EXCLUSIVE: From a Boy to a Man, John Paterson set to make debut on the world stage.
- SHANK
- Sep 29
- 12 min read
St Andrews' John Paterson will make DP World Tour debut at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship
25-year-old from the home of golf claimed his first professional title two weeks ago on the Tartan Pro Tour
It is May 2014 and I am striding the links of the Old Course on a Wednesday evening, following members of the New Golf Club competing in their annual Club Championship, and I have my trusty notepad and pen and I am making notes furiously whilst watching some of the better golfers in the town battle for a prestigious title. Then it starts to rain, my notepad gets wet and I am starting to question my sanity - "What are you doing out here on a Wednesday night after work watching completely obscure golfers play for something which in the grand scheme of things doesn't matter?"
Except, it did matter.
When I launched St Andrews Golf Magazine 12 years ago it was very much inspired by the Dubai-based Worldwide Golf, in which they extensively cover the local golf scene, as well as being the media partner to the European Tour in the middle east. So covering the Club Championship of the golf club which I worked at was important, and it would be the first of many club and local amateur events I would cover.
I started working at the New Golf Club in April 2013, and over the next months and years I would make several connections with talented local golfers, building long-lasting relationships and covering them in the St Andrews Links Trophy, St Rule Trophy, Scottish Amateur and the European Amateur Championship.
Fast forwards two years to the morning of Saturday at the 2016 Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, and the news comes through that Hugh Grant has withdrawn from the championship, and he is going to be replaced by the Junior captain of the New Golf Club, John Paterson. You can imagine my excitement for this, the local news story which resonated so much with the audience of St Andrews Golf Magazine.
"2016 was an amazing experience, playing in front of big crowds for the first time ever around the old course. I
remember holing a 20ish footer on 18 for birdie and I was so nervous - so I’m sure that’ll be in my mind when I play next week.", John said.
John played in the same group as 2008 Masters Champion Trevor Immelman, which must have been a thrill of a lifetime for a teenager from the home town of the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.
Remarkably this would actually be the first time I had the opportunity to cover John, but over the coming years I would cover his rise as an amateur, playing in the Links Trophy and the R&A Local Clubs' Gold Medal. The Gold Medal is one of the oldest tournaments in St Andrews, being played 123 times, ranking it alongside some of the oldest golf tournaments in the world.
The Gold Medal is considered as the Strokeplay Championship of St Andrews, and features only the very lowest handicap golfers in the town, who are members of the R&A, New Golf Club, St Andrews Golf Club and the University of St Andrews.
Round One saw another talented young golfer from the New Golf Club, Ben Caton, take the lead with a fine round of 66, 6-under-par, some four clear of John, before the 19-year-old came back in the afternoon with a round of 67 to tie Caton on a two-round score of 137. Paterson won the Gold Medal on a countback, with the lower second round, which at the time was controversial in some circles, but the rules are the rules, and John had defeated the best amateur golfers St Andrews had to offer.
I covered the entire day, just as I would the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, and I gave it that importance across the platform, because that is what it was established to do.
Over the coming years I cover John in the Links Trophy and Final Qualifying for The Open, as he moved towards a career as a professional, it was clear he was talented, but was he talented enough to compete as a professional and contend at the highest level? The burden of expectation as a talented golfer in St Andrews is enormous, with an illustrious past collection of champions casting a shadow over everyone, from Tom Kidd to Old Tom, from Young Tom to Jimmy Anderson, from Hugh Kirkaldy to the Auchterlonies.
The last major champion from St Andrews was Jock Hutchison in the 1921 PGA Championship.
Whilst the burden of expectation and the weight of history are huge, so are the opportunities and the facilities here are world class, perhaps better than anywhere else, certainly in Europe and maybe in the world.
"The facilities in St Andrews are some of the best in the country, and I’m really lucky to have access to all of the St Andrews Links Courses, the Dukes and all of the facilities that the town has. I’ve spent the majority of my time in my pro career at the Dukes because of the course and facilities.
There’s a lot of big events in St Andrews that have been great for my development. Coming home from the US and playing the Links Trophy was always a highlight of my year." said John.
John was born in Glasgow, but moved to St Andrews with his family in 2016 as a teenager, and the family support around him has always been a crucial element of his amateur success, and advancing to the professional level.
As with most, it was his family who got him into golf. "I was very young when I first started, my dad and brother are keen golfers so they got me into it."
