Scotland’s Sandy Scott has put a career-threatening wrist injury behind him to earn promotion to the main PGA Tour for the first time by winning the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship in Columbus, Ohio.
The 28-year-old’s one-stroke victory on Sunday was his first on the Korn Ferry Tour and lifted him to second spot on the development tour’s points list.
Advertisement
It came a week after he finished runner-up at the Simmons Bank Open for the Snedeker Foundation in Franklin, Tennessee.
The native of Inverness needed two surgeries after tearing ligaments in his right wrist in 2019 and admitted: “I was in some really low times and didn’t know if I’d ever play golf again.”
Scott battled back from that but withdrew from this season’s BMW Charity Pro-Am and missed two months of the season after the wrist flared up again.
“It was just getting progressively worse,” he told the Golf Channel. “Every day, it was harder to warm up and I was getting a bit more sharp pain.
Advertisement
“With having a history of having a wrist injury, I’ve kind of gone through the waves of being unsure about what golf’s going to look like for me in the future.
“When I did come back from it in college, I had this overwhelming sense of perspective that I’m just happy to be out here competing, fulfilling this dream that I’ve always had of playing golf professionally. To be able to play well has been a bonus.”
Scott started his latest event in 13th place on the tour, but he birdied two of his final three holes to close with a six-under 65 on the Scarlet Course at Ohio State University Golf Club to post 18-under 266 and break the 72-hole tournament record, edging out American John Marshall Butler for the win.
He becomes the seventh player – and first European – to have qualified for the main tour during the 2027 season.
Advertisement
Scott had finished 55th in his rookie season on the development tour last year but will next year return to a PGA Tour event for the first time since the 2020 US Open at Winged Foot Golf Club, when he qualified by finishing sixth in the World Amateur Golf Ranking.
“It’s been a weird journey and I’m just so happy,” he said.
Read the full article here
