Kieran Cantley chasing more glory on Tartan Pro Tour in Pollok Classic

Kieran Cantley is hoping to tee up more success on the Tartan Pro Tour over the next few weeks before switching his focus to the Challenge Tour for a spell.

Kieran Cantley shows off the trophy after his two-shot success in the Porthlethen Classic, the fourth event of the season on Tartan Pro Tour. Picture: Tartan Pro Tour

The Edinburgh man won the Portlethen Classic, the latest event on Paul Lawrie’s Tartan Pro Tour, after opening with a stunning 63 then adding scores of 67-69 for a 14-under-par total.

“It was one of those days when I didn’t really do anything wrong,” he said of his eight-under-par first-day effort at the Aberdeenshire venue. “I didn’t do anything special, really, but the putter got working for me and I managed to hole a few putts. It was just a case of then trying to keep it going for the rest of the tournament.

“It is hard to back up a round like that. You just have to try and keep what you did in that round. You don’t need to go and shoot eight-under again, but as long as you back it up with a solid score, then that’s what you are looking for.

“For me, it’s never really too much different from tee to green and it just comes down to how the putter behaves.”

Cantley won on the circuit at Royal Dornoch in 2021, but tour founder Lawrie has upped the events to 54 holes this year and secured a Challenge Tour spot for the Order of Merit winner.

“It felt pretty similar, to be honest,” said Cantley of this success, which, an event presented by Entier, was worth £3450 “When you’ve got 54 holes, I think you are going to find better players coming out on top more than over 36 holes. Most people can have two good days, but it’s amazing the difference when you add in a third round or, on the Challenge Tour, a fourth round.

“It’s not as though you can have a fluke couple of days and get the job done. I think it’s better for the tour and what Paul is trying to do. All in all, I think it’s a good thing that we are now playing these events over 54 holes. But it doesn’t matter whether it’s over 36 holes, 54 holes or 72 holes, a win still feels the same.”

The fifth event of the season, the Pollok Classic, starts on Wednesday, with Cantley having played a practice round at the Glasgow venue at the beginning of the week.

“I was actually quite surprised when I played it on Monday, to be honest,” he said. “I thought it was going to be rock hard but it’s actually quite soft and is in great condition.

“The greens are good and the weather is supposed to be good, so I think we are going to see some low scoring. It’s not so much a long golf course; it’s more about putting yourself in position off the tee and attacking it from there.”

Cantley is also playing in next week’s Dundonald Links Classic before starting a run of events on the Challenge Tour, where he hopes to be playing full-time next season.

“I’m probably going to have to miss a couple of events on the Tartan Pro Tour. Or, if I do play, it will be a case of just pitching up on the day and giving it a go and see what happens,” he said.

“Yeah, playing the Tartan Pro Tour stuff is great, but there’s bigger things coming up for me on the Challenge Tour as I’ve got a lot of events coming up over the next couple of months.

“I’m playing in the second event in France at Le Vaudreuil then I’m in Italy the week after and I then might get into Austria after that off my category. I’ll then have the Irish, British and Scottish events then, after a week off, I think I can do Finland, Sweden and Portugal.”