Gemma Dryburgh is eagerly anticipating the start of the Women’s Scottish Open and says she wants to emulate Robert MacIntyre with a win on home soil.
The Scot has arrived at Dundonald Links with an appetite for success and with the people close to her ready to cheer her on in North Ayrshire.
Dryburgh is also hoping for the backing of a noisy home crowd as she bids for success.
“I’m very excited,” she told STV. “It’s good to be back at Dundonald for what’s maybe my fifth time here.
“My parents are here, family is coming to watch and we’ll hopefully get some good crowds as well. I’ve got a good pairing for the first couple of days as well, so I’m looking forward to that.”
The European Tour event starts on Thursday with Robert MacIntyre’s emotional triumph at the men’s Scottish Open still fresh in the memory. Dryburgh said that seeing the scenes that accompanied that golden sporting moment at the Renaissance Club drove home how special it would be to achieve similar success this week.
“It would mean so much to do it,” she said. “Obviously watching Bob MacIntyre get it done in Scotland a few weeks ago was pretty special and it can hopefully inspire me to do something amazing.
“It would be a dream of mine to win in Scotland.
“That’ll be my goal but I’ll do my thing, take each shot at a time and see where we end up.
“It was such a buzz seeing him doing so well, with all of Scotland behind him. Seeing him celebrate properly like any Scot would do too. You’ve got to enjoy those moments because they don’t come along every day.
“It was amazing to see that. I sent him a message to say how proud we all are of him and he was really inspirational. Hopefully I can do the same.”
Dryburgh’s only previous tournament win came in Japan in 2022 but she has had some impressive performances without delivering silverware.
After enjoying an up and down season up to this point, the Scot feels she is coming into form at the right time and says she’s “burning” to lift another trophy.
“I was really happy with how I started the season and then I went through a kind of a lull in the middle,” she said. “I’ve had a few good results recently and I feel like I’m kind of peaking at the right time. I’m working on a few things in my game and hopefully that all comes together in the next few weeks.
“It’s a long year playing from January through from to November and you’re not going to play every tournament well. So you pick a few tournaments and areas in the year that you want to peak at and I think this is the right time.
“I’m burning to get that second win and it would be amazing to get it on home soil.”
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