Murcar Links hailed by PL Match Play players

• Players full of praise for PL Match Play course Murcar Links
• “The set-up is perfect,” said Jeev Milkha Singh
• “The tour needs tournaments like this,” said Anthony Wall

Several competitors at this week’s Saltire Energy Paul Lawrie Match Play have been full of praise for venue Murcar Links, saying it’s the ‘perfect’ place for matchplay.

The inaugural staging of the competition got underway today at the Aberdeenshire course, with 64 players teeing it up in the hope of becoming the tournament’s first winner and taking home a sizeable chunk of the one million Euro prize fund.

And the course set-up at Murcar has received huge praise from those involved, while host Lawrie’s commitment to bringing another high-profile event to Scotland has also been commended by his fellow professionals.

“There are a lot of holes where you can really go for it” – Jeev Milkha Singh

“I love playing links golf and playing in Scotland is something that is really special to me as a past winner of the Scottish Open,” Jeev Milkha Singh told bunkered.co.uk. “It’s just a great matchplay golf course and the set-up is perfect.

“There are a lot of holes where you can really go for it, the greens are very undulating and you’ve got to think your way around. You have to have a lot of imagination, you can be aggressive but you must be sensible also.”

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Anthony Wall, who finished T12 at the Open Championship at St Andrews two weeks ago, said: “It’s a fantastic golf course and set up perfectly for matchplay. I think Paul and all of his friends who have helped in the organisation of this event have done a fantastic job.

“It’s a good format and the field isn’t too big so if there are any weather delays we’ll always get finished.”

Bradley Dredge added: “The course is different and it’s great fun for matchplay. Everyone has made such a big effort here and I think Paul and Saltire Energy are due some huge credit for what they’ve managed to organise.”

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And as far as raising the profile of the tournament is concerned, Wall and Singh are in no doubt that it can go from strength to strength in the years ahead and possibly become a highlight on the European Tour.

“The tour needs tournaments like this” – Anthony Wall

“The tour needs tournaments like this and it also needs the input of the players,” said Wall. “That’s very important because, at the end of the day, players know what we like.

“I think there’s room for a couple more matchplay events. From what I’ve seen here so far, I think this event will go from strength to strength. As long as the players take to it, it should grow and I don’t see any reason why this can’t go on to be a really big tournament.”

Singh said: “We don’t play many matchplay events and playing in Scotland again and on a links course, I think it’s a perfect tournament. It’s only going to get bigger and I’ll look forward to coming back and playing in this event in the future.”

Murcar Links :: Your thoughts

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