Meet the Scottish golfer rivalling Bob MacIntyre and Ewen Ferguson for professional of the year award

It tells you everything about Robertson’s 2024 campaign, though, that he has been nominated by the Scottish golfing public alongside double PGA Tour winner MacIntyre and Ferguson, who landed his third DP World Tour title last year.

It was only four years ago that Robertson returned to full-time golf, having been one of the country’s leading amateurs as he came through the ranks at Glenbervie before stepping away from the game to take up a job working as a sales person in the building trade.

Becoming a father was the main reason for making that decision, which tells you everything about Robertson as a fine human being, and no one is probably more proud of what he’s achieved since resurrecting his career than his young daughter, Carla.

Last year, Robertson was the most successful player by far on Scottish soil, topping both the Tartan Pro Tour and PGA in Scotland Orders of Merit, meaning his place among those nominations for one of the main prizes being handed out by Scottish Golf at voco® Grand Central Glasgow on 14 March is well deserved.

“I was quite proud to be dominated, especially to be on a list alongside Bob and Ewen, two great players who have done really well,” the Denny-based 36-year-old told The Scotsman. “It made me reflect on my year and be proud of it as you kind of get lost in it when you are playing from tournament to tournament. When I look back, it was a good year and, though I think I might be struggling to win this one (laughing), it is definitely nice to be nominated for Professional of the Year.”

Robertson, who was joined in securing a card through Paul Lawrie’s Tartan Pro Tour by Sam Locke, is gearing up for the start of his first Challenge Tour - it’s been rebranded as the Hotel Planner Tour for this season - campaign, having hoped he’d have been in South Africa at the moment only to be met with disappointment on that front.

“To be fair, I thought I was going to get into the South African events,” he said of a four-tournament swing that started last week. “Rhys Thompson, who topped the Tartan Pro Tour Order of Merit in 2023, got two and maybe even three of those events last year, so I was fully anticipating going to South Africa. However, I am not even near getting into any of the events. I think I am 40th reserve for the next three events, so I’m not quite sure what has happened there.”

Which means a double-header in India in the middle of March will be his starting point for the 2025 campaign and, as well as getting in as much practice as possible, Robertson is also doing everything he can to raise some money to fund what, exciting as though it may be, is going to be an expensive year.

“I’ve been lucky because I’ve had Alloa-based Libertas Financial Management, CHS Transport Solutions Ltd in Airdrie and Pantel Elektronic, a company based in Nuremberg in Germany, where I played some amateur team golf, helping me out with my expenses over the last few years to allow me to play domestically,” said Robertson, who honed his game during a spell at the University of Stirling.

“However, the expenses are going up this year - it’s a situation of kind of going from them being £15,000 per year to potentially £35,000-£40,000, which is a big jump - and I have a feeling that it is going to be harder to make money at the same time because the standard on the Challenge Tour at the moment is very high.

“People have been saying to me ‘you’ll be getting more from those companies this year’. But I can’t just ask guys for £10,000 in return for a logo on my shirt if they can’t justify it. I find it tricky, to be honest.”

Hence why he’s trying to come up with additional ways of funding his campaign, the first of which is a raffle - tickets cost just £10 - for three spots in a fourball with the Scottish PGA champion on the PGA Centenary Course at Gleneagles.

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“I’d noticed that Ellie Docherty, an up-and-coming young Scot, had done something similar for a game at Castle Stuart, so I decided to give it a go myself,” said Robertson, who certainly deserves any support he can muster. “It might help cover a couple of flights and the first event I’m going to get into is probably going to be in India. If I can do a few things like that during the year, it might take a bit of the pressure off me.”

Through topping the Tartan Pro Tour Order of Merit, Robertson has secured the highest ranking in the category for players to secure Challenge Tour cards though the various feeder circuits, the others being the Alps Tour, Nordic League, Pro Golf Tour and Clutch Pro Tour. It means he could get into events once the tour hits Europe in May whereas seventh-ranked Locke could face a sweat.

“Yeah, I am really looking forward to the challenge ahead this year,” said Robertson, who will be joining the likes of David Law, Euan Walker, Daniel Young and Ryan Lumsden in flying the Saltire on the DP World Tour’s development circuit. “When I came back to playing golf properly and turned pro, this was definitely something I wanted to do and it is certainly very exciting.

“This will be my fourth year back playing golf as I started my PGA training when I came back and I finished that last year. Everything came together last year, which was nice. It was nice getting so many wins last year playing a lot of good golf. It made me feel as though my decision had been vindicated and has given me loads of confidence, to be honest.”

What a great story and both MacIntyre and Ferguson would certainly be among those to acknowledge that.