Eight years after he packed up and chose the USA as his path towards the top, Russell Knox is set to return to Scotland in style at the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open in July.
The 28-year-old missed out on the Scottish Opens held near to his home town of Inverness, but is excited about coming to his “second home town” to play in his national open at Royal Aberdeen, having gradually built himself into a contender on the PGA Tour in the States.
It’s taken a long haul through college golf, mini-tours and the second-string Web-com Tour, and his North Kessock accent has taken the same kind of battering as the Glasgwegian tones of countryman Martin Laird, who made a similar journey.
But Knox has won at every stage on the way up and this looks like being his breakthrough season on the PGA Tour, with just four missed cuts in 14 events and his outstanding performance in the Honda Classic, where he narrowly lost out in a play-off to Russell Henley.
“Obviously that has been the highlight of my year. It was awfully close and it was nice to have a chance to win. The way I look at it, I finished 1B, not second,” he said.
“I almost made it. It was a great opportunity for me and it proves to me that I can win a PGA Tour event. I have played pretty decent since then but I haven’t putted as well to be in contention.”
Knox’s father is an American citizen and he spent a lot of his time when younger in the country before going to Jacksonville University in Florida and settling there.
“I’ll probably stay in the States now, although the aim is to become good enough to play both tours in the way Luke Donald and Ian Poulter do,” he said.
“I was never that great an amateur player in Scotland and when I came over to the States to go to college I wasn’t one of the top players. I spent three or four years playing mini-tour professional golf, then the Web.com, and I feel like I have been able to progress as the level increased, which I am very proud of.
“I haven’t gone from nothing to playing really well, I’ve earned my place by playing better. This has obviously been a great year for me but I was hoping and expecting this would happen as I have put in a lot of effort and practice.”
In the process, he’s lost a bit of his old links skills learned playing growing up at Nairn Dunbar, but he thinks he can get them back fairly quickly.
“The game in the United States is a lot different to links golf and I have adapted, I hit the ball slightly higher than I used to, but I can’t wait to play links golf again,” he said.
“I still try to hit Scottish shots now and again to keep it interesting. I almost see the lower shot first and the higher shot second so I can’t wait to give it a blast, I’m actually hoping I get the full effect of the wind and rain just to get the full treatment.”
His last links competition was the Amateur Championship in 2007, and he remembers playing the Scottish Strokeplay Championship at Royal Aberdeen in 2005.
“It was typical Scottish weather cold, wet and windy,” he said. “It was an extremely difficult course, I remember hitting a driver at a par three on the front nine.
“I have good memories. Even though I grew up in Inverness, I grew up a Dons fan and Aberdeen is like my second home in Scotland.
“I played quite a bit of junior golf with Richie Ramsay but I haven’t seen him in years, and I got to play a practice round with Paul Lawrie at the US Open last year.
“I’ve never hit a shot as a professional in Scotland and I guarantee on the first tee in the Scottish Open I am going to be nervous.
“The last time I was here I was pretty much hopeless at golf. Now I’m thinking about playing over here more and going for the Ryder Cup in two years. You can never tell what will happen with this stupid game.”