Scott Gregory Clubhouse Plaque
Scott Gregory Clubhouse – 2017 Masters Plaque
Scott Gregory
The Story
I first began the game going to the driving range with my Dad when I was about five years old and took to the game right away. I enjoyed hitting the ball to targets and this has stayed with me as I’ve progressed. As I got older we went to the local pitch and putts where I was able to develop my short game and scoring until I was good enough to progress onto a proper golf course. My Dad was very keen on making sure I could chip and putt before I went onto a full length course.
In 2009 I joined Corhampton Golf Club which is where I am still based today, it was a natural progression for me as I needed somewhere where the condition was dry enough for me to practice all year round. Corhampton has superb practice facilities and is built on chalk. I saw the benefits straight away and won the club championships in 2010 at the age of 15. I also won several junior opens in 2010 and represented the England Regional Team in a few matches. I was a scratch golfer by 16 years old but was struggling to compete at a higher level in the national events which is when I went to get instruction from Simon Andrews at Portsmouth Golf Centre.
From that day I haven’t looked back, becoming more and more consistent over the years i have won multiple times over the past few seasons and posted many consistent results. 2016 obviously being my highlight with a runner up finish at the Spanish Amateur, a run of top 10s and then winning the British Amateur at Royal Porthcawl. I’ve now played in 3 major championships and hope that these experiences will help with me making the transition to the professional game.
Nationality English
Residence Hampshire, England
Height 5ft 8in
DOB 01/10/1994
Turned Pro 2017
The young Englishman joined the professional ranks in 2017 following a hugely successful amateur career including his 2016 British Amateur championship victory and selection for the 2017 Walker Cup team. Scott made his major professional Debut at the 2018 US open and proceeded to gain his European tour card for 2019.
Scott Gregory: ‘We Don’t All Fly 1st Class And Earn £1m A Week’
The 2016 Amateur Champion tells about the realities of life on Tour
Scott Gregory burst on the scene in 2016 when he defeated Robert MacIntyre at Royal Porthcawl in Wales to win the Amateur Championship.
That win gained the Englishman entry into three Majors and just a month on he led the Open Championship at Royal Troon after 10 holes as a 21-year-old amateur.
A year later he won 2.5 points from four matches in GB&I’s comprehensive defeat away in LA at the Walker Cup. Scott Gregory was one of the best players on the team and looked destined to have a glittering professional career ahead of him.
That is definitely still likely but, similar to his fellow Hampshire man Justin Rose, it has been a difficult start to life in the pro ranks for Gregory.
In 2018 at Shinnecock Hills he was fighting against his game, a dodgy wrist and a supremely difficult US Open setup and eventually took 92 strokes to play the first round.
That was met with some criticism and the young Englishman then struggled the following year in his rookie season on the European Tour, battling mental and financial woes.
Gregory tells about his struggles between 2018 and 2019, although he is now optimistic for the future after two pro wins already this year. “Since the US Open really I struggled off the tee and it’s been a mental battle,” he told Golf Monthly “And each time I played it got worse and there were technical changes I needed to make in my swing to try and counteract it but I couldn’t do it whilst I was playing so it was just getting harder and harder to play.
“Some weeks I had control over it [his off-the-tee struggles] kind of but it was just a battle mentally off the tee and I’ve got on top of that now and I feel good off the tee.
“I’ve had two wins this year so I feel like my game is in a better place and I’m in a better place mentally as well on and off the course so it’s a shame we’re not playing really.
“Everything last year is a learning process and hopefully something that I can use to build on and kind of make my own path in my career because Rosey had a tough start to his pro career as well and it hasn’t stopped him winning Majors, getting to World Number One, Gold Medals and things like that.
So I’ve just got to find a way to make it work.
The other thing for me as well is I wasn’t playing well, don’t have the finances to keep not playing well and need to see my coach but you can’t fly your coach out for free.
So you’ve got to try and find ways to do it and it’s not easy.
It’s not as easy as some people think it is, if you’re playing well it’s a great place to be, you can afford to do everything that you need to do to keep playing well but if you’re not it’s tough.
It’s a lot of money [paying for everything, flights, hotels, caddies], I would say on average last year for me doing it kind of as cheap as I could do it, you were doing well if you spent less than £1,600 a week to play.
I knew it wasn’t going to be easy to start with but a lot of people think you’re flying first class, you’re not paying for your hotels and you’re earning a million quid a week but that’s not how it works, there’s a lot of guys out there that aren’t doing that.
Yeah it’s tricky, you’ve got to find ways to keep playing.
I’ve got a really good team, last year I didn’t have too much, Octagon [his management company] have done a really good job in getting a couple of things in place that helped me massively to keep playing.
My golf club [Corhampton] helped me out, but yeah this year I’m in a better place.
