Scotland’s Ewen Ferguson will look to take inspiration from Tiger Woods as he bids to claim a third DP World Tour title in the ISPS Handa Championship.
Woods was involved in an incredible finish to the 2001 World Cup which took place at this week’s venue of Taiheiyo Golf Club in Gotemba, which sits in the foothills of Mount Fuji.
The 15-time major winner and partner David Duval were five shots off the lead with just four holes to play, but birdied the 15th, 16th and 17th before Woods chipped in for an eagle on the last to get into a four-way play-off.
Woods and Duval were eliminated on the first extra hole as South Africa’s Ernie Els and Retief Goosen went on to lift the title, but Ferguson has been watching highlights of the exciting climax to get ready for his return to action after three weeks off.
“I always look back at highlights from previous tournaments at the venue,” said Ferguson, whose previous wins both came in 2022, including the ISPS Handa World Invitational in Northern Ireland.
“I watched the highlights from 2001 with Tiger and Duval. We were watching Tiger’s chip in on the 72nd hole in 2001, which was cool.
“There’s been a few changes since then but, I’m buzzing to get going. I’ve been out on the course a few times and it plays amazing. The greens are so pure, it’s a tree-lined destination, can’t beat it. I’m enjoying it.
“I have not played for three weeks so may be a bit rusty, but a few holes in you start to find your feet. Anything can happen in any week in golf.
“Been playing consistent (this season), hopefully get myself up there and into contention this week, and if not a bit more often in future. My golf has been good, just a couple of shots here and there would push it to the next level.”
Ferguson has missed just one cut in nine events this season and finished tied 47th on his last start in the Hero Indian Open, an event won by Japan’s Keita Nakajima.
Nakajima currently leads the DP World Tour’s Asian Swing rankings, with the top three after next week’s Volvo China Open earning places in May’s US PGA Championship at Valhalla.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here