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Scotsman
7 days ago
- Sport
- Scotsman
Connor Syme's dad glad he gave up on football dream despite Rangers trial - but not because he said so
Scotland's newest DP World Tour winner had to be bribed to play golf as a youngster Sign up to our Golf newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Stuart Syme suspected his son, Connor, wasn't destined for a professional career in football despite having a trial at Rangers but, at the same time, didn't feel he could be the person to tell him that. 'Absolutely not,' he admitted, laughing. 'I had to wait on the sidelines until somebody else told him it.' Even then, Connor continued to kick a ball around for a while in Queen of the South colours, which was down to the family being based in Dumfries at that time in his life, and he joked in a DP World Tour podcast earlier this year that he had to be bribed by his dad to play in golf tournaments as a young teenager. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Golf eventually got a grip, though, and, guided by his dad throughout his career but also helped by numerous other people on and off the course, the 29-year-old can now proudly say he's a DP World Tour winner after producing a polished performance to land the KLM Open in the Netherlands last weekend. Stuart and Connor Syme pictured during Connor's preparation for the 151st Open at Royal Liverpool in 2023 | Contributed 'Good on him for finally proving to himself what we had all suspected that he was good enough to win and what a brilliant way to win as well,' Syme snr, a PGA professional who owns and runs Drumoig Golf Centre in Fife, told Scotland on Sunday of his boy making the big breakthrough in his 182nd start on the main tour after being unable to convert 54-hole leads on three previous occasions. 'He didn't back into the win. He won it from Saturday morning the way he conducted himself and played over the weekend was fantastic. 'I think what he said in one of his interviews last weekend was really telling. He said that he felt ready after having other opportunities and had a different feeling on this occasion. I think all the experiences had been needed to develop the person and then the golfer who looked really calm and ready to deliver over the weekend the way he did.' In landing his two-shot success at The International in Amsterdam, Syme joined fellow Scots David Law, Bob MacIntyre, Grant Forrest, Ewen Ferguson and Calum Hill in landing maiden title triumphs on the DP World Tour over the last five years or so. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'I just had a conversation with Connor when I was back getting my lunch and evidence is a word I use a lot with him,' added Syme, who has been perfectly happy to see Jamie Gough, the Fife-based brother of former Rangers and Scotland defender Richard, provide a 'set of eyes' out on tour while he's overseeing a successful business at home. 'I'll ask him 'what's your evidence you can do this or hit certain shots?' And this win is good validation and evidence for us, all the people who help him, now that it works. The way we are all giving him our snippets of information has come through for him and helped in a small way because, ultimately, he is the man who hits the shots.' Connor Syme shows off the trophy after winning the 105th edition of the KLM Open at The International in Amsterdam last weekend |If he can build on this success, Syme might well be joining MacIntyre in hitting shots on the PGA Tour next season and, though that might not have been part of the plan at the outset, credit to his dad for having belief that he could indeed become a champion at the highest level. 'When he was announced on the tee at events like the Scottish Under-14s, I remember asking how he'd enjoyed it and he said 'well, it was alright',' recalled Syme snr, a good player himself back in the day flying the flag for Ladybank before heading down the PGA route. 'He'd shot 96 and was 24 shots behind. But the fact he'd quite enjoyed it left me thinking 'right, I've got him a wee bit'. That was around 12 or 13 and then the football finished a wee bit after that and he became dedicated to it. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'I got an A4 bit of paper and came up with a plan, drawing a diagonal line across it. I thought he could get on tour in ten years and he did it in eight. We knew there would be speedbumps. Winning the Scottish Boys or losing in the first round, none of it mattered because we were going to give ourselves ten years to try and get him on tour because I thought he was good enough to get there.' Along with his other DP World Tour players, Syme now has a short break before returning to action in the Italian Open and, earlier this week, he was in Manchester along with his wife, Alanis, to see Robbie Williams, even getting their photograph taken backstage with the mega pop star. Exciting to see what this can 'propel him' 'Yeah, hopefully,' replied his dad to being asked if last weekend can be a springboard. 'That first win is often the hardest and now that he's got that, without putting any predictions out there, all I will say is that it is going to be very interesting to see where this could propel him to. 'He's now got the evidence. Is said on a call to him 'son, you've got a beautiful trophy, one that has been played on 105 occasions and is the fifth oldest Open in the world and you won it emphatically. It wasn't a case of him shooting three or four under on a crazy Sunday and the leader fell away. He won it and now has a trophy that has Seve's name on it and lots of other big names. He was like 'yeah, yeah, I know dad - it's brilliant, isn't it?' I think that is what has elevated this win a little bit more. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad
