as the Scottish Open and all prior editions, including the September 1996 event, would be granted Scottish Open status. This resulted in the anomaly of there being two "Scottish Opens" in 1996.[12] The September 1996 event had a first prize of £125,000, rising to £133,330 in 1997 and £183,330 by 2000.

The 2001 Scottish Open was run without a main sponsor but from 2002 it was known as the Barclays Scottish Open, and was played at Loch Lomond until 2010. Some concern was expressed that the course, which is very different from the links courses on which the Open Championship is played, put European Tour players at a disadvantage compared to their leading rivals from the PGA Tour, who traditionally spent a week practising for the Open on links courses in Ireland.

In 2011 it was held at Castle Stuart Golf Links, near Inverness, due to the financial difficulties being suffered by Loch Lomond. Play was reduced to 54 holes (three rounds) in the tournament due to heavy rain, which caused flooding and landslides.[13] Aberdeen Asset Management took over sponsorship in 2012, but the event remained at Castle Stuart in 2012 and 2013 before moving to Royal Aberdeen Golf Club in 2014.[14] It was played at Gullane Golf Club in 2015 and at Castle Stuart Golf Links in 2016.[15] In 2016, the attendance figures at Castle Stuart were disappointing, with a reduction of more than 20,000 to 41,809 over the four tournament days.[16] In 2017 it was held in Ayrshire, for the first time in its current guise, at Dundonald Links.[17] It was played at Gullane again in 2018 and will be played at the nearby Renaissance Club in 2019 and 2020.