Exclusive:Scotland's latest DP World Tour golf champion opens up on win - and causing dad more recovery grief

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.

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.

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.

“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.

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.

“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.”

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.”

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.

“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.

“There’s a real bond between us and, while you can never really compare successes, I think yesterday had a special meaning to me and I was quite emotional, which kind of surprised me as I’m not that outwardly emotional kind of person. I knew how much he’d put into it and how hard he’d worked and I was so, so happy for him and everyone in the team, especially his dad.”

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