I’ve got Mizuno on board and a couple of local companies have got in touch so I feel in a better place to attack the season if we have one.
Scott at US Open at Shinnecock Hills
Scott Gregory, the guy who shot 92 at the U.S. Open, just earned his Euro Tour card
Scott Gregory’s attitude following his dismal opening round at this year’s U.S. Open was a masterclass in poise.
The Englishman fired a brutal 22-over 92 that Thursday at Shinnecock Hills and of course was asked questions afterwards about the worst round anyone had posted at a U.S. Open in 16 years.
He answered them splendidly, at one point quipping, “I qualified last week, so I can’t be that bad.”
Now, he has something truly to smile about.
Gregory played the final 72 of 108 holes at the final stage of European Tour Q-School in 16 under to rocket himself to a 19-under total and a T-11 showing.
With the top 25 and ties earning European Tour cards, that means Gregory indeed got his for the 2019 season.
Take that, haters!
“I probably came under some unfair criticism, so to do this not only proves it to myself but it proves it to them. It keeps a lot of people quiet,” Gregory said, “It proved to me that I could do it but I didn’t need proving. I got a lot of stick and stuff on Twitter so it proves to all them that I can do it, so I’m happy with that. They haven’t got an argument with me. I might put a tweet out tonight, but I’ll have to word it carefully!”
The 24-year-old certainly worked his way here, as he got through all three stages of Q-School to earn his European Tour card.
He’ll be a rookie on the circuit in 2019, but certainly no ordinary one.
Of course, his 92 gained him some (less-than-flattering) fame. But Gregory has an incredibly accomplished record at his young age.
The Englishman won the 2016 British Amateur and was a member of the 2017 Great Britain and Ireland Walker Cup team. He’s already played in four majors as well, although Gregory is yet to make a cut in one.
He turned pro last year and quickly finished T-8 in a Challenge Tour event. His 2018 was mostly spent on that circuit with uninspiring results, as Gregory made just one of eight cuts.
But he more than made up for it at Q-School and will now have a full schedule on the European Tour this coming year.
As we said, Gregory showed great poise at the time of his opening 92 at Shinnecock:
But it was nonetheless a rough experience of course as fans piled on. And Gregory had in total a rough year of results prior to Q-School. The Englishman pointed out injury slowed him down this season.
Now, though, he has the last laugh.
Go enjoy it, Scott. You earned it.
“Tiger meets his hero !”
August 2018
Scott Gregory suffered a wrist injury after his efforts in the US Open at Shinnecock Hills that has hampered his progress. The injury was probably an exacerbation of an old fracture or severe sprain and as a result he needed medical treatment. Rather than wait for the NHS to react to his needs, he “went private”, the fees being paid by the fund set up by members to support him. Particular thanks to Tim Mellor for using his clinical contacts to get the diagnostic and treatment procedures sorted out so quickly. (Note: the support fund is still open for contributions if you feel so inclined – please contact the office if you are interested).
After resting the injury Scott made his comeback on the Challenge Tour in Finland last week. No ill-effects of the injury but he missed the cut having a particularly bad time with his driver. He has switched back to an old driver for the Challenge event this week in Northern Ireland. Last year his “fairways hit off the tee” stat stood at 82%: last week it was down to 28%! He reckons the waywardness lost him about 12 strokes over the 2 rounds. We are all hoping the old driver will see him in the middle of the fairway this week and a good performance will follow. (Nic Holladay)
Corhampton Golf Club
Scott Gregory Golf Clinic
Friday 19th October 2018
Scott has kindly agreed to hold a golf clinic at the club on Friday 19th Oct 2018 from 1000 to1200 hrs.
During the session Scott will cover putting as well as short and long game techniques.
He will finish with a Q&A session in the bar afterwards.
All members are welcome, come rain or shine, meet at the Practice Putting Green
October 2018 From Corhampton Chronicle
(Club Newsletter Issue No.3)
Scott’s golf Clinic
Only a few weeks before his European exploits Scott treated members of the Club to a free golf clinic. He demonstrated all the shots, techniques and skills. Nothing was too much trouble for him and no question too trivial
He has demonstrated nerves of steel to get through qualifying but we have seen that his heart is very much in the right place (Nic Holladay)
November 2018 From Corhampton Chronicle Club Newsletter Issue No.4)
Scott Gregory – European Tour Professional
Congratulations to Scott on becoming our first European Tour professional in the 127 year history of the Club!
After the 252 holes that needed to be played in 3 stages over the course of a month to earn a Tour Card at Qualifying School, our Corhampton Champion has made it.
Over 700 players entered the race to the tour and the Final Stage consisted of 6 rounds of golf on consecutive days over 2 courses in Spain. After 4 rounds the field was cut from 156 starters and the top 70 players then played 2 final rounds. After the first two rounds Scott was lying in 87th place, so, close but in danger of not making the cut
Round 3 was a different story. He shot the best round of the day (and of the whole Final Stage) a 9 under par 62 . This saw him leap to tied 9th.
