PGA EuroPro Tour comes to Moray Golf Club as Lossiemouth links stages 2023 Northern Open
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Moray Golf Club plays host to this week's prestigious Northern Open tournament.
Scotland's top professionals will fight it out over the fairways of the Old Course at the Lossiemouth club.
Several local hopefuls are set to rub shoulders with the leading players on the PGA in Scotland Order of Merit over 36 holes on Thursday and Friday.
A top prize of £3,200 goes to the winner from an overall prize pot of £20,000.
Banchory's Greig Hutcheon won the tournament for the third time at Portlethen in 2022 and will be at Moray to defend his title.
Paul O'Hara (North Lanarkshire Leisure Ltd) won the Northern Open when it was last played at Moray six years ago, and is the current tour leader. He was runner-up to Hutcheon last year.
O'Hara won the last Scottish Order of Merit event at Balmore last month with rounds of 64 and 63 and will be one of the favourites for the top prize in Lossiemouth.
Experienced Scottish pro Alastair Forsyth (Mearns Castle), who has twice won on the European Tour in the past, has twice been tied for second in the three OOM events so far and is a two-time winner of the Northern Open.
The first golfers tee off at Moray at 7.50am on Thursday. Derek Ramsay, a PGA pro at the home club, starts at 8.00 along with Ben Munro (Elgin).
Former Elgin Golf Club professional Michael McAllan (Nairn) tees off ten minutes later along with Rodger Clarke from the Golf Dedication Centre next to the host course.
Duff House Royal in Banff will be represented by Daniel McKay (8.20 tee-off) and Forres Golf Club's Hector Clarke starts at 8.30.
Elgin amateur Jake Scott begins at 8.50, Moray amateur Ryan Copland is out at 9.20, Hopeman's Albert MacKenzie gets under way at 9.30 and another Hopeman native, Kyle Godsman (Nairn) tees off at 11.50.
Unattached Moray amateur Stuart Tatters and current Elgin PGA pro Ross McConnachie are on the tee at 12.10pm, with Alan Currie, another member from the home course, driving off at 12.50.
