Colin Gillies, the Tartan Tour's most prolific money winner, is aiming to celebrate his 25th anniversary on the domestic circuit this season by breaking the £500,000 barrier in career earnings.
The 43-year-old, a two-time winner of the Scottish PGA championship, is just over £18,500 short of that historic milestone and is looking to produce another financially fruitful year on home soil in 2010 and earn a place in the Tour's record books.
"I earned around £19,000 last year and finished fifth on the money list and hopefully there's enough in the prize pot this season to do that again and get past the mark," said Gillies, who was an assistant pro to former Ryder Cup skipper Bernard Gallacher at Wentworth in the mid-1980s.
"To get to half a million would be a great achievement and, as it's my 25th year on the Tartan Tour, there is a big incentive to do it this season. It would be a nice way to mark my long service."
Gillies, with over 120 Tartan Tour wins to his name, will make his assault on the earnings record at a time when the Scottish tour is facing challenging times in terms of prize money and sponsorship.
But the 2001 Order of Merit winner, who is attached to the Playsport facility in East Kilbride, is still upbeat ahead of the new campaign.
"When I was starting out on the Tartan Tour we had something like seven 72-hole events a year as well as the pro-ams," added Gillies.
"We were actually moaning about being tired because of the amount of golf we were playing. But we still have a strong pro-am circuit and hopefully we can ride out these tough times. I'm feeling quite upbeat about the year ahead."
09 March, 2010