Staff WriterThe Nexo Championship tees off this week at Trump International Golf Links in Aberdeenshire, and for Ewen Ferguson, the stakes couldn’t be more personal.
The 29-year-old Scot, already a three-time DP World Tour winner with titles in Qatar, Northern Ireland, and Germany, is hoping to finally add a home victory to his growing résumé.
The Nexo Championship—formerly known as the Scottish Championship—returns to the Race to Dubai schedule for the first time since 2020, bringing a star-studded field and a surge of Scottish pride back to the granite coast.
Ferguson will have plenty of familiar faces alongside him. Connor Syme and Calum Hill, both winners on the Race to Dubai this season, are also in the field, along with Richie Ramsay and Grant Forrest, making it a proper Scottish invasion on home turf.
Ewen Ferguson: I’m buzzing to be on home soil. It’s nice when the tournaments start back and you just need to drive to the next venue which is rare for us and a nice feeling.
It’s going to be cool playing in front of family and friends. I’ve never played here before, and the pictures look incredible so it’s going to be a really fun week.
Playing at home It can work for you and against you: if it’s going well, it’s the best feeling ever and you’re flying. It’s one that I’m going to try and use to my advantage and try and ride it with some birdies and some good vibes. It’ll be a fun week.
It would be incredible to win, with all your family and friends around it would be unbelievable. I’d take some time off after that, I think.
Daniel Young, meanwhile, arrives with some serious momentum after clinching the Farmfoods Scottish Challenge supported by The R&A on the HotelPlanner Tour just last week. Back-to-back wins on Scottish soil? It’s a big ask, but confidence travels well.
And for the first time since 2018, Martin Laird is back competing on home ground. The four-time PGA TOUR winner brings major firepower—and no shortage of fanfare—to the week’s festivities.
From further afield, Adrian Otaegui makes his return to defend the title he won in 2020 at Fairmont St Andrews, where he finished four shots clear of Matt Wallace. This time, the Spaniard is joined by recent DP World Tour winners Marco Penge and Richard Mansell, as the international contingent looks to spoil the Scottish party.
But there’s more than bragging rights and a bit of tartan glory at stake. The Nexo Championship marks the penultimate stop in the DP World Tour’s “Closing Swing,” the last of five Global Swings on the 2025 calendar. Perform well here, and you’re in line for exemptions into the Back 9 and the next Rolex Series showdown—the BMW PGA Championship.
Land in the top 70 at the end of the Back 9, and you punch your ticket to the season-ending DP World Tour Play-Offs. Miss the cut, and you’ll have plenty of time to ponder it in airport lounges.
Adding another twist to the tournament narrative, title sponsor Nexo is shaking up the incentive structure with a bit of digital-age flair. Launching this week, the Course Record Presented by Nexo initiative introduces a rolling bonus starting at $10,000 for any player who sets a course record that still stands by the close of competition. If no record is set, the prize pot rolls over, growing by another $10,000 each week until someone goes low enough to claim it.
To sweeten the deal further, Nexo is offering an additional $50,000 worth of NEXO Tokens specifically for a course record at this week’s Nexo Championship—a clear sign of how digital assets are beginning to tee up their place in elite-level sport.
With local heroes, global stars, and a splash of cryptocurrency all converging on one of Scotland’s most dramatic coastal courses, the Nexo Championship isn’t just a return to form—it’s a reminder that in golf, as in life, timing, turf, and a bit of tech can change everything.