"Family support has been extremely important, everyone in the family have been very supportive and have made substantial sacrifices over the years", said John. "My parents have made a massive commitment with their time and also financially to allow me to pursue professional golf."
John attended the University of Colorado from 2018 to 2022, with a best finish of 2nd place in the 2019 Colorado Mines/Writz Invitational, he had a stroke average of 73.32. College golf in the United States is still considered to be the elite pathway for aspiring young golfers worldwide, despite the likes of Rory McIlroy proving there is another way, and John took that pathway. "Going to the US to compete in college was always a goal, D1 college golf especially in the big conferences is second to none in terms of competition and infrastructure.
It definitely made me more well rounded golfer. The style of golf is vastly different and I had to learn how to hit the ball further, higher and I had to develop a more versatile short game."
Many golfers remain in the USA after completing college to enter Q-School and play on lower level tours with the aim of getting to the PGA TOUR, but for John he had different ideas. "I always planned to return to Europe to turn professional, mini tours in the US are extremely expensive to compete on, pair that with the higher cost of living in the US and it made much more sense to start my career in Europe."
John turned professional in 2022, and entered qualifying for The 150th Open Championship, which was to be played on the Old Course that summer. He progressed through regional qualifying to Final Qualifying, which took place at the Fairmont St Andrews. Rounds of 77 and 75 saw John finish in a tie for 33rd. He would miss qualifying by a wide mark, but more tournament experience, and experience of playing the Torrance Course, would come in handy a few weeks later.
He would return with a sensational round of 63 on the Torrance Course at the Fairmont St Andrews to win the qualifier for the Asian Tour's St Andrews Bay Championship, and made his debut in an elite level worldwide tour event.
An opening round of 74 put him behind when competing to make the cut, but a fine second round of 69 featuring 5 birdies meant he finished under par for the championship, but narrowly missed the cut by 2 shots.
"I learned a lot during that event as it was my first taste of main tour golf" said John. "The field was strong there and I struggled for the first round and a half.
I was very defensive and played my way out of it, but started to be much more aggressive towards my targets and played my last 10 holes in -5 to give the cut a scare.
There was a big mindset shift between going from playing to win rather than playing to not lose."
It was a thrill to cover John at this event, and he more than held his own in that company, and it would set him up for a bid to make a professional tour, and he did so in the autumn of 2023, qualifying for the Alps Tour for 2024. After a few events on that circuit, he would migrate to the Tartan Pro Tour, competing on some of Scotland's finest golf courses, and after 30 appearances on that tour, run by Paul Lawrie, he broke through as a professional, winning in stunning fashion at the St Andrews Classic presented by Fugro just 2 weeks ago.
"I thought that the chances of me coming top 2 in the OOM were better on the Tartan Pro Tour than the chances of me coming top 5 on Alps. It’s also logistically a lot easier and much more cost effective. In terms of my development I think playing abroad would be more beneficial in the long run, as much as I love links golf it doesn’t represent the courses you see on the big tours."
John's opinion of the Tartan Pro Tour offering a better chance of coming in the top 2 is looking good after his sensational maiden professional victory at the St Andrews Classic presented by Fugro.
John was in the middle of the pack coming into St Andrews, despite a recent uptick in form. "There were a lot of positives from both Spey Valley (3rd) and Leven Links (5th), it’s been a very difficult year and my golf hasn’t been anywhere near the standard I know I’m capable of. My iron play at Spey Valley was awful, but I did take a lot of confidence from my play off the tee and around / on the greens. My iron play did progress through the final round and I hit a lot of good irons shots under pressure coming down the stretch which was big for my confidence."
The Jubilee Course is renowned as being the toughest test of golf across all 7 St Andrews Links courses, and routinely plays as the harder course during the St Andrews Links Trophy, but local knowledge and insight of playing the course regularly gave John a quiet confidence. "I’ve always thought there was a very low score on the Jubilee. The first 12 holes are very gettable if you get a favourable wind direction. The last 6 are very tough so you’re really trying to get as low as you can through 12 and then hang on. I was -9 through 13 in the practice round so I was able to draw on that during the final round.
3 was a very key moment, there’s two bunkers down the right which are around 310 to carry - we had it slightly downwind so instead of hitting 2 iron and leaving myself a 2 or 4 iron in, I hit driver over them and managed to leave myself a pitching wedge in.
