COLUMBUS — Scotland's Sandy Scott secured promotion to the PGA Tour for the first time with a one-stroke victory at the Nationwide Children's Hospital Championship in Columbus, Ohio, on Sunday. The 28-year-old closed with a six-under 65 on the Scarlet Course at Ohio State University Golf Club to post 18-under 266, breaking the tournament's 72-hole record and edging American John Marshall Butler for his first Korn Ferry Tour title.
The native of Inverness has overcome a career-threatening right wrist injury that required two surgeries after he tore ligaments in 2019. "I was in some really low times and didn't know if I'd ever play golf again," Scott said. He withdrew from this season's BMW Charity Pro-Am when the wrist flared up again and missed two months as the condition worsened.
"It was just getting progressively worse," he told the Golf Channel. "Every day, it was harder to warm up and I was getting a bit more sharp pain. With having a history of having a wrist injury, I've kind of gone through the waves of being unsure about what golf's going to look like for me in the future. When I did come back from it in college, I had this overwhelming sense of perspective that I'm just happy to be out here competing, fulfilling this dream that I've always had of playing golf professionally. To be able to play well has been a bonus."
Scott arrived in Columbus in 13th place on the Korn Ferry Tour points list and moved to second after birdieing two of his final three holes. The win came a week after he finished runner-up at the Simmons Bank Open for the Snedeker Foundation in Franklin, Tennessee. He becomes the seventh player — and first European — to qualify for the PGA Tour during the 2027 season. After finishing 55th in his rookie season on the development tour last year, he will return to a PGA Tour event for the first time since the 2020 US Open at Winged Foot Golf Club, where he qualified after finishing sixth in the World Amateur Golf Ranking. "It's been a weird journey and I'm just so happy," he said.