Apart from being a little hoarse from shouting too much at the Scottish Cup semi-final on Sunday, Ewen Ferguson is completely comfortable mentally and physically as he steps out on the next part of his DP World Tour career.
“I think I went over the top a little bit, but you can’t beat a late winner in extra time,” he admitted after being in the Rangers end at Hampden. But his career-changing win in the Qatar Masters means the day job is secure for two years and he can focus on the next step.
‘I’m ready to move on’
Happy Easter indeed 💙🤝 @RangersFC @connor_syme pic.twitter.com/N6KMGQ7MDj
— Ewen Ferguson (@EwboF) April 17, 2022
“It’s definitely sunk in now and I feel like I’m ready to move on from it, to be honest,” he said on arrival in Spain for the ISPS Handa Championship in Tarragona. “I’m ready to get my game in order and get ready to compete again, so I’ve been doing a lot of work the past few days to keep my game sharp and hopefully that will pay off this week.
“I definitely feel very comfortable in my own skin now. Maybe I had that for the last little while too, but it’s nice mentally to feel like you’ve got across the line for the first time.
“I know I can do it again. Hopefully if I’m in that situation another time, I’m sure it will stand me in good stead.”
He’s packed quite a lot into the two weeks since Qatar, but it’s the two years of job security now that is the real big thing.
“I had so much to do with the people who have helped me along the way,” he said. “So I’ve spent a lot of time with them and let them know how thankful I was.
“I had a couple of nights out with friends and family, nothing too crazy.
“I’ve got the exemption through two years. I think that can make me concentrate on what I need to do to make myself a better player.
“I can just go through the process of doing everything I need to do. Sometimes a win out here can be a fifth place. That can mean you’ve kept your card or moved up in the Rankings or you are in another tournament.
‘It opens different doors’
Great day playing in the ISPS Handa Championship Pro-Am with Ewen Ferguson and Alexander Bjork. Stunning Lakes course at @INFINITUMGolf – set for a great tournament in Spain!!! pic.twitter.com/wRueyujMs6
— AZALEA (@TheAzaleaGroup_) April 20, 2022
“But winning a tournament – and having wanted to win out here since I was a kid – quite quickly is great. I still have so many years ahead of me, which is quite satisfying.
“It opens different doors, the better are doing. You think, ‘I want to do this or that now’. You start to think about wanting to play well to get in The Open and the US Open.
“Now that I know I’m secured out here, I can concentrate on different things, which is nice. I am sure that is only going to help me and make me focus on some really cool goals.
“At the start I was thinking that keeping my card in my first full year would be good. So this is definitely a nice feeling.”
He has some previous experience of the Lakes Course at Tarragona in play this week.
‘There’s some serious rough’
📍Tarragona, Spain
⛳️ @INFINITUMGolf, Lakes CourseOur home this week. #ISPSHandaChampionship pic.twitter.com/LayuQYzACI
— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) April 20, 2022
“There’s a lot of danger out there,” he said. “I’ve played here before in the Q School three or four years ago and it wasn’t playing like this. It was a lot firmer and not as much rough.
“Now it’s playing a lot more lush and there’s some serious rough out there that you need to avoid.”
Eight of the Scottish DP World Tour contingent are playing this week. Ferguson is now best placed having taken over 15th on the Race to Dubai rankings.
Scott Jamieson, Stephen Gallacher, Grant Forrest, David Law, Connor Syme, Marc Warren and Craig Howie are all in the field as the Tour return to Europe for the first time in 2022.