From there he scored a level par 72 in Round 4 and made the cut, finishing the day in tied 21st place at 12 under par. Tied 21st sounds good but to earn his Tour Card he needed to finish the 6 rounds in the top 25 places.
Day 5 saw a really solid performance. A 5 under par round took him to 17 under and tied for 10th place.
Day 6 required nerves of steel. Birdie on the first…excellent start, but then a double bogey on the second (his only double in the 6 rounds) and the nerves really started to twitch. Typically of Scott, after every setback comes a fightback.
Birdie on the third. Steady from then on, a few birdies saw him get back to 2 under but the pack were chasing !
A bogey on the 15th took him to one under… Again, typically after a setback, a birdie on the 17th and a par on the last to finish a steady 2 under for the day.
That left Scott 19 under and 5 behind the eventual winner; and when the chasing pack clearly couldn’t catch him, we knew he was there!
Tied 11th and a Tour Card in his back pocket!
If you would like to read Scott’s story in his own words go to: http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/qualifying/season=2018/tournamentid=2018595/news/newsid=361684.html
November 2018 From Corhampton Chronicle (Club Newsletter Issue No.4)
Our Young Professionals News
Scott’s first events of 2019.
Scott will be taking part in two events in Australia – The ISPS Handa Vic Open at Geelong, Victoria (Feb 7th – Feb 10th) and The ISPS World Super 6 in Perth (Feb 14th – Feb 17th)
Played at 13th Beach Golf Links in Barwon Heads, Victoria. Players will compete for a share of the $1,500,000 worth of prize money up for grabs. The tournament will be run from the 7th to the 10th of February 2019
Feb 14th to 17th ISPS Handa World Super 6 Perth, Lake Karrinyup, Perth, Australia.
Prize money: Approx US$ 1,150,000
After carding a promising 4 under in the first round , Scott unfortunately missed the cut with a 2 over par second round.
We wish him better luck in Perth next week
Feb 2019 Corhampton Chronicle (Club Newsletter Issue No.6)
Unfortunately, Scott didn’t make the cut in either of the Australian tournaments that he played in during February, and he is now back in UK busy practicing and honing his skills with his coach.
He plans to be included in the entry list for the event in Morocco (The Trophee Hassan 11) from April 25th – April 29th and hopes to be in the entry for the Volvo China Open the week after that
Trophee Hassan ii April 2019
April 2019 From Corhampton Chronicle (Club Newsletter Issue No.7)
Scott Gregory is challenging hard to make the cut in the European Tour Events .
His next tournament is the Swiss Challenge in Lucerne (6 – 9 June)
June 2019 From Corhampton Chronicle (Club Newsletter Issue No.8)
Our Young Professionals News
Congratulations to Scott Gregory on his top 30 finish in the Euram Bank Open, in Austria . Scott carded a 6 under par 3rd round – the second best round of the day.
July 2019 From Corhampton Chronicle (Club Newsletter Issue No.9)
Our Young Professionals News
Congratulations to Scott Gregory on his top 30 finish at the Porsche Open in Hamburg earlier this month. We wish him well and good luck for the rest of the season . His next tournament is the Spanish Open in Madrid in early October. Good luck Scott …
September 2019 From Corhampton Chronicle (Club Newsletter Issue No.10)
Scott Gregory ‘Update’
Before Christmas, Nic Holladay sent out a brief update to those Members who are ‘Fund Donors’ who support Scott financially. Scott also sent out a personal review of 2019 to his supporters, including his plans for the future, and I have been given permission to include references for our ‘Corhampton Chronicle’.
In Scott’s frank and honest assessment of his performance last year, he referred to his excellent putting ‘stats’, wedge play, and ‘up and down’ rates. He also acknowledged his problems with his driving, stemming originally from a wrist injury, but developing into mental issues trying to improve driving technique, while competing on the European Tour.
Scott has had productive meetings with his Manager, and support network, to work out a strategy. This included a session with Tom King from a scheme called ‘Winning Golf Minds’, which Scott found very beneficial. He improved his game at ‘Q’ school and is now focused on The Challenge Tour. During January he is practicing in Florida, and there is a chance he can qualify for events in South Africa at the end of the month. Then there will be a short break before the main season from April to November.
Scott ended his review by acknowledging the support of the CGC Fund, and his Sponsors. We continue to admire Scott’s work ethic, and wish him a successful and enjoyable Season.
