Hutcheon’s senior moment is just reward for a stalwart
◆ Banchory man and one of Scotland’s most respected golfers secures first success on over-50s circuit after doing part-time jobs to fund career
Ask anyone of a certain vintage to name ten Scottish golfers who have performed at a consistently high level over the past 30 years and there is a good chance that Greig Hutcheon would come into the equation.
After serving his PGA apprenticeship alongside Paul Lawrie in the Banchory pro shop, Hutcheon won three times on the Challenge Tour between 1999 and 2003 before becoming a dominant force on the PGA in Scotland’s Tartan Tour at a time when he landed a hat-trick of victories in both the Scottish PGA Championship and the Northern Open.
At 51, he’s also now a winner in the senior ranks after securing a maiden triumph on the European Legends Tour as a brilliant closing 64 at Le Touquet earned him a two-shot success in the Legends Open de France last weekend.
“It feels grand,” said Hutcheon of the latest addition to an impressive CV. “It was a little bit unexpected as it was one of those situations where I went out just hoping for a good last round to pull myself up the leaderboard but managed to win it as the guys in the last few groups just didn’t get those birdies at the end, which was brilliant for me.”
It was by no means a bolt out of the blue, though. After securing his card through the Qualifying School in January 2023, Hutcheon hit the ground running in his rookie season in the over-50s’ ranks and finished an impressive eighth in the MCB Road to Mauritius Rankings.
“No, I wouldn’t say it was completely out of the blue as I have been playing pretty steady this year and it’s just turned around for me resultswise over the last couple of weeks,” he added. “I had a good week in India, in the heat in Delhi, finishing fifth, which was pretty good, as it was a difficult course then I managed to have a ripper of a last round in France, which was great.”
Lifting him to seventh in this season’s standings, the win was worth just over €53,060, more than double for the biggest of his three Challenge Tour triumphs in the 2003 Panalpina Banque Commerciale du Maroc classic, having also landed the 1999 Form by Hall Challenge and Credit Suisse Private Banking Open two years later on the second-tier circuit.
“Yeah, it was a bit tricky at times,” admitted Hutcheon of the financial challenge he’d faced when playing the majority of his golf on the domestic scene after suffering a career threatening injury in his 30s. “Over the years I’ve taken jobs in the winter as it is tough to keep going year after year. For instance, I did a job that involved refurbing oil tools in Aberdeen. I did that until a few years ago, though I was still concentrating on golf through the summer months.”
At a time when he was still one of the top players on the Tartan Tour in particular and played in the PGA Cup for a third time in 2022, Hutcheon had one eye on turning 50, as was the case with former BMW PGA champion Scott Drummond before he joined the senior ranks this season and also now with Stephen Gallacher and David Drysdale as they both get ready for a new chapter in their careers over the coming few months.
“I kept playing all the way through to turning 50,” said Hutcheon, who is attached to Torphins Golf Club in Deeside. “Playing on the two Tartan Tours [the other one being the Tartan Pro Tour set up by Lawrie during the Covid pandemic to give players like Hutcheon much-needed playing opportunities] was great as that kept me ticking over.
“I got a wee bit lucky when I won The PGA Play-offs in Ireland when I was 49 as that got me six starts on the DP World Tour. I only made one cut in the six events, but just trying to compete with the kids on the big courses was helpful at that time of my career.”
As anyone who has come across Hutcheon will testify, his love for the game never wanes, though he does admit that lots of travelling for an ever-expanding Legends Tour Schedule – Zambia was a new stop this season – can take its toll at times.
“I still really enjoy the game, though, physically, it’s definitely getting harder,” he said with a smile. “Just getting yourself loosened up in the morning takes a little bit more time. There’s also been a lot more events this year and I’ve had some bad luck with travel. For example, I had a really long journey to greece duet oaf light having an emergency landing and then we got delayed, meaning it took 28 hours in total. When you get older, it’s tough to deal with stuff like that.”
He’s in Spain this week for the European Legends Cup then has events in Germany, Italy and Spain again before heading to Mexico in mid-november. “I’ve just been sitting this morning trying to look at get
Just getting yourself loosened up in the morning takes a little bit more time
Greig Hutcheon
ting from La Manga to the west coast of Mexico in back-toback weeks and even Skyscanner is scratching its head with that one!” he admitted.
Unlikely to have a crack at the Champions Tour Qualifying School due to it clashing with the MCB Tour Championship in mauritius in early december, Hutcheon will secure a spot in next year’s US Senior Open if he stays in the top ten in the standings but doesn’t intend spending the next couple of months looking over his shoulder.
Referring to the current leader now focusing on the Champions Tour, he said: “I don’t think Richard Green is going to come back and play again on the Legends Tour this season so, if I can get another good week under my belt, winning the Order of Merit is in sight.”