Another crucial moment was 5,6,7, I managed to birdie all three of them after making double on 4, so it was great to come back so positively after the double. My birdie on 13 was a big moment to get to -9, it’s a tricky par three with a tucked right pin and I hit a brilliant shot to 3 or 4 feet. The biggest moment was my birdie on 17, another very difficult par 3 where you don’t need to do much wrong to walk off with 4. I wasn’t sure where I stood on the leaderboard but I thought I needed at least one more and to hit 5 iron to 15 feet and hole it was brilliant."
To get that monkey off his back so quickly, before the end of his second season, is huge for John, and I could sense a more confident and assured person when we met on Sunday.
In preparation for the 2025 Alfred Dunhill Links Championship I conducted an interview with the Executive Tournament Director, Peter German, which will be published in a feature on 40 years of the dunhill later this week. As part of the interview I raised the point about locals getting invites to the tournament, and specifically mentioned John had won on the Tartan Pro Tour. Then to my delight when checking the entry list for the tournament, I saw John had been invited.
I immediately contacted him to congratulate him and suggested we worked together on this feature.
John's participation in the 2025 Alfred Dunhill Links Championship is a massive moment for him, but also for SHANK. It is the absolute fulfilment of the motto of this platform - Covering golf from the grassroots to the giants of the game - and now John gets the opportunity to compete, as a professional, alongside such giants as Tommy Fleetwood, Tyrrell Hatton, Matt Fitzpatrick, Robert MacIntyre, Brooks Koepka, Cameron Smith, Patrick Reed and Bubba Watson. This platform, which has been built by myself, and other contributors over the last decade, along with local amateur and professional golfers, now can provide a truly different angle to covering this event.
That can only happen by building and maintaining relationships with local amateur golfers, by covering club events and the best amateur events in the area, and because of that, SHANK has a unique library of content featuring John and others.
John admitted on Sunday that the news of getting the invite to the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, which came through before the second round at last week's Gleneagles Masters on the Tartan Pro Tour, had played a part in him missing the cut, with his focus drifting to the massive opportunity which presents itself this week. He was distracted, but ecstatic: "I was delighted (to get the invite), "last year I thought I had a good chance of being granted an invitation but wasn’t successful so I’m really looking forward to the challenge of it. I’ve been attending the event for as long as I can remember so it’s definitely an event I’ve always dreamed about playing."
The draw takes place in the Alfred Dunhill Links Pavilion by the 17th green on Tuesday, and John knows who he would like to draw. "Andy Murray, I’m a huge fan of his and would love to meet and play with him."
The 25-year-old is fully focused on preparing well for this week's event.
"Most of my preparation will be at Carnoustie. I’ve played Carnoustie a few times before but most of my on course prep will be focussed there."
John has a very professional manner and method, and is not setting goals in terms of making the cut, or better this week. "I try not to set outcome goals on a week to week basis and most of my goals are focussed on committing to my processes and staying present. If I can be committed on every shot and detach myself from the outcome then I believe I can compete at this level."
He did, however, state his ambitions are "To complete and win on the DP World Tour is probably my main goal, but it’s a difficult question, I really just want to see how good I can become."
I said to John on Sunday that this year I would be staying in St Andrews for the duration of the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, "unless you are tearing it up elsewhere", he smiled, and let's all hope I am making a mad dash to Kingsbarns or getting the train to Carnoustie because the local is making waves. SHANK's first Alfred Dunhill Links Championship was special for me, because my own local hero, David Howell, from Swindon, some 20 miles from my hometown, won in dramatic fashion in a playoff. This year can be extra special, because a local who I have followed for so long is playing on the world stage for the first time, and whilst it would seem unlikely history will repeat itself, this wonderful game has seen stranger things occur.
John, as well as being a St Andrews-based golfer, has a St Andrews-based coach in Fintan Bonner. Fintan is a Senior Golf Instructor at St Andrews Links, and the Director of Golf at St Leonard's School, in the heart of St Andrews.
He also caddies at Kingsbarns Golf Links occasionally to help fund his play on the Tartan Pro Tour, as well as being supported by BME Services in Aberdeen, after meeting them at a pro am earlier this year.
This is the greatest local interest story ever in the 12 years SHANK has covered the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, and I am sure it is accurate to say that all of St Andrews wishes John Paterson the best for the next step in his career, and hopefully he enjoys playing his part in the 40th anniversary of dunhill golf in St Andrews.
SHANK, written by Matt Hooper