Golfers ready to brave Scotland

WITH storms reducing last year's Scottish Open to 54 holes, some of golf's top names return to Castle Stuart this week hoping for better weather.

Scottish Open

WITH storms reducing last year's Scottish Open to 54 holes, some of golf's top names return to Castle Stuart this week hoping for better weather.

Torrential rain and thunder storms caused landslides on parts of the newly opened course in the Highlands last year, conditions local residents described as the worst the region had endured in half a century.

It did prove, however, a genuine taster for the wet and wild British Open that followed at Royal St George's last year and that is why the likes of top-ranked Luke Donald, American star Phil Mickelson and triple major winner Padraig Harrington are making the trip up to northern Scotland again this year.

"I like to play links golf before I get to the (British) Open," Harrington said.

"I think it's a distinctly different form of golf than what we regularly get. I know some people don't like playing the week before a major, but there's no substitute for playing competitive links golf."

Third-ranked Lee Westwood - the joint first-round leader here last year - has chosen to take the week off, and the rest will probably do him good after hurting his right groin when slipping as he walked to the first tee ahead of the third round of the French Open on Saturday.

Westwood, of course, will be looking to win his first major at the British Open at Royal Lytham & St Anne's. So will Donald, a fellow Englishman who showed he has the game to master the unpredictable links by winning the Scottish Open in 2011.

Having now spent a total of 52 weeks as No.1, only two Europeans - Nick Faldo and the late Seve Ballesteros - have been at the summit of the rankings for a longer stretch than Donald, who won the BMW PGA Championship in his last tournament in Europe.

On that occasion, the weather at Wentworth was glorious and not too dissimilar to the conditions he regularly plays in on the US PGA tour. Expect the Scottish Open to be completely different, despite the event coming right in the middle of British summertime.

"If the weather stays this way, it will be difficult," 2010 British Open champion Louis Oosthuizen said.

"But links golf should be harsh weather. It should be rainy. It should be windy. Otherwise, it's not the way it should be."

Organisers have spent 70,000 pounds ($106,000) on improving Castle Stuart after last year's incidents, which ravaged a course that was hosting the tournament for the first time. The parkland Loch Lomond course staged the event for the previous 15 years.

Money has been spent on implementing an extensive and mostly underground storm-drainage system to ensure the course can withstand any severe conditions.

There have also been some changes to the layout, with four new bunkers added and new tees constructed on three holes to lengthen the course by 150 yards to 7193.

Donald won by four shots last year with a three-round score of 19 under par.

Mickelson, who is ranked No.16, is a regular participant at the Scottish Open but wasn't scheduled to compete this year until he missed the cut at the Greenbrier Classic last week.

He was handed an invitation at the weekend to play at Castle Stuart - increasing the number of major champions present to 10 - and will be looking to win the event for the first time, having finished runner-up in 2007 when he lost a playoff to Gregory Havret of France.

Donald will play the opening two rounds with double US Open champion Ernie Els, Mickelson partners Scottish players Martin Laird and Paul Lawrie while Harrington will tee off alongside pony-tailed German Marcel Siem, who won the French Open on Sunday.