The Herald Scotland
10-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
Syme's silverlining underlines the value of patience
Or, at least, you're used to hearing the band's name muttered on the golf course as auld Cammy hoiks one off the toe of his 5-iron and gasps, 'that's only going in one bloody direction', as it veers wildly into the impenetrable shrubbery. Again. The reason I bring Horan into this week's meander is that his management company, Modest Golf, looks after the affairs of Connor Syme, who became the latest Scot to win on the DP World Tour at the KLM Open in Amsterdam. Horan, as you can imagine, has quite the following on social media. On the platform X, the site that flabbergasting madcaps, Donald Trump and Elon Musk, have clashed handbags on recently, Horan has over 39 million disciples. Tiger Woods has a paltry 6.4 million in comparison. Given that he's handy with the stick and ba', Horan posts a lot about golf. Back when Syme won his maiden professional title on the second-tier Challenge Tour in Turkey in 2019, Horan stuck up a message of hearty congratulations above a picture of the Fifer. Underneath flowed a torrent of gushing responses from dreamy pop fans saying things like, 'I love you', 'you are amazing' and 'will you marry me?'. Funnily enough, it was a bit like the comments of the readers under the Tuesday column on The Herald's website. This tsunami of adoration, of course, was largely directed at Horan himself and not for Syme's Turkish triumph although, amid the giddy worship by teenyboppers, was the odd response saying, 'ever since he won the Northeast District Open Amateur in 2013, I've followed Connor's career keenly.' Six years on from his breakthrough as a professional, Syme now has the KLM Open trophy plonked on his mantelpiece. As he gazed at the names engraved into the clump of silverware that was presented to him on Sunday, the 29-year-old was understandably cock-a-hoop to have his own name chiselled into a decorated roll of honour. Seve Ballesteros, Bernhard Langer, Jose Maria Olazabal, Colin Montgomerie, Payne Stewart, Lee Westwood, Darren Clarke, Sergio Garcia? Syme certainly won't tire of giving this spoil of golfing war a regular polish with some Silvo and a lint free cloth. This win was the 150th by a Scottish golfer on the European circuit. A nice little milestone. It's a case of welcome to the club as far as Syme is concerned. Over the past few years, he's watched old amateur sparring partners like Robert MacIntyre, Grant Forrest and Ewen Ferguson win on the DP World Tour. In that time, he knocked on the door more times than an Avon lady but couldn't quite get over the threshold. Since 2020, Syme has had three second place finishes, four thirds and 18 other top-10s on the main tour. Eager observers would often say, 'his time will come', but there are never any guarantees of that in this game. And you can hing on a heck of a long time too. Oliver Wilson, the former Ryder Cup player, had nine seconds before he got to savour his first tour victory at the 228th attempt. Syme's fellow Scot, David Drysdale, meanwhile, played 576 events on the DP World Tour and never got over the winning line despite a number of close shaves which featured a quartet of runners-up finishes. For many, that time never comes. Patience and perseverance remain great attributes in this pursuit and Syme continues to display those in spades. The former Walker Cup player, who lost narrowly to a certain Scottie Scheffler in the final day singles as GB&I suffered a grisly thumping in the 2017 transatlantic tussle, made the switch into the paid ranks that season and marked his debut by finishing 12th in the tour's Portugal Masters on an invitation. At that time, there was a dearth of young Scottish talent on the circuit. In this relatively barren land, it was hardly surprising that Syme's sturdy showing in Portugal was greeted with the kind of triumphant reaction that could've been accompanied by the 20th Century Fox fanfare. He breezed through the qualifying school at the end of that campaign to fast-track himself to the DP World Tour, but he just failed to hold on to his card. His stint on the Challenge Tour – now the HotelPlanner Tour – in 2019 not only gave him a first pro victory in Turkey, it also equipped him with a lot of the various golfing tools that were, perhaps, missing in that rookie campaign when he'd just made a big leap from amateur golf to the rigours of the main tour. The second-tier remains an uncompromising coalface and its no frills cut-and-thrust certainly provides an eye-opening, at times eye-watering, yet wonderfully robust apprenticeship. Earn your stripes there and you've made it the hard way. Syme knows that. 'The Challenge Tour was essential to my development,' he said in a chinwag with this correspondent a couple of years ago. 'I won my first event of the season on it but still just held on to one of the promotion places. It was a hard year, but it set me up for tour life again.' It certainly did. After this latest tartan-tinged tour triumph, let's hope Syme's career trajectory continues in, well, one direction.