Nic Holladay
Jan 2020 From Corhampton Chronicle (Club Newsletter Issue No.13)
Scott Gregory’s Update
Hi everyone, I wanted to provide an update for you all on my progress this winter. It’s the first winter in 5 years I have been in the UK for its entirety, and I have experienced everything you would expect. From torrential rain, to snow, frost and then glorious sunshine.
I was supposed to put in a piece to update you all in January but unfortunately I caught Covid19 and therefore was bed bound around the time I was meant to write. I believe I caught it from my girlfriend Sian, who is a care worker at a local care home, although she didn’t get it as bad as me. (She is adamant that, as a man, I am exaggerating!)
The first few days were rough with a constant migraine, severe body aching and a high temperature, followed by a cough on day three. By around five days both of us had lost our taste and smell but were back to normal health for the most part. The isolation period was just over 10 days.
I am cautious about ‘rubbing it in’ but a week of nothing but rest really did me some good in getting my body recovered ready to get back to practice. In terms of practice, things have been going well. I have been having lessons with my coach Simon Andrews, through FaceTime, to keep things in order and have made some nice progress with my swing. It has been great to be able to keep using Corhampton’s facilities during this lockdown in order to fully prepare myself for the season.
However, once again Covid19 has interfered. We were all gearing up for three events in mid February in South Africa but they have been postponed until Mid April now- but I am not hopeful they will go ahead. As for the European Events, our latest update shows that potentially we may not start until June, due to spikes of Covid 19 in various countries, but this could change again. My plan is to play some UK based events to start myself off and see how things progress from there.
These events are on the Clutch tour and are as follows;
7th April Princes Golf Club
19/20 April Venue TBC but likely The Shire
27/28 April – The Oxfordshire
I look forward to seeing you all next week and thank you all for your support throughout. Iestyn and the team have done a great job on the course and I’m sure you are all itching to get back
Scott
Scott Gregory on the practice ground at Corhampton GC
April 2021 From Corhampton Chronicle Club Newsletter Issue No.16)
Starting 2022 – Scott Gregory
‘Another season is upon us and I’m itching to get out competing again, as I’m sure a lot of you are with the schedule of matches and competitions to come at Corhampton. For myself, I am playing a pro am in Turkey from the 12th-14th February with three of our members. Denise Shaw, David Boase and Jim Burtt will be joining me for a great week of golf, hopefully in the sun.
After that my spring schedule is a little uncertain due to there being seven events in South Africa, I think I may get the last two or three but there are so many South Africans that get in the field it is going to be a tall ask to get in the first few. If I’m not in those tournaments I will be playing some more local mini tour events in the UK to get ready for the European Swing on the challenge tour which starts in Spain in May.
I’ve spent a lot of time this winter working on all areas of my game but also sought out some new ideas from other coaches. I haven’t had a short game or putting lesson for several years as I’ve always been confident I know what I’m doing in those areas. However, I wanted to get some fresh thoughts and drills so I started seeing Alex Buckner for short game and James Jankowski for putting, both highly recommended by Ian in the shop. For those of you with Instagram, they have pages dedicated to their teaching that you can look at yourselves.
For my long game I have gone back through swings from a few years ago when I feel I was moving my best and sought out advice from a biomechanics instructor to help with what myself and Simon Andrews are working on in the swing. Ive basically tried to simplify everything down again, become less technical and also go back to only hitting a fade. I never used to be able to hit a draw and to be honest, when I started to try moving the ball the other way that’s when the swing started to decline slightly.
With all of this new information and renewed confidence, I am ready to attack the year and get myself back on the European Tour. As always, I thank all of you as members of Corhampton for the support you always give me. I am proud to represent the club and do so as best I can.
Scott Gregory
March 2022
I have recently signed with a new sports agency called Rocket Yard Sports. I have had several meetings with them now and things are looking positive for them getting me additional starts on the Challenge Tour along with ideas for raising some funding for me.
This year is a big year as it looks as though we should have a fairly normal run at it with little disruption through COVID19. The last couple of years have been tricky with no way to progress so this is a huge year for me.
One of the first things Rocket Yard are looking to do is run a golf day with all profits going towards my expenses for the year. There are going to be some superb prizes up for grabs along with a goody bag for each competitor. After play there is going to be an auction with some great collectibles and prizes on offer.
The price of the golf day is £120 per person, (£95 for Corhampton GC members) playing in teams of 4, but if you can’t get 4 feel free to let me or Nic Holladay know and we can look to pair you up!
On the day you’ll receive a goodie bag, bacon roll and coffee on arrival and a two course meal afterwards. There will also be on course prizes with a beat the pro on one of our par 3s.
The day will be advertised on social media etc at the end of next week, but I wanted to put this to the membership early so that those of you that would like to help me would be able to do so.
As always; I appreciate everything the club and members do for me and hope you can be there on the day.
Thank you in advance
Scott Gregory’
From Corhampton Chronicle April 2023 Issue No.33