The Star
09-06-2025
- Sport
- The Star
Gavin getting back on track with 13th place finish in Holland
PETALING JAYA: It was a rough start to the season for national golfer Gavin Green but he is finally finding his momentum after getting his best finish on the DP World Tour this season. The 31-year-old saw progress at the KLM Open after carding rounds of 72, 71, 71, and 69 to finish in joint 13th with one-under 283 at The International in Amsterdam, Holland on Sunday.
Scotsman
09-06-2025
- Sport
- Scotsman
Scotland's latest DP World Tour golf champion opens up on win
Scot praised by his caddie and fellow Dundee resident for keeping calm head in KLM Open Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... When you are recovering from a triple hernia operation, it might not be the best time to be jumping about a bit more than you probably should be, but Stuart Syme can surely be forgiven. It's not every day, after all, when you get to experience the joy and pleasure of seeing the person you've introduced to golf as a youngster then taught for so long landing what will be one of the most popular wins in the sport in 2025. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Connor Syme wouldn't have been crowned as the KLM Open champion on Sunday, landing his breakthrough win on the DP World Tour in the process and becoming the 11th first-time champion on the circuit this season, if it hadn't been for his old man. A promising player himself when he was coming through the ranks at Ladybank, Syme snr was the PGA professional at Dumfries & County Golf Club when Connor took up the game and, once his son had got hopes of becoming a footballer out of his system, golf then became his main focus. Connor Syme shows off the trophy after winning the KLM Open on Sunday at The International Golf Club in the Netherlands |Under his dad's guidance as a coach after the family had moved back to Fife when Stuart took up ownership of Drumoig Golf Centre, Syme won the 2016 Australian Amateur Championship before then landing a first success in the professional ranks in the Turkish Airlines Challenge in 2019. Since last year, Syme has also been working with Jamie Gough, the Fife-based brother of former Scotland and Rangers defender Richard, but there was absolutely no denying who was probably the happiest man in the world on Sunday afternoon. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'I had a brief chat with my dad before I went in to see the volunteers,' Syme told The Scotsman as he reflected on his brilliant breakthrough win on the main tour after landing a two-shot success at The International in Amsterdam. 'He was absolutely buzzing as he's obviously been with me since the start of my golf career and taught me the game. 'He's had a triple hernia operation and I was saying to him that I hope you've not caused any damage, but he said that he was jumping up and down more than he probably should have been (laughing). It is so cool.' Over the past few years, Syme had seen Bob MacIntyre, David Law, Ewen Ferguson, Grant Forrest and Calum Hill all land maiden DP World Tour title triumphs while seeing some good opportunities to do likewise - he'd held a 54-hole lead on three previous occasions - agonisingly slip from his grasp. Connor Syme celebrated fellow Scot Calum Hill's success in the Joburg Open earlier in the year and now knows himself what it means to win on the DP World Tour | Getty Images At no point, however, did that look as though it was going to happen again after the 29-year-old hit the front in tough conditions in the Netherlands with a brilliant bogey-free 66 in Saturday's third round then signed off with a rock-solid 70 that contained just one dropped shot to win by two shots. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'I felt really calm for the most part,' admitted Syme of his polished performance on the last day. 'Obviously there was a lot of nervous energy about, but I was quite pleased how I was able to put that into the right areas, I suppose, and just focus on the task at hand. 'I definitely felt different this time than when I had been in contention in the past. Probably more like Wales when I first had a really good opportunity to win back in 2020 (in the Celtic Classic. I thought I was going to win there and obviously I didn't. 'To have felt those emotions then, I was very cautious that it could happen again and things could all change so quickly. So, every time I found myself thinking about potentially winning on this occasion and what it could feel like, I kept reminding myself of that. 'Obviously me and Ryan [McGuigan, his caddie] have been together for such a long time that I knew it would mean so much and to the full team as well, but I did a really good job of staying in the present and that was the main difference.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Worth around £340,000, the win lifted Syme into the top 20 in the Race to Dubai Rankings, meaning he's put himself in the mix for a PGA Tour card for next season, while he also jumped nearly 120 spots to 145th in the Official World Golf Ranking. 'Obviously it opens up a few more doors for me as well and what lies ahead is super-exciting for me as we've got some amazing tournaments still to play this year,' he said of a schedule, of course, that will include a home appearance in the Genesis Scottish Open at The Renaissance Club next month. 'Look, it is all amazing, but it's also about trying to enjoy the moment as well. I'm going to really try and enjoy this rather than thinking too far ahead.' Connor Syme and his caddie Ryan McGuigan celebrate after the Scot landed a breakthrough win on the DP World Tour on Sunday |McGuigan, who previously caddied for Stephen Gallacher and Richie Ramsay as well as Belgian Thomas Detry, has been on Syme's bag since October 2020 and, like his boss, lives in Dundee. 'He was really, really calm,' said McGuigan of how Syme handled the pressure of Sunday's closing circuit. 'I think he's probably just learned a bit, as all the guys do, from past disappointments. When things haven't gone his way, I think he has probably tried too hard or maybe when he's been in the final groups, he's felt he had to do something different to get over the line instead of just playing his own game. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'I think he was so focused last week on playing his own game and, especially on Sunday, not paying any attention to what anyone else was doing and, if he trusted his own game, it would be good enough to get the result he was looking for. 'Everyone's journey is different. For some, the first win comes really quickly whereas someone like Richard Bland, for example, had to wait a long time before winning and certainly winning breeds winning. It's about realising that you don't necessarily have to do anything remarkable; it's just doing the simple things well and that composure Connor showed over the weekend can only help him moving forward. 'I love working for him. We've developed a real close working relationship. We also live in the same city and we have a lot of mutual friends through golf and spend a bit of time together as well when we are not at work.
The National
09-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The National
I just won my first golf title, here's how I could've joined Rangers
The 29-year-old recently won the KLM Open in Amsterdam to secure his first title on the DP World Tour. Syme finished 11 under par, two better off than second-place Joakim Lagergren of Sweden, who ended up nine under. Read more: Speaking after his triumph, Syme opened up on how football was his first love, revealing that he could have pulled on the famous light blue jersey: "I was much more into football when I was younger, to be honest," he said [DPWorldTour on X]. "I did have trials for Rangers. "I was much more into football. With my dad being a golfer, I was never forced into doing it, and I think that's why I'm doing it now is because I wanted to. I found it by myself. "I was playing football for Queen of the South at the time. "Eventually, I just fell in love with golf." Syme isn't the first notable figure outside of football to declare an affiliation with Rangers, with the likes of Gordon Ramsay and WWE star Drew McIntyre doing so in the past. Elsewhere, ex-Ibrox boss Steven Gerrard has emerged as a contender to become the new manager of English Championship side Middlesbrough. Gerrard is the bookmakers' favourite to replace his fellow countryman, Michael Carrick, at the Riverside Stadium, according to BetVictor, who offer the latest Football betting. Gerrard is 6/4 to get the gig, with ex-Luton gaffer Rob Edwards a close second at 5/2. Other names on the bookies' list include Sean Dyche, Steve Cooper and Gary O'